Agatha Christie is the world’s best known mystery writer. Her books have sold over a billion copies in the English language and another billion in 44 foreign languages. She is the most widely published author of all time in any language,outsold only by the Bible and Shakespeare.

Her writing career spanned more than half a century, during which she wrote 79 novels and short story collections, as well as 14 plays, one of which, The Mousetrap, is the longest-running play in history. Two of the characters she created, the brilliant little Belgian Hercule Poirot and the irrepressible and relentless Miss Marple, went on to become world-famous detectives. Both have been widely dramatized in feature films and made-for-TV movies.

Agatha Christie also wrote six romantic novels under the pseudonym Mary Westmacott. As well, she wrote four nonfiction books including an autobiography and an entertaining account of the many expeditions she shared with her archaeologist husband Sir Max Mallowan.

Agatha Christie died in 1976.

三毛如是说

（台湾）三毛

我热爱阿嘉莎·克莉丝蒂（Agatha Christie）所有的作品及她个人传奇性的一生。

直到现在，她所创作的一系列奇情故事，仍是除了圣经之外在世上印销最多的书籍。

当阿嘉莎的著作之一《东方快车谋杀案》被拍摄成电影首映时，英女王伊莉莎白请问她：“您的作品我大半都看过，只是这一部的结局却是忘了，能否请您告诉我凶手究竟是谁呢？”

阿嘉莎回答说：“不巧，我也忘了呢！”

有关她作品的曲折情节、悬疑布局和出人意外的结尾，正如阿嘉莎自己所表明的态度一样，贵如女王，亦是不能事先透露一丝一毫的，不然便失去故事的症结所在及精华了。

阿嘉莎的作品，每一部都是今日世纪的迷宫，无论男女老少，一旦进入她的世界，必然无法抗拒地被那份巨大而神秘的力量所牵引，在里面做上千场以上华丽辉煌的迷藏，乐而忘返。

我极乐意将这位伟大奇情作家的全套书籍介绍给读者来，这位风靡了全世界数十年的杰出女性，在任何地方都得到了一致的欣赏、崇拜与最高的尊敬，而在这里，她的作品迟迟没有出版，实是爱书人极大的遗憾。以出版令人着迷的金庸武侠小说、倪匡科幻小说、诺贝尔文学奖全集及一系列经典名著弛名的远景出版公司有计划地出版阿嘉莎·克莉丝蒂小说全集，正好弥补了这项缺憾，也是出版界的一件盛事。

有关这一系列令人目眩神迷奇书的灿烂与美丽，在于读者亲身的投入和参与，太多文字的介绍，便失去它隐藏着的玄机了。

一九八二年三月十日