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 Christie had a lifelong interest in archaeology. She met her second husband, Sir Max Mallowan, a distinguished archaeologist, on a trip to the excavation site at Ur in 1930. But her fame as an author far surpassed his fame in archaeology. Prior to meeting Mallowan, Christie had not had any extensive brushes with archaeology, but once the two married, they made sure to only go to sites where they could work together. Christie accompanied Mallowan on countless archaeological trips, spending 3–4 months at a time in Syria and Iraq at excavation sites at Ur, Nineveh, Tell Arpachiyah, Chagar Bazar, Tell