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Murder Isn't Easy

The Forensics of Agatha Christie

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About this listen

Short-listed, Crimefest H R F Keating Award, 2022

Agatha Christie is one of our most beloved authors—a storyteller unparalleled in her clever plots and twisting tales. But Agatha was also a forensic expert; in each of her books she employs an expert weaving of human observation, ingenuity and genuine science of the era.

In Murder Isn't Easy Carla Valentine illuminates all of Agatha's incredible knowledge, showing how she stayed at the cutting edge of forensics from ballistics to fingerprint analysis, as seen through much-loved characters such as Poirot and Miss Marple.

From the glamour and grit of Agatha Christie's stories, to the real-life cases that inspired them, Murder Isn't Easy will immerse you in the forensics that influenced generations of writers and scientists alike.

©2021 Carla Valentine (P)2021 Hachette Audio UK Art & Literature Authors Criminal & Forensic Psychology Psychology Psychology & Mental Health True Crime Women Crime Forensics Murder

Critic reviews

"Fascinating." (Prima)

"Engaging and informative." (Guardian)
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This is an excellent title—the book is well constructed, weaving Christie’s books, her biography, details of the history and theory of forensic science, and real-life cases together extremely artfully.

The performance was a little grating to start with—quite slowly spoken and over-egged at times. I got used to it eventually and I would recommend playing at 1.2x speed to help. But it was enthusiastic and energetic at least.

Brilliant book—performance takes some getting used to

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Lots of interesting facts for the Agatha Christie fan. Narrator over emphasises and tries to infuse emotion into every sentence. Did not work for me

Story is good. Narrator over acts

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The author glosses over a lot of the more problematic elements of Christie such as her slightly petty and vindictive nature (and hence her disappearance) as well as her abundant racism.

And though it can be argued that this was not the focus of the text, I think the overt glorification of Christie is something we as a society are too prone to with parasocial relationships being discussed every day on social media.

I think a dash more critique would have been due on the text to make us see her as human and less as a paragon of authorial scientific knowledge.

A little too glorifying of Christie

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I appreciate I'm swimming against the stream here but I think the narrator's energetic exuberance adds to the enjoyment of this book.
I can see that's not everyone's cup of tea but I could imagine AC herself getting just as excited about the forensic science details and, for me, the narrator brought that to life.

Engrossing for the Christie fan!

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I just love this book and keep listening to it over and over again. Can’t claim to understand it all but the book and narrator combo is brilliant.

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