As a writer, I’ve long been interested in how particular dynamics within families can play out – my first ever crime novel Little Face, for example, features a woman convinced her husband has swapped their new baby for another, even though he insists she’s either lying or mad. A fascination with dysfunctional families and the harm they can inflict on their members is something which Agatha and I have in common. You’ve also brought back Christie’s complicated and dysfunctional family in this novel.Ī.

There’s a reason he’s so well loved by readers and I wanted to keep him, and all of this brilliant idiosyncrasies, totally in tact! I’ve become so familiar with Poirot over the years that I do find him easy to write – he’s like an old friend! I have always firmly believed that Poirot belongs to Agatha Christie I’m just a new person who’s working with him and I’ve never wanted to appropriate or change him in any way.

How easy or difficult is it to do that?Ī. In this book too, you’ve stayed very true to building Christie’s Poirot and the other characters. I dip into my collection on a regular basis and while I suppose you could call it research, to me it’s pure pleasure! As a lifelong and totally obsessed fan, I’m always re-reading Agatha Christie’s novels so I don’t have any particular re-visiting schedule before I start to write a new Poirot. Do you ever re-visit any Agatha Christie novels before you start writing?Ī. You’re back with the fourth Poirot mystery.

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