Agatha Christie: Cozy or Cruel?

cameronjhw

Recently I have read some online articles at www.google.com saying that some critics and readers of Christie are starting to view her works as more cruel than cozy like some of the previous TV adaptations of Miss Marple, Poirot, and Tommy and Tuppence.  Especially after the recent TV adaptations of And Then There Were None and The Witness for the Prosecution were seen as very dark and almost omnious-looking versions of her works.  So I was wanting to know what do you all think of Agatha Christie mysteries. Do you think of them as the cozy British murder mysteries or do you think that beneath the pleasant facade of English society there lurks a dark undercurrent of grim and twisted aspect of human nature in her works and if so please explain using examples from her works.  I hope you will feel free to express your opinions on whether or not Agatha Christie is the Queen of cozy crime fiction or of sinister misdoings and twisted passions and desires.  

Tommy_A_Jones

I think it depends on the subject matter and your point of view, I consider ABC Murders Cosy but (There is a sereal Killer taking advantage of the health of someone), I consider Body In The Library and Dead Man's Folly both cosy but in each case a Child is murdered, I think Cat Among The Pigeons is obviously cosy because of The 'Death of a Games Mistress' line, Ordeal By Innocense, Crooked House and Taken At The Flood are definitely not Cosy as the underlining messages are quite clear and Harsh, It all depends how they are written and the Adaptions have a part to play when making people they are Cosy or not, one Adaptation can have a Cosy treatment and another can have a Dark and I would say an unsympathetic treatment which only gives viewers the wrong idea about her work