A Christie Novel ~ A knack for confusing readers!

Mental Diversion is a term meaning you take a turn everytime mentally, in an instant. Just like making an instant decision, your mind is diverted to another direction, then again to another direction and then again. Some may find it annoying; some consider it to be a good mental exercise.

From my mental list of novels I have ever read, I have found only one author belonging to the mystery genre who has been able to churn my creative juices, made me sit up and take notice of every small thing and yet prove me wrong. Her way of writing is such we tend to jump from one ship to another, searching for clues, yet at the last, the unexpected person is the murdered. I guess you would have discovered of whom I am chattering about?

Of course, it is Agatha Christie, the Queen of Crime! After Sherlock Holmes, the crime author whom I admire is Christie! She has the knack of depicting things as they aren’t; by grinding facts into a fine pulp! Take the case of Roger Ackroyd, who ever could have imagined that Dr.Shephard could be guilty of two murders; he whom was the narrator of the story. We rely on the narrator to present us with facts and stuff, we all do realise that the narrator may present selectively facts based on what he sees.

Like Dr. Watson in The Hound of the Baskervilles, he is the narrator; he presents all the facts to us as he sees them, but they are reliable and the case could be solved partly with his observations. In the former case, it was simply that. The suspicion moved from one person to the other, from Ralph to Mrs. Rogers to even the man who had asked for the way to the mansion. In another case, “And they were none”, I am pretty sure no one could actually guess that the judge was the murderer. Christie always leads us towards the proper clues, has us have a sniff of it and then again - Diversion! She misleads us again.  

That’s how Christie ends up having her won way in everything! Diverting us from even getting close to a proper clue or even having a sniff of it; but that of course is what her novels are about!