The twentieth-century literary critic Edmund Wilson chided Agatha Christie for her ?mawkishness and banality? and declared her work ?literally impossible to read.? Even if this were so, that Agatha Christie's books were mere trash of no intellectual substance whatever, the fact that they were (and are) of such worldwide appeal might be worth investigating. How is it that books whose action takes place in a social milieu so completely alien to that of the vast majority of mankind were nevertheless able to capture their imagination? Does this not suggest some skill on the part of the author? Agatha Christie and the Metaphysics of Murder investigates the philosophy behind the Queen of Crime's bestselling books, arriving at conclusions that will surprise readers who might dismiss them as lightweight fluff.

Theodore Dalrymple was born in London in 1949. He is a retired doctor and psychiatrist who worked in several part of the world and for the last part of his career in a prison, where he developed an interest in crime and criminals. He is a regular contributor to the City Journal of New York and the Oldie in London. He wrote regularly for the British Medial Journal and the Spectator. His best-known book is Life at the Bottom. He has published Admirable Evasions: How Psychology Undermines Morality and Romancing Opiates with Encounter.