A Preview of Absolute Justice
Here is a snippet from the introduction of Absolute Justice: The History and Legacy of Agatha Christie’s And Then There Were None!
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"I read a story once – about two judges that came to a small American town - from the Supreme Court. They administered justice - Absolute Justice. Because - they didn't come from this world at all..."
–Vera Claythorne, And Then There Were None[1]
And Then Then Were None is the world’s bestselling mystery novel, written by the world’s bestselling novelist. Agatha Christie (1890–1976) produced scores of books, short stories, and plays over more than fifty-five years as a professional writer, shattering publishing and box-office records along the way. Few authors have achieved this much success, let alone maintained it for so long. While other prolific crime writers have gone out of print and faded into obscurity, Christie remains a cultural force to be reckoned with nearly half a century after she passed away. Having been translated into over a hundred languages, Christie has fans around the world. The twenty-first century has seen an explosion in adaptations of her work for film, television, stage, and radio, some of which have won or been nominated for major awards.
A commonly-cited estimate from the Guinness Book of World Records claims that Christie has sold over two billion books, half in English, half in other languages combined, and approximately one hundred thousand copies of And Then There Were None alone have been purchased since its publication in 1939. With over ninety books to her credit, it’s surprising that just one novel makes up a disproportionate five percent of her total sales.[2]
As a global bestseller with widespread recognition, And Then There Were None is a cultural phenomenon. Few other novels have had such a widespread readership, and for so long. Like many influential creative works, And Then There Were None has developed a story of its own, reaching far beyond the confines of a book binding. It has been adapted, parodied, and shaped literary boundaries ranging from the crime genre and beyond.
The release date will be announced soon!
–Chris Chan
Chris Chan’s flash fiction collection 156 Homicides will be published soon! His book Sherlock Poems retells the entire Sherlock Holmes Canon in verse. He is also the author of the CWA Dagger Long Listed The Autistic Sleuth, written with the professional guidance of his mother Dr. Patricia Meyer Chan, and he has also written the Agatha, Macavity, and Anthony-nominated book on the Columbo killers, Some of My Best Friends Are Murderers! He is the author of the Funderburke and Kaiming novels Ghosting My Friend and She Ruined Our Lives and Well-Behaved Children Seldom Make History, released by Level Best Books. He is also the author of the comedic novels Sherlock’s Secretary and Nessie’s Nemesis, published by MX Publishing, as was his anthology Of Course He Pushed Him and Other Sherlock Holmes Stories Volumes 1 & 2. His Agatha-nominated book Murder Most Grotesque: The Comedic Crime Fiction of Joyce Porter was published by Level Best Books. His first non-fiction book, Sherlock & Irene: The Secret Truth Behind “A Scandal in Bohemia” is available for sale at Amazon.com and the MX Publishing website, as well as at Book Depository (with free worldwide shipping there). It is also available in a Kindle edition.
[1] Agatha Christie, And Then There Were None. HarperCollins, 1939, 2009 ed. Kindle.
[2] Christie, And Then There Were None. Due to inadequate sales tracking, no standard global means of collecting worldwide sales statistics, bootleg copies of Christie’s work for which she received no royalties, and the chaos resulting from WWII, it’s impossible to produce an exact number of sales, so this number ought to be viewed as an educated estimate. For much of her life, The Murder of Roger Ackroyd was Christie’s bestselling novel, but And Then There Were None has since overtaken it.
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