Rehearsal for Murder director Roy Marsden on why murder mysteries still endure

Agatha Christie may not have written Rehearsal for Murder, but her fingerprints are all over it, says Jo Kerrigan.

WHAT is it about Agatha Christie? Born when Victoria was on the throne, died more than 40 years ago, chronicler par excellence of past manners and past standards, her books are always in print, she holds the Guinness record for the best-selling novelist of all time, and always draws the crowds to her plays.

“Believe me, if I could pin down the essential germ of her genius, I’d have made my own fortune years ago,” grins Christie-theatre-expert Roy Marsden, who directs Rehearsal for Murder, opening at Dublin’s Bord Gáis Energy Theatre next Monday.