(3 of 3)
The last few years of Dame Agatha's life saw an upsurge in Christiemania. Murder on the Orient Express, the film based on her novel Murder in the Calais Coach, was a huge box office success that spurred even further the sales of her books. Curtain, the novel in which Hercule Poirot predeceases his author (TIME, Sept. 15), is still No. 1 on U.S. bestseller lists, with over a quarter of a million copies in print.
But it was the elderly, frail spinster Jane Marple who remained her favorite detective. Gifted with as many "little grey cells" as Poirot, Miss Marple also possesses an unpretentious village wisdom and homey psychological insight that make her Agatha Christie's alter ego. Although Poirot is gone, Marple survives for at least a while longer An unpublished manuscript in which she too passes on is locked in the Christie vault, along with the ultimate whodunit, Dame Agatha's autobiography By refusing to publish it during her lifetime, Dame Agatha has assured herself one last, suspenseful hurrah.