OLLI101813 - Agatha Christie

Course Description

Agatha Christie

Instructor: David Wesley Tonkin

Day of Week: Friday

Dates: Oct. 9 – 16 (2 sessions)

Time: 1:30 p.m. – 3:30 p.m.

Location: Online via Zoom

Maximum: 100

This seminar explores how Agatha Christie transformed crime fiction and helped define the modern mystery genre. Participants will examine the literary techniques that made her work enduringly popular, including the closed circle of suspects, carefully planted clues, psychological misdirection, and the dramatic final reveal. The course will also consider the lasting influence of Christie’s iconic detectives, Hercule Poirot and Miss Marple, whose powers of observation and insight reshaped detective fiction for generations.

Instructor Bio: David Wesley Tonkin has traveled extensively, gathering unique life experiences and perspectives. A retired airborne cavalry officer, he served in the South African-Cuban-Angolan conflicts and as a United Nations peacekeeper in five African countries during the 1970s and ’80s. He has held executive leadership roles, including chief operating officer positions at global business training enterprises. In 2008, he received the Excellence and Innovation in Corporate Learning Award at the ninth annual Corporate University Awards, co- sponsored by the Wharton School and Training magazine. Tonkin’s diverse lectures draw on his extensive travels, personal experience and research, offering a broad and engaging range of topics.