MURDER. Once it was an ugly word, referring to vile acts that took place in filthy alleys and the homes of the destitute that it was besmirching to even read about.

But in 1920 all that changed. Because that was when a visionary from the upper-middle class of Torquay asked if murder wouldn’t be much nicer if it was committed in the drawing room of an exquisite country house within sight of a manicured lawn.

That visionary was Agatha Christie, and papers discovered recently record the very moment of her revelation. She wrote: “What a grubby business murder is. So unworthy of the English soul.

“But as I watched the blood run between the cobblestones, it came to me: murder doesn’t have to be unpleasant, or uncomfortable, or take place in such low-light settings. It could be pleasant, cosy,

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