The Genius Of Agatha Christie

Why I’m grateful to a novelist many reviewers slam

Peter Ustinov as Hercule Poirot in the 1978 StudioCanal movie of “Death on the Nile” / StudioCanal

There’s no mystery about why I admire Agatha Christie, a writer scorned by many of my fellow book critics. More than any other author, she eased my transition from the Nancy Drew and other youthful series to adult fiction.

I grew up in New Jersey suburb with no bookstores or public library decades before…