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“And so the story endures, infinitely fascinating; and those who would lay it to rest, who would destroy its beauty by ‘solving’ it, are defeated at every turn.”

This key statement comes at the center of Agatha Christie, A Mysterious Life, Laura Thompson’s remarkable biography of the author, which was published last year and which I’m just getting around to. Biographies aren’t really my thing: they’re often either too sensationalist or so exhaustive as to be exhausting. Plus, I’ve run into a few situations where these books yield unwelcome information about much beloved luminaries that taints, sometimes significantly, future enjoyment of their work.

But this couldn’t happen with Christie, my favorite author, of whom I already thought I knew a great deal, despite the fact that her own autobiography is one of the great disappointments of my reading life. Not that it wasn’t perfectly charming; it was simply unforthcoming of all the information I craved – about her inspiration, her methods, her feelings for her writing. (I was young when I approached the book,

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