Agatha Christie's Doctors

It was 1916 when Agatha Christie, née Miller, wrote her first whodunnit. She had been married for two years and had worked for three years in a hospital in Torquay, first as a nurse and then as a dispenser in the pharmacy. Some four years later The Mysterious Affair at Styles was published, and this treasured book as well as her fictional writing gives us clues to Agatha’s attitude to doctors and their work. Apart from Agatha’s crime novels, there are numerous books written by fellow Christie enthusiasts on a range of topics, but one major subject which remains almost untouched is her doctors. Her doctors are variously depicted as healers, sleuths, victims, suspects or murderers. There are around 184 of them – and that’s just in the novels. They range from global experts in their field to reluctant, vague, muddle-headed old fools. The latter is a loose quotation, from Murder Is Easy – not necessarily the author’s opinion!

This book introduces Agatha Christie readers to her medics in her full length novels under chapter headings from murderers, victims, sleuths, fakes, suspects, police surgeons, Harley Street, Nurses and GPs. The chapter entitled ‘Murderers’ breaks all the traditional rules of never revealing who the criminals are. Reading a Christie in full knowledge of who did the deed is mesmerizing. Agatha Christie was, and remains, one clever lady.