Christie, Agatha (1890-1976), was an English writer of detective stories noted for their clever plots. She introduced the Belgian private investigator Hercule Poirot in her first detective novel, The Mysterious Affair at Styles (1920). Poirot is also featured in her most famous detective novel, The Murder of Roger Ackroyd (1926), and in many later novels. Miss Marple, an elderly Englishwoman, is in many stories, including The Murder at the Vicarage (1930) and Nemesis (1971). Tommy and Tuppence Beresford are the amateur detectives in several of Christie’s novels, including N or M? (1941) and By the Pricking of My Thumbs (1968).
Christie’s mystery and detective fiction consists of 67 novels and almost 150 short stories. She also wrote 16 plays. Her best-known plays include the suspense dramas The Mousetrap (1952) and Witness for the Prosecution (1953). She wrote six novels under the name Mary Westmacott and An Autobiography (published in 1977, after her death).
Christie was born Agatha Mary Clarissa Miller on Sept. 15, 1890, in Torquay (now part of Torbay), Devon. Queen Elizabeth II made her a dame commander in the Order of the British Empire in 1971, and she became known as Dame Agatha Christie. She died on Jan. 12, 1976.