Plot Devices in Agatha Christie's Novels

I am grateful to my colleague (and devoted Agatha Christie fan) Karl Moore for drawing my attention to the excellent Wikipedia article by the above title.

I should perhaps warn you, though, that the article (and this post) describes plot devices and twist endings used in many of Ms Christie's novels, so if you are planning to read a Miss Marple or Hercule Poirot story shortly, you might want to look away now!

Here is an example plot device from the article:

The murder proves to be an opportunistic crime complicating a complex one

In Murder on the Links most of the confusing elements of the crime are discovered to have been part of an elaborate plan by the victim to stage his own death and disappear. It is when he is happened upon by the real murderer that the final elements are added to the puzzle.

Similarly, in 'The Mystery of the Spanish Chest' the victim himself plans to hide in the chest and catch his wife with the man that he suspects of being her lover. The murderer kills him while he is in the chest, resulting in a more complex situation to be solved than might otherwise have arisen.

As the opening paragraph of the Wikipedia article says, Agatha Christie's reputation as 'The Queen of Crime' was built by the large number of classic plot devices that she introduced, or for which she provided the most famous example. In my view, any would-be crime writer could not fail to be inspired by reading this article.