Welcome to all about Agatha, the podcast dedicated to reading and ranking every single

mystery novel written by the Queen of Crime Dame Agatha Christie. I'm Kemper Donovan.

I'm Catherine Broback. And in this episode we are covering a murder is

announced. It is time, Catherineosh, Kemper.

I just could not be more excited to begin this episode and

Catherine Broback, why don't you start us off with a little bit about the publication history?

So it was first published in the UK by Collins Crime, of course, in June 1950,

and actually the same month in the US, which we don't actually get that frequently

if you think about it. and I think that the big

reason for that is it was touted as her 50th novel right it's not really her

50th novel as anybody paying attention to our episode numbers would realize.

Right, it's actually her 40th novel.

Yeah, because that 50 number was counting compendiums, the short story story collections and also I believe different US and UK

editions yeah they had to really jury rig the stats there to get to 50 which

apparently they were just really determined to do.

Yeah and also because I think it was 1952. Yeah actually this is what our friend John

Curran has to say about the occasion that was marked. It was the occasion of a major launch and celebration

party in London's Savoy Hotel in June 1950. She happily posed for photographs

with Sir William Collins beside a cake iced with the jacket design. Other guests included fellow crime writer

Nio Marsh and the actress Barbara Mullen then appearing in the West Endes Miss Marple

in the Murder at the Vickeridge. So this was quite a do.

Sounds like it would have been delightful to be at. I'm a little jealous.

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