December 15 Zoom event on the work of Agatha Christie.

On December 15, Nicholas Birns and his mother, Margaret Boe Birns (both NYU), will talk about their new book, Agatha Christie Under the Magnifying Glass: Close Readings of 12 Novels, in a Zoom event. I acquired the book for McFarland and Co. and will make a few remarks. A special guest will be J.C. Bernthal, author of McFarland's Agatha Christie: A Companion to the Mystery Fiction (which I edited) and editor of The Ageless Agatha Christie: Essays on the Mysteries and the Legacy.

As Birns and Birns note in the preface, they set out 

to examine how particular characters, phrases, contexts, and plot lines contribute to the success of Agatha Christie’s authorial compositions. But we will also look at them as they tear against the seams and beg for the scrutiny that goes outside the text as traditionally conceived. Rather than concentrating exclusively on overall themes, tropes, and effects in her oeuvre (as in Tison Pugh’s 2023 Understanding Agatha Christie), our emphasis on the uncertainties of particularity leads us to also concentrate on individual works by Christie.

Works covered in the book are The ABC Murders, A Murder Is Announced, At Bertram's Hotel, Curtain, Death Comes as the End, The Hollow, The Murder at the Vicarage, The Murder of Roger Ackroyd, Murder on the Orient Express, N or M?, Third Girl, and Towards Zero.

Event information

When: December 15, 2025, at 4:30P ET
Zoom link

Note that there's a holiday sale at McFarland until the end of the month; take 20 percent off with coupon code HOLIDAY25. 

20 years of The Bunburyist.

The inquiring Elizabeth Foxwell. 

I missed the 20th anniversary of The Bunburyist (which occurred on November 5). I've been very busy as an editor at McFarland and Co., which—although I relish the opportunity to work on many fascinating projects dealing with subjects like women's history and mystery fiction—leaves me less time to devote to social media. I am very grateful for the many visitors who are interested in mystery history and continue to drop by. They might note that lately I've been including posts about mystery-related music (particularly film music), as I tend to find that composers often do not receive much attention for their important work.

The following are the top 10 posts on The Bunburyist based on views, and I should note that my page with links to mystery course syllabi is pretty popular as well. Do you have other favorites?
 

 The Top 10 Posts on The Bunburyist, 2005–25:

10. "Iniquity is catching":  Frank R. Stockton's The Stories of the Three Burglars (1889)

 9. "Security Risk" [TV episode, narrated by Jack Webb, 1963] 

 8. "Iconic Detectives" exhibition at Ohio State

 7. New release, Gerald Fried's crime drama music

 6. Hidden Fear (film, 1957)

 5. McFarland's true crime sale

 4. Upcoming tribute to Rod Serling

 3. "Committed" (TV episode with Alan Ladd, 1954)

 2. "The Grave Grass Quivers," by MacKinlay Kantor (1931)

 1. Dozen Best Detective Stories Ever Written