The Agatha Christie Cure

What Reading the Queen of Crime Taught Me About Living

By: Cathy Rentzenbrink

A good mystery isn’t just entertainment; it’s a tonic for life’s hardships

Like so many of us living through the upheaval of the last five years, journalist and Sunday Times bestselling writer Cathy Rentzenbrink found that to keep her spirits up, she needed a project to throw herself into—something to keep her from the daily assault that is the always-on nature of modern life. When she found herself drawn to revisiting the work of Agatha Christie, she knew she had found her subject.

The literary legend of Agatha Christie extends beyond the quality of her books, the popularity of her characters, and the wide range of adaptations that her work has inspired. As Cathy devoured anew the powerful, clever, relevant stories of Hercule Poirot and Miss Marple, she began to see parallels not just between the books’ lessons and the times we were living through but between the comfort and purpose Christie’s writing gave her during similarly tumultuous times and the balm of her books for readers today.

The more she read, the more Cathy admired Agatha Christie and the more the she became convinced that the enduring and sustaining appeal of her work was a kind of skeleton key to unlock better ways to heal and to cope with adversity, no matter what topsy-turvy period of history we’re living through. For aficionados and newbies alike, this charming, endearing book about books reminds us that stories can feed our souls.