What Agatha Christie Taught Me About Writing
Author MJ Soni shares some of the things Agatha Christie’s novels taught Soni about writing her own mystery novels.
My disclaimer: Writing this essay implies I am an accomplished mystery author. I am in fact nothing more than a fledgling since my debut mystery, The Masala Chai Mystery Club, is out only on July 21, 2026. In contrast, Christie is the ultimate GOAT—greatest of all time, having written (according to Wikipedia) 66 mystery novels and 15 short-story collections that have sold over two billion copies, surpassed only by the Bible and the works of William Shakespeare.
That said, having grown up reading Agatha Christie mysteries since high school I've learned a few things and been inspired by her, especially her extraordinary protagonists, complex plots, and unique writing style.
One of her greatest accomplishments are her two protagonists.
Hercule Poirot, undoubtedly her most famous creation and the protagonist who features in most of her books, is quirky, vain, and intelligent.
Poirot makes his first appearance fully formed in The Mysterious Affair at Styles—‘Poirot was an extraordinary looking little man. He was hardly more than five feet, four inches, but carried himself with great dignity. His head was exactly the shape of an egg, and he always perched it a little on one side. His moustache was very stiff and military. The neatness of his attire was almost incredible. I believe a speck of dust would have caused him more pain than a bullet wound. Yet this quaint dandyfied little man who, I was sorry to see, now limped badly, had been in his time one of the most celebrated members of the Belgian police. As a detective, his flair had been extraordinary, and he had achieved triumphs by unravelling some of the most baffling cases of the day.’
Miss Marple is a nosy, intelligent, slightly cynical of human nature, amateur sleuth, and her world is much smaller, usually centered around village life in St Mary Mead.
In the 1990s I lived in a tiny village in Kent, England, for a couple of years and can attest to the insular nature of such villages. We made the cardinal mistake of not attending church or frequenting the local pub, also regarded as ‘church’ by some. Had I done so I may have started my mystery writing career much earlier because I learned too late that church and pub are where one picked up the best pieces of village gossip.
My own protagonist, Neeti Shah, is an extension of an Indian auntie, basically my mother who used to wear a saree and who also went to the gym for most of her adult life where she did Jane Fonda-style aerobics and pilates.
Agatha Christie is also a master of plot. In almost all her mysteries, the detective, the victim, and the murderer are all introduced early on, especially in the Poirot mysteries, maybe because he used to be a detective in Belgium, and is now a private investigator.
With Miss Marple it takes a little longer partly because, like most amateur sleuths, she has to find a reason to be involved in the investigation and is often hindered or dismissed by the local police.
Nonetheless, the murder usually occurs within the first third of the book, and the rest of the book is spent investigating it. It seems to me Christie challenged herself in crafting as many different plots as she could while staying within the formula.
What I also really enjoy about the Miss Marple mysteries is the development of other characters, even in her short stories.
In Sanctuary, Christie opens the story as follows—‘The vicar’s wife came round the corner of the vicarage with her arms full of chrysanthemums…. A puff of wind caught at her battered felt hat, causing it to sit even more rakishly than it had done before. “Bother!” said Bunch. Christened by her optimistic parents Diana, Mrs. Harmon had become Bunch at an early age for somewhat obvious reasons and the name had stuck to her ever since.’
Christie, a shrewd observer of people, had an amazing talent at describing within a few sentences entire characters and their worlds. She especially focuses on her characters’ demeanors, something I try to do as well.
In An Autobiography, Christie’s autobiography written over a period of 15 years, she describes her mother as follows—‘My mother was entirely different. She was an enigmatic and arresting personality—more forceful than my father—startlingly original in her ideas, shy and miserably diffident about herself, and at bottom, I think, with a natural melancholy.’
Agatha Christie used setting as character in almost all the major destinations she visited. Being a child of the golden age of colonization, she and her husband set sail in 1922 on a 10-month trip around the colonies of the British Empire. The Man in the Brown Suit is set in South Africa, modern-day Zimbabwe, and on the Zambezi River. Death on the Nile takes place in Egypt. And, They Came to Baghdad is a spy novel set in Baghdad where she owned a home.
She also mastered the art of ‘the reveal.’ Poirot being a man, a detective, and of course a show off usually silences his audience to build up to his reveal, while Miss Marple often has to present the murderer first and then explain her reasoning.
Sadly, things haven’t changed that much for female amateur sleuths even today. Although I’m hoping to change this in my books by having Neeti trap the murderer in inventive ways, introducing a touch of suspense, which I love.
I can never dream of ever reaching the heights of fame, admiration, and even love that Agatha Christie achieved, however all I can do is strive to continue learning from her, and be forever grateful to her for leaving us such a rich and vibrant legacy.
Check out MJ Soni's The Masala Chai Mystery Club here:
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