Known as the Queen of Crime and the Mistress of Mystery, Agatha Christie is the world’s best-known mystery writer, her work outsold only by the Bible and Shakespeare. Recently she has received new attention as a significant literary artist from scholars, critics, and even behavioral scientists (who have noted that her language patterns stimulate greater-than-usual brain activity). We read her works and discover the considerable confusion within her seemingly cozy worlds, which, far from being conservative enclaves, address modern times, modern problems, and the realities of war, social change, and unraveling traditions. We consider illusion and truth, appearance and reality, criminal psychology, narrative technique, and the importance of "lateral thinking" and intellectual play--including the valuable contributions of "women of mind." The class reads The Murder of Roger Ackroyd, Murder at the Vicarage, The A.B.C. Murders, Towards Zero, Death Comes as the End, Curtain, At Bertram's Hotel, N or M?, The Hollow, A Murder is Announced, And Then There Were None, and Murder on the Orient Express.