Appointment With Agatha discussion

All but the first 5 of Agatha Christie's full-length mysteries were published by the Collins Crime Club imprint of Collins publishing. Her first publisher was Bodley Head, and that relationship ended rather unhappily, as Christie felt quite mistreated by the terms of the publishing contract.

In addition to reading a Christie a month, and for the members who either are disinterested in the scheduled Christie, or who have read it a sufficient number of times that they don't want to reread it, I thought it would be fun to have a side read of a title from the Collins Crime Club (not written by Agatha Christie, of course) that was published in the same time frame as the Christie title of the month.

The Crime Club imprint didn't start publishing until 1930, so for the very early Christie mysteries, we will just select one of the early, but still easily accessible, Collins Crime Club offerings. Collins Crime Club published over 2000 books between 1930 and 1994, when it closed up shop.

This sound fun!

BrokenTune wrote: "This sound fun!"

I think it will be! I think I'm going to broaden the side read beyond just the Collins Crime Club, and include that list, as well as books by authors who were members of The Detection Club along with Agatha!

This does sound like fun!

I'd like that as an alternative to a re-read and to help me compare Christie to her contemporaries.

Mike wrote: "I'd like that as an alternative to a re-read and to help me compare Christie to her contemporaries."

That was exactly what I was thinking. With reprints and reissues, so many more mysteries published between 1920 and 1950 are back in print. It's really exciting.

I'm putting together some ideas for picking the side read as I write this.

I don't know how many side reads I'll be able to accommodate, but I'm interested!

Wanda wrote: "I don't know how many side reads I'll be able to accommodate, but I'm interested!"

I totally get that - and it's just great to have everyone along for as much of the ride as works for them!

I agree with Wanda, especially the next few months, but I would probably pop in here and there.

At any rate, I’m sure I’ll find new books and authors to get to at some point, so I still looking forward to what’s suggested/chosen.