Tuesday, 2 July 2013

BLAME IT ON AGATHA! The tantalizing chess game of the classic Whodunit



Okay, I admit it.  Along with coffee, dark chocolate, and foreign men named Raoul, I have an addiction.

I’m a sucker for the “You won’t guess the ending” Whodunit.

I blame Agatha Christie for this addiction.  She is also to blame for a lot of eleven-year-old sleepless nights, as well as my father’s near heart attack in 1970 when I announced at the dinner table “I know thirteen ways to poison people and not get caught.”

Christie was indeed the Queen of Plot.  After an appetizer of Nancy Drew, I whipped through Poirot, Marple, and Tommy and Tuppence in less than two years. Then I moved on to Sayers, Allingham, Marsh and any traditional mysteries I could get my hands on.

Why?  It’s the chess game.  The sheer bliss of pitting my mind against the author’s to see if I can guess the killer before the story’s detective.

To this day, I relish a book that plays fair, leaves me the clues, and stumps me at the end.

So it’s no surprise that my second published book, co-written with good friend Cynthia St-Pierre, is a traditional whodunit.

Happy Birthday, A PURSE TO DIE FOR! 
Yes, it’s been one year since our publisher launched this fun whodunit, and that little book has travelled through the Amazon best-seller lists faster and higher than we dared anticipate. 

It appears we are not alone in loving that killer surprise ending.

My favorite line from the 61 reviews posted thus far?

“You’ll be certain you know the killer. Twice. But you’ll be wrong.”

THAT is what we set out to do.  THAT is the kind of book that makes me smile and gives me chills.

Like a classic “You won’t guess the ending” whodunit?  See if you can guess the killer in A PURSE TO DIE FOR.

In the UK
In Germany

In the US

Melodie Campbell is an award-winning author of 40 short stories and 5 novels, including A Purse to Die For, co-written with Cynthia St-Pierre.  Melodie has won 6 awards for fiction, and is the Executive Director of Crime Writers of Canada.

1 comment:

  1. My mother had a huge collection of whodunits and my father had a sizable collection of thrillers. I worked my way through Christie, Sayers and Marsh but I almost gave my Grade Four teacher a heart attack when I handed in a book report on Alex Hailey's Airport.

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