Two podcasters set out to read every Agatha Christie book. It became much more than that

At first look, Kemper Donovan’s yard bungalow seems completely regular for this Santa Monica neighborhood, however just a few clues recommend in any other case.

A map of the English county of Devon. A replica of “The Poisoner’s Handbook.” Knowledgeable-looking microphone perched on a picket desk. After which there’s the big portrait of Agatha Christie hanging subsequent to the visitor mattress.

For those who use your little grey cells — as Christie’s fictional detective Hercule Poirot preferred to say — you may deduce that that is the place Donovan, 43, data the long-running podcast “All About Agatha.” In it, he and co-host Catherine Brobeck got down to learn and rank all of Christie’s 66 thriller novels, and focus on them in exhaustive element.

For six years, 1000’s of Agatha Christie fans throughout the globe have downloaded the podcast for what one listener described as a “joyfully geeky” tackle the Queen of Crime’s expansive canon. Along with the thriller novels, Christie penned 14 brief story collections, two memoirs, greater than 20 performs and 6 non-mystery novels underneath the pseudonym Mary Westmacott.

Donovan and Brobeck mentioned all of it with glee. As “Agathologists,” they lectured on the College of Cambridge on the collective catharsis of the denouement (when the detective gathers everybody within the drawing room to disclose the killer), gave media interviews on the regular stream of recent Christie diversifications, and have become beloved pillars of the close-knit group of religious Christie followers and students.

As we speak, the podcast averages slightly below 100,000 downloads a month with most of its listeners within the U.S., the U.Ok., Canada, Australia, Germany and Scandinavia.

The co-hosts incessantly disagreed. Donovan was a die-hard Miss Marple fan, Brobeck was Poirot all the way in which. You might virtually hear Brobeck’s eyes roll each time Donovan tried a phrase in French, or learn, as soon as once more, from Christie’s autobiography. However even once they argued, they made one another chuckle.

Catherine Brobeck, co-creator of “All About Agatha,” died of a beforehand undetected genetic dysfunction in 2021.

(Linda Brobeck)

Then, all of a sudden and tragically, Brobeck died final November, simply days after her thirty seventh birthday, from a beforehand undetected genetic dysfunction. Tons of of listeners reached out to Donovan to specific their shock and grief. Many felt that they had misplaced a good friend.

On the time of Brobeck’s dying, she and Donovan had explored 60 novels. With simply six left to overview, Donovan determined to maintain the podcast going.

The ultimate novel episode of “All About Agatha,” launched in September, was devoted to “Curtain,” the final guide revealed in Christie’s lifetime. It included a full recitation of Poirot’s “obituary,” which ran on the entrance web page of the New York Instances in 1975, and several other passages from the guide “Poirot and Me” by David Suchet, the British actor who performed the detective for 25 years on the beloved ITV collection.

That podcast lasted 3 hours, 49 minutes, the longest installment but. Because the mission neared its finish, the episodes had been getting longer and longer. Donovan and I grew up in the identical city in New York, and we’ve been shut mates since highschool, so I do know he can discuss at size. But it surely was clear one thing else was happening in addition to his pure chattiness.

Once I requested him about it, he admitted he couldn’t assist himself.

“For lots of causes, I don’t need this to finish,” he stated.

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As we speak, the podcast averages slightly below 100,000 downloads a month with most of its listeners within the U.S., the U.Ok., Canada, Australia, Germany and Scandinavia.

(Dania Maxwell / Los Angeles Instances)

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It’s tempting to say that Agatha Christie is having a second. This 12 months alone has seen the discharge of Kenneth Branagh’s movie adaptation of “Demise on the Nile,” Hugh Laurie’s tv adaptation of “Why Didn’t They Ask Evans?” and a brand new biography by the British historian Lucy Worsley, “Agatha Christie: A Very Elusive Girl.” A brand new assortment of Miss Marple brief tales written by a few of the foremost thriller authors working immediately was launched in September.

However as any Christie devotee will inform you, Agatha Christie, who died at age 85 in 1976, is all the time having a second. Her books have bought greater than 2 billion copies worldwide. (She’s been outsold solely by the Bible and Shakespeare.) Her play “The Mousetrap” opened in London’s West Finish in 1952 and ran till it was shut down by COVID-19, making it the longest-running play in historical past. It reopened in Could 2021.

What accounts for her enduring enchantment?

The reply, stated Mark Aldridge, a historian and creator of “Agatha Christie on Display” and “Agatha Christie’s Poirot: The Biggest Detective within the World,” is easy.

“She’s a genius,” he stated. “And I’m not being reductive after I say that. Folks suppose she had some business trick or lovely secret, however the fact is that she’s simply sensible.”

For John Curran, creator of “Agatha Christie’s Secret Notebooks: Fifty Years of Mysteries within the Making,” the secret is her accessibility.

“She tells an excellent, intelligent story and she or he tells it readably,” he stated. “Readability is my No. 1 issue for Christie’s success. She had the knack, and it’s a really underestimated one.”

It’s additionally a subject that got here up on the podcast.

“The true thriller of Agatha Christie is, ‘Why her?’” Donovan stated.

Donovan’s concept is that there’s something virtually archetypal about her work. “It’s on the identical stage of mythology,” he stated. “You’ll be able to come again to her repeatedly such as you do with myths and fairy tales.”

Love triangles featured incessantly in books like “Demise on the Nile” (ranked 9) and “5 Little Pigs” (No. 1) simply as they do in myths. And, like many myths, her books introduced a selected morality.

Donovan believes Christie’s main concern was not vengeance, however the pursuit of fact. Her books not often ended with tales of the killer’s punishment, focusing as a substitute on the liberty harmless protagonists are granted when the reality involves mild.

However this angle is a piece in progress. “It’s the million-dollar query, and I need to be making an attempt to reply that query, principally for the remainder of my life,” he stated.

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Donovan is mirrored in {a photograph} of Agatha Christie as he data an episode of his podcast.

(Dania Maxwell / Los Angeles Instances)

Donovan and Brobeck have been voracious and early readers and each devoured Christie novels in childhood.

“Catherine discovered to learn when she was 4 and rapidly outgrew mysteries just like the ‘Nancy Drew’ collection,” Brobeck’s mom, Linda Brobeck, stated. “There was nothing scandalous in Agatha Christie, so she began studying these.”

Though they each maintained a keenness for Christie, they quickly moved on to different literature. Catherine Brobeck studied Russian in faculty so she may learn Tolstoy in his native language, and extra not too long ago was engaged on a information of Joan Didion’s Los Angeles. Donovan, a self-proclaimed Anglophile, wrote his undergraduate honors thesis on Wilkie Collins, a nineteenth century creator whom some take into account to be the inventor of the detective novel.

They met in L.A. in 2008, when Donovan began courting Brobeck’s faculty good friend Adam Milch, whom he later married. When the dialog turned to “Anna Karenina,” their friendship was cemented.

By 2016, Donovan, who beforehand labored as a supervisor for screenwriters, had revealed his first novel, “The First rate Proposal,” a up to date love story set in L.A. Brobeck, additionally a author, was making ends meet as an assistant in an leisure regulation workplace.

One night, Donovan and Milch had a suggestion for Brobeck: podcasting. She was sensible, humorous, well-read and she or he cherished to speak. The last word cellphone good friend.

Brobeck preferred the concept, however she didn’t need to do it alone. Donovan remembered a remark he’d as soon as made to her about how the Poirot tv collection made a tonal swerve within the later seasons, changing into much less twinkly and extra gloomy. Brobeck had understood immediately.

And in order that night they hatched a plan for what grew to become “All About Agatha.” And if it stopped being enjoyable, they agreed, they might really feel no guilt about abandoning ship.

Brobeck’s caveat was that they no less than attempt to make it to “The Homicide of Roger Ackroyd,” (ranked No. 3) Christie’s sixth novel and the primary of what followers take into account to be the Christie Crown Jewels, which additionally embody “And Then There Had been None” (No. 2) and “Homicide on the Orient Categorical” (No. 7).

They might rating every novel on a collection of classes that included plot mechanics (the way in which the thriller is crafted) and credibility (whether or not it may occur in actual life). Amongst different standards was a class referred to as “series-long characters,” which allowed them to look at how successfully Christie wrote recurring characters like Miss Marple and Poirot.

A class referred to as “setting and tone” gave them house to debate how effectively she evoked the setting of the thriller, in addition to their common emotions concerning the guide — in the event that they discovered it onerous to learn, or couldn’t put it down.

They might additionally deduct factors for what they referred to as “depictions caught of their time” as a solution to acknowledge Christie’s xenophobic, misogynist, racist, homophobic and ableist passages. (She additionally shows a particular distaste for nontraditional households.)

“The books are messy the way in which humanity is messy, and that is an acknowledgment of that,” Donovan stated.

When the podcast began, Brobeck was dwelling in an residence close to the Grove, and Donovan had a Santa Monica rental close to the seashore. To keep away from site visitors they determined to file over the cellphone. (It was an L.A.-based podcast in any case.)

To enhance the sound high quality in these early days, they each recorded in closets. However regardless of these hiccups, Christie students began listening in instantly.

“I keep in mind pondering, ‘That is precisely what I would like,’” stated Sophie Hannah, a British poet, novelist and creator of a brand new collection of Poirot novels which were licensed by Christie’s property. “It was a podcast hosted by two people who find themselves not solely as eager on Agatha Christie as I used to be, however who wished to speak about her in granular element.”

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Donovan, seen recording an episode of his podcast, and Brobeck each devoured Christie novels in childhood.

(Dania Maxwell / Los Angeles Instances)

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“Curtain,” which was launched in 1975, was the final novel revealed in Christie’s lifetime, although “Sleeping Homicide,” a Miss Marple thriller, got here out in 1976.

Christie really wrote each a long time earlier and put them in a vault. She was working in London on the time and thought there was a great likelihood she would die within the Blitz. The novels have been like insurance coverage insurance policies for her kids, who may promote them after she died.

Donovan, who admits to having some pedantic tendencies, was inclined to overview the novels by publication date, however Brobeck argued that they need to save “Curtain” for final. Subtitled “Poirot’s Final Case,” the guide ends with Poirot’s dying, making it a becoming and poignant finish to their years-long journey.

“Curtain” was the one Christie thriller that Brobeck had not but learn. She didn’t need to examine Poirot dying.

She wasn’t alone.

“Lots of people gained’t learn ‘Curtain’ as a result of they don’t need Poirot to die, they usually gained’t watch the ultimate episode of the British collection for a similar cause,” stated Jamie Bernthal, creator of “Queering Agatha Christie: Revisiting the Golden Age of Detective Fiction.” “I don’t suppose I can take heed to the final episode of the podcast but as a result of I don’t need it to finish.”

To complete the final six books, Donovan referred to as upon a unique Christie scholar to behave as co-host every episode. For the final episode, he advised listeners he had a particular shock visitor. Some guessed it will be David Suchet. As a substitute, it was Brobeck’s mom.

Donovan’s voice broke as he launched Linda Brobeck, an artist in Minnesota, and requested how she and the remainder of Brobeck’s household have been doing.

“I’m doing as you’ll count on I might do. I misplaced my beloved daughter, and it’s onerous,” she stated, her voice breaking too. “There’s no query about it, it’s onerous. … We mentioned many, most of the Agatha books, and I do know we might have had one of the best dialog round this guide.”

Within the final eight months Donovan has thought lots concerning the weirdness of internet hosting a podcast that delights in tales about dying and homicide, solely to lose his good friend and co-host to the real-life thriller of dying.

However he additionally is aware of that Christie herself was no stranger to dying. Her father died when she was 11, and she or he misplaced quite a few mates and kin in two world wars, together with her son-in-law, who was killed through the Allied invasion of Normandy. It’s extensively believed that the dying of her mom contributed considerably to a psychological breakdown that led to Christie’s notorious 11-day disappearance in 1926.

“Demise was not sort to Agatha Christie. Simply because it isn’t sort to any of us,” Donovan stated within the first episode to air after Brobeck died.

And but Christie embraced it in her fiction.

“She selected to take it up: to warp it, and vogue it for her personal functions,” he stated. “To stare it within the face and say: I’m going to make use of you. For enjoyable.”

Though the podcast’s mission is now full, Donovan will proceed to launch occasional new episodes of “All About Agatha.” He plans to revisit and revise the rankings. Certainly a brand new adaptation might be introduced any second now.

And he’s reluctant to let go of the group he and Brobeck constructed for an additional cause: This 12 months he signed a three-book deal for a thriller collection of his personal. The primary guide might be launched in 2024.

Even in his grief, Donovan by no means thought-about ending the podcast, however he wonders how Brobeck would have felt about it.

“I believe she could be so indignant that she died, actually,” he stated. “She was a really passionate particular person, and I simply image her being irritated that I get to maintain doing this.”

Donovan is for certain Brobeck would have wished to do extra podcasts after “All About Agatha.” That gained’t be his path. He sees himself as a author, not a podcaster.

However he’ll eternally be grateful to Brobeck for partnering with him on this journey.

Not everybody will get to find their ardour after which spend six years exploring it.

Due to Brobeck, he did.