title: Duchess of Death: The Biography of Agatha Christie
author:  Richard Hack 
description: Best known for biographies of Howard Hughes, Rupert Murdoch, Ted Turner and J. Edgar Hoover, Hack this time investigates the grand dame of the mystery novel, Agatha Christie. Hack smartly opens with the prolific U.K. author's biggest mystery: an eleven-day disappearing act she pulled in 1926, following the final breakdown of her marriage. From there, Hack meticulously recounts her personal and professional life, exploring Christie's youth in seaside Devon, her beginnings as a writer, and her global escapades with second husband Max Mallowan. Hack is thorough with the facts, but also humanizes his subject with personal details like Christie's strained relationship with her daughter, well-rooted in letters and other primary sources (including Christie's autobiography). Though occasionally overwritten, Hack's work should entrance Christie fans, as well as anyone who enjoys lively literary biography. Color photos. <br />Copyright  Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.
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  Agatha Christie
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  Murder on the Links
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  ## CHAPTER 1
  
  
  ### A FELLOW TRAVELLER
  
  
  
  
  
  I BELIEVE that a well-known anecdote exists to the effect that a young writer,
  determined to make the commencement of his story forcible and original enough
  to catch and rivet the attention of the most blasé of editors, penned the
  following sentence:
  
  
  '"Hell!" said the Duchess.'
  
  
  Strangely enough, this tale of mine opens in much the same fashion. Only the
  lady who gave utterance to the exclamation was not a duchess.
  
  
  It was a day in early June. I had been transacting some business in Paris and
  was returning by the morning service to London, where I was still sharing
  rooms with my old friend, the Belgian ex-detective, Hercule Poirot.
  
  
  The Calais express was singularly empty—in fact, my own compartment held only
  one other traveller. I had made a somewhat hurried departure from the hotel
  and was busy assuring myself that I had duly collected all my traps, when the
  train started. 