Reading Groups

Agatha Christie's Poirot and Marple with Mary Anna Evans

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4 Sessions Mondays, 6:30 pm EDT - 8:00 pm EDT August 3 to September 14, 2026

Online via Zoom

The ‘With Books’ option includes the titles required for this group at a 10% discount from our Bookstore.

Meeting Dates:
8/3, 8/17, 8/31, 9/14
Online via Zoom

Join Dr. Mary Anna Evans for a series of conversations about two of the most famous and beloved fictional characters ever created. Most sources list Agatha Christie as the bestselling novelist of all time, but why has her work struck such a chord in readers from all over the world? She is rightly famous for her diabolical plotting, but her work also has a warm, human side that is less discussed. And while few authors ever write characters that remain household names after a century, Christie created two.

Hercule Poirot and Jane Marple are cerebral, quirky, and perhaps most crucial to their searches for truth, often underestimated. Poirot, a foreigner, and Marple, an elderly woman, observe society from the margins in a way that allows them to see it more clearly. To the everlasting regret of murderers who cross their paths, they bring an originality and clarity of thought to investigations that have entertained generations of readers.

Participants in this course will read the books that introduced Poirot and Marple to the world—The Mysterious Affair at Styles (1920) and The Murder at the Vicarage (1930)—and the books that presented their final adventures—Curtain: Poirot’s Last Case (1974) and Sleeping Death: Miss Marple’s Last Case (1976). These books show the development of these familiar characters and bracket Christie’s career, allowing readers to compare the final appearances of Hercule Poirot and Jane Marple with Christie’s original conceptions of them, while considering questions of justice, gender, and the role of fiction in society.

Reading List:

What to expect from this reading group: This will be a guided conversation. Dr. Evans will provide context for the texts’ significance in literature, history, and culture, but participants are encouraged to come with questions and observations of their own to share.

What to read in advance of the first meeting: Please read The Mysterious Affair at Styles before the first meeting.

We offer a limited number of need-based scholarships for our Reading Groups and Writing Workshops, covering 50% of tuition. Applicants selected for scholarships will be notified one week prior to the first meeting. To apply for a scholarship, please fill out this form.

Pricing inclusive of sales tax if applicable. Please note: All virtual classes are recorded. Please click here for information about our recording policy.

Led by

Mary Anna Evans

Mary Anna Evans

Mary Anna Evans holds an MFA in creative writing from Rutgers-Camden and a PhD in English literature from the University of Exeter, and her research on Agatha Christie’s work has taken her to archives on both sides of the Atlantic, including the private holdings of The Christie Archive Trust. A book based on this research, Agatha Christie and the 20th Century Woman Rewriting Female Justice, will be published by Bloomsbury in 2026. Evans is the co-editor of the Edgar, Agatha, Macavity, and HRF Keating Award-nominated Bloomsbury Handbook to Agatha Christie. She is also the author of seventeen mystery novels, which have received recognition including the Benjamin Franklin Award and the Will Rogers Gold Medallion. Her seventeenth novel The Dark Library was published in June 2025.

About this series

Reading Groups

Whether you’re looking to catch up on great novels or you’re interested in exploring a new writer or literary period, our reading groups offer high-level literary discussion led by experts in the field.

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