Which do you prefer between those 2 absolute best crime and mystery authors? I have no preference at all personally for either of them. Currently binge-reading on my "Amazon Kindle" : "The Murder of Roger Ackroyd" by Agatha Christie and totally engrossed and thrilled by it. They never have dissappointed me in any way. These 2 British authors of crime and mystery I highly recommend to anyone who's a fan of these 2 genres.
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Agatha Christie or Arthur Conan Doyle?
- Thread starter Naiwen
- Start date
I'd pick Doyle over Christie.
Christie is terrific at slipping inconspicuous clues into her plots, and making you slap your forehead at the end and wonder why you hadn't connected the dots earlier. However, I find her writing essentially formulaic, and the background of her stories a limited range. Once you've cottoned on to her technique, and learned what sort of thing to pay attention to, I don't find her characters and descriptions enough to carry the puzzle along satisfyingly.
Doyle, on the other hand, writes characters other than his central characters that are engaging and interesting, and he covers a much wider background than Christie. He takes us along with the deductive reasoning of Holmes as if we were another Watson. Holmes and particularly Watson also develop as characters across the arc of the stories and have an interior life in a way that neither Poirot nor Miss Marple do.
Christie is terrific at slipping inconspicuous clues into her plots, and making you slap your forehead at the end and wonder why you hadn't connected the dots earlier. However, I find her writing essentially formulaic, and the background of her stories a limited range. Once you've cottoned on to her technique, and learned what sort of thing to pay attention to, I don't find her characters and descriptions enough to carry the puzzle along satisfyingly.
Doyle, on the other hand, writes characters other than his central characters that are engaging and interesting, and he covers a much wider background than Christie. He takes us along with the deductive reasoning of Holmes as if we were another Watson. Holmes and particularly Watson also develop as characters across the arc of the stories and have an interior life in a way that neither Poirot nor Miss Marple do.
I've only read one or two of Christie's works myself, only Conan Doyle work I ever had was this huge compilation of Sherlock Holmes stories but the thing was massive so I never even tried to read it.
@Kylie a lot of murder mystery writers at the time followed a set of rules outlined by Ronald Knox when writing their stories. While these guidelines were just to make it a fair challenge for the reader, I can totally see it having the effect where a lot of the mysteries written end up feeling formulaic.
@Kylie a lot of murder mystery writers at the time followed a set of rules outlined by Ronald Knox when writing their stories. While these guidelines were just to make it a fair challenge for the reader, I can totally see it having the effect where a lot of the mysteries written end up feeling formulaic.
I'd prefer Christie but that's just me. I like Agatha Christie's work. I've read several of her books. They're not too much that I drown in all the details but they keep you guessing until the end.
