{"product_id":"the-monogram-murders-1","title":"The Monogram Murders","description":"Review: S.J. Watson Interviews Sophie Hannah S.J. Watson is the New York Times bestselling author of Before I Go to Sleep. SJ: In The Monogram Murders, you channeled the voice of the legendary Hercule Poirot. How was writing a longstanding character invented by someone else different from writing your own? Sophie: Not as different as you might think. I know Poirot so well, from reading all the Christie Poirot novels lots of times. In a way, writing this book felt similar to writing about a real person I was very familiar with. It was a bit like writing an episode in the biography of someone I greatly admire. SJ: What is your all-time favorite Agatha Christie mystery? Sophie: That’s a tough one. Currently, Sparkling Cyanide - so clever and surprising - but I change my mind all the time. My favorite Poirot novel is After The Funeral. SJ: What kind of research did you do prior to sitting down and writing The Monogram Murders? Sophie: I reread all the Christie Poirots, and I booked a week's holiday at Greenway, Agatha Christie's former holiday home in Devon. I hoped that inspiration would strike if I went there, and it did. On the first night there, I propped myself up in bed with my laptop, about five metres away from an enormous portrait of Agatha, and starting putting together my plot. By the time I left at the end of the week, I had the whole story in my mind and on my computer - every last detail. If I were a superstitious person, I would say that Agatha helped me...but of course I'm far too sensible and rational to suggest that! (Or am I?) SJ: What do you think are some of the quintessential traits of an Agatha Christie mystery? Did you try to incorporate any into The Monogram Murders? Sophie: I tried to incorporate what I think of as all the crucial ingredients of a Christie\/Poirot novel: a gleeful delight in storytelling; an outlandish\/apparently impossible opening scenario that is later revealed to be eminently possible; the perfect combination of ease and pleasure for the reader with a challenging intellectual puzzle; a profound intelligence that at no point makes the reader feel stupid or condescended to; the centrality of motive and psychology; the combination of a light\/feel-good experience for readers with a sophisticated awareness of the dark depravity of human beings. Christie, more than any other crime writer, is able to include polar opposites in her novels - light-dark, easy-difficult - without either ever detaching from the other. SJ: Do you think Agatha Christie would have been pleased with The Monogram Murders? Sophie: I can't speak for her. I fervently hope so! Wherever she is, I hope she's pleased!","brand":"Thryft Singapore","offers":[{"title":"Like New","offer_id":67949349011737,"sku":"PR6058.A5928","price":13.9,"currency_code":"SGD","in_stock":false},{"title":"Very Good","offer_id":67949349044505,"sku":"PR6058.A5928","price":11.9,"currency_code":"SGD","in_stock":false},{"title":"Good","offer_id":67949349077273,"sku":"PR6058.A5928","price":10.9,"currency_code":"SGD","in_stock":false},{"title":"Well Read","offer_id":67949349110041,"sku":"PR6058.A5928","price":9.9,"currency_code":"SGD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0110\/0598\/4849\/files\/23161228.jpg?v=1793104494","url":"https:\/\/thryft.asia\/products\/the-monogram-murders-1","provider":"Thryft","version":"1.0","type":"link"}