Agatha Christie up to the last chapter, then decided who the most unlikely suspect was, after which she would go back and make the necessary changes to "frame" that person. However, John Curran's "Agatha Christie: The Secret Notebooks" describes different working methods for every book in Christie's bibliography, contradicting the claim by Aldiss. Christie's mature novels, from 1940 onwards, often have titles drawn from literature. Four are from Shakespeare: Three are from the Bible: Another six are from other works of literature: In such cases, the original context of the title is usually printed as an epigraph. Similarly, the title of Christie's
Agatha Christie death in November 1901, aged 55, left the family in an uncertain economic situation. Clara and Agatha continued to live together in their Torquay home, Madge had moved to Abney Hall in Cheadle, Cheshire, with her new husband, and Monty had joined the army and been sent to South Africa to fight in the Boer War. Agatha later claimed that her father's death, occurring when she was 11 years old, marked the end of her childhood. In 1902, she was sent to receive a formal education at Miss Guyer's Girls School in Torquay but found it difficult to adjust to