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 am Kemper Donovan, and today I will not be discussing any one Agatha Christie novel

or short story, though I will be discussing many Agatha Christie novels and short stories

in the course of my conversation with the author Alex McElidys, who I am happy to report

is a hardcore and I mean hardcore Christie fan.

Just one note before we get started, at several points in this conversation, we discuss

both of Alex's psychological thriller novels, the silent patient and the maidens, and there

are spoilers for both these books in our conversation.

I note it as it's happening the way I do when I'm about to spoil some aspect of a

Christie novel, inviting the listener to fast forward a bit if she should desire, but

I just wanted to note this up top in case you haven't yet read one of these books,

in particular the maidens, which is Alex's more recent offering, and I do encourage you

to read both of them because there are so many Christieisms and even Christie Easter

eggs hidden inside them, which I know you'll all enjoy.

And we do, of course, discuss this and much more in our interview, which begins right now.

So there is an extremely good chance that you already know all about my guest today,

or at least about his books.

In 2019, his debut thriller novel, The Silent Patient was published, and the world was never

the same.

It's just a mega, mega bestselling hit.

And then last year he came out with his eagerly awaited sophomore offering the maidens.

...