Today is a Cluesletter first: I’m interviewing a children’s book author! Marci Kay Monson joins us to talk about her new children’s book adaptation of The Mysterious Affair at Styles by Agatha Christie.
I can attest: the illustrated book is a delight to read, and it was perhaps even more delightful to interview her about the process of adapting a murder mystery for kids. (Yes, it’s possible!)
Connect with Marci on Instagram and her website. Grab a copy of The Mysterious Affair at Styles from your retailer of choice, including Gibbs Smith and Bookshop.org.
Hi, Marci! Thanks so much for joining. Your retelling of Agatha Christie’s The Mysterious Affair at Styles is the first in a series of interactive picture book mysteries for children. In addition to the story, the book includes activities, games, and puzzles. How did you approach adapting this famous mystery? What challenges did you face, and what did you most enjoy about the process?
Hi! I work for a publishing company called Gibb Smith. We are probably best known for our line of BabyLit books that are board book versions of classic novels. Once Agatha Christie’s books started coming into the public domain, I kept thinking, “someone should do that same treatment for her books!” I thought this for multiple years before I finally thought, “Ohhh wait. I should be the one to do that!” I started writing in 2020, but I was scared and kept putting it off. It was such a big undertaking! How do you take the Queen of Crime’s work and turn it into a 32-page picture book?
I did some research by reading other mystery books for kids, but found there really weren’t a lot of options for the age range I was looking at. This could either be a great sign because that means there’s not a lot of competition, or a bad sign saying there’s no market for them!
I knew early on that I wanted the kids/readers to feel like they had helped “solve” the case. This is where the interactive part came in. I did struggle with how much to let on in the clues and activities. One of the aspects of Christie’s books is that they’re often hard to guess the endings (even if she gives all the right clues). But I think there’s enough interest and fun throughout the book that even if they guess early on, they won’t guess the full twist.
One of the biggest challenges I’ve had is imposter syndrome! I only started reading Agatha Christie books in the past decade, and I’m well aware that there are some intense fans out there. I’m still nervous they’re going to read my version and tell me I totally messed up this time-honored story. Or even worse, that I totally misunderstood the book and got the ending wrong or something.
Another challenge is taking the extremely intricate storytelling of Christie and boiling it down into something understandable to much younger readers. There are times that I read her mysteries and it takes me a minute to understand things. And even though she writes mostly cozy stories, there are often affairs, misdeeds, and other things that we maybe don’t want to introduce children to quite yet. Of course, I am introducing them to murder, but that’s a different story! 🙂 So, keeping true to the basics of the original text while also making them work for kids is always a bit of a puzzle. While it is a murder mystery, there is no gore or detail of the death, and all you see in the illustration is the victim’s feet.
This book is specifically designed for children (or, should I say, budding detectives). Why do you think mystery, as a genre, is especially great for young readers? What effect(s) do you hope The Mysterious Affair at Styles will have on its readers?
I think young readers are the perfect age to start reading mysteries. They can believe in a little magic, a little mystery, and give themselves up to the unknown. They’re not cynical enough yet to wonder why so many unexplained crimes all happen in a quaint little town in England. Kids’ imaginations are incredible, and I think adding in some mystery will lead to great imaginative play in young readers’ lives.
I grew up reading Nancy Drew books and I loved all the twists and turns. What crazy thing would happen to Nancy next? I love reading mysteries now because I feel incredibly smart if I can solve things by the end, and if I don’t, I love putting the pieces together along with the narrator. There are few books I want to reread right away more than a good mystery.
I hope that kids will finish my book and want to pick it right back up to see if they can put the puzzle pieces together this time through. Then maybe they’ll go out and solve mysteries of their own. What happened to my missing toothbrush? How can I solve the case of the broken toy? I hope I create a whole group of little kids with magnifying glasses and fake mustaches out on their own adventures!
Can you share a bit about the production side of this project? For example, the gorgeous illustrations, the interactive activities, and other original elements—how did you put it all together?
One thing people may not know is that in traditional publishing, the author rarely gets to pick their illustrator. Mine was picked by my publisher, and I am SO lucky that they picked Greg Paprocki. I have long admired his work and I was thrilled to work with him. His illustrations are so detailed and bright. The detail makes for even more fun in a mystery book, and the brightness helps keep things from getting too heavy in a murder mystery for kids.
I wrote the activities at the same time as I was writing the book. They had to go hand in hand as I would occasionally change the wording of the book to work with the activity on that page, and vice versa. Like I said earlier, I wanted readers to feel like they were solving the mystery along with my narrator, Hercule Poirot, and the best way to do that was through activities on each page. I did a lot of online research and asked parents in my life what activities would keep kids engaged and excited.
One major change I made from the original text was changing the character of Arthur Hastings. In the original, he is the narrator and helps Hercule Poirot. In my version, Hastings is a mouse that can be found on every page. This was one of those changes I made to help make the story a little simpler for younger readers. It’s hard enough to keep track of so many characters, so I had to make the choice to remove or repurpose a few.
Because I work in publishing, I have seen finished manuscripts for other picture books. This meant that as I was writing, I was able to create in a way that was (hopefully) helpful to the publisher and illustrator. So on each page I would write illustration prompts and give direction for what I pictured happening and how to incorporate the activities. Greg did an incredible job of taking that and adding in his style and imagination. Some of those pages are exactly what I imagined and others are even better.
Since this is your debut book, can you share a bit about the experience for you? Was there anything in the publishing process that surprised you, challenged you, or otherwise stood out?
Publishing a book has been a lifelong dream of mine, but one I kind of never saw coming true. I don’t feel like I have the imagination to write hundreds of thousands of words or create new worlds or tell stories in ways that I feel other authors do. It’s such an incredible art to create story. So I kind of cheated and used someone else’s story to make something new. Hopefully Ms. Christie would approve.
I have worked for five years now in the publishing industry and for most of that time I’ve worked directly with authors as a publicist and marketer. I’ve always been surprised when some other authors aren’t falling over themselves with excitement when they publish a book. It is so incredible to see your name on a book cover! And it’s so incredible for other people to read your work and be excited about it too. While most of the publishing process hasn’t surprised me, I’d say I’m surprised and delighted any time someone gives me a good review and genuinely seems to like my work. And it’s not even just my parents saying nice things!
Another surprise is how much work it is to market a book. I’ve always been the one giving authors marketing advice and tips, and I can now vouch from the other side that it can be exhausting! Selling yourself and your work feels uncomfortable sometimes, but it’s necessary. If you’re not excited about your work, who else will be?
Lastly, what are you currently working on? Do you have anything in the works that you’re excited to share?
I am so excited that this is going to become a series of books called Mini Mysteries. The hope and plan is to publish one a year in the series for as long as they sell. For now I will continue on with Agatha Christie and her Hercule Poirot books, but it would be incredible to expand that to Miss Marple, Nancy Drew, Sherlock Holmes, or other classic mystery books.I just turned in the manuscript for book two, The Mystery of the Blue Train. Talk about editing for kids! There are multiple affairs in that book, and I somehow had to find a way to tell the mystery without getting into some of the more lurid details. It’s scheduled to be published in September 2025!
Thanks so much to Marci for the interview. Sleuths, I hope you enjoyed it! If you aren’t already subscribed, please be sure to sign up for the Cluesletter and get author features like this alongside other mystery goodies, delivered to your inbox every other Tuesday.