India, Jan. 24 -- You often remember the first book you read by an author. The Guns of Navarone was my first Alistair Maclean. Hotel, my first Arthur Hailey. This was in the '70s and '80s, in case the authors mentioned didn't tip you off.

I don't remember the first Agatha Christie I read. I remember being resistant to the idea.

As a nine-year-old who had just discovered Sherlock Holmes, the idea that a woman could write a good murder mystery seemed far-fetched.

Then a friend of mine, who had just recommended The Godfather to me, which I read with a kind of horrified relish, called me a fool, when I told him what I thought of Christie. He was a few years older, a senior at school, and I still remember his amused smile as we stood at his...