If you fancy a bit of sleuthing over the next couple of months, Lincoln Central Library has something free and easy to slot into a day in town. From Friday 30 October to Saturday 19 December, the library is running a display called Agatha Christie: A World of Mystery, and it comes with a decent run of crime-themed events to go with it.
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The display itself is built around the life and work of Dame Agatha Christie, the writer everyone knows as the Queen of Crime. It marks 50 years since her death and follows her from the English country houses and villages of her upbringing through to her time as a pharmacy dispenser during both World Wars and her years on archaeological digs in the Middle East. Four panels walk you through how her puzzles, her closed-circle mysteries and her amateur detectives shaped the crime genre and inspired the writers who came after her. It is free to walk in and take in, which makes it an easy addition to a stroll through the city centre.
What really fleshes the thing out, though, is the programme built around it. On Saturday 14 November, bestselling author Sophie Hannah comes in for an evening talking about her Hercule Poirot novels. On 20 November there is an online young adult crime fiction panel with Lucy Foley, Sharma Jackson, Faridah Abike-Iyimide and Ravena Guron. And on 28 November, Antony Johnston runs two interactive 'Can You Solve the Murder?' sessions, where you get to play detective and crack a new mystery yourself. Library manager Louise Woolley has framed the lot as a chance to hear from acclaimed crime writers, find new voices in the genre and test your own detective skills.
It is worth knowing where this all fits in. The display is inspired by the British Library's own Agatha Christie: A World of Mystery exhibition, which runs from 30 October to 20 June 2027, and Lincoln Central Library is one of 33 library services taking part through the Living Knowledge Network, a partnership between public and national libraries set up by the British Library. Lucy Rowland, lead curator of the British Library exhibition, has spoken about the honour of working with the Christie Archive Trust and Agatha Christie Limited to mark the legacy of what she calls the most famous crime writer of all time.
A bit of background helps size up what you are looking at. Christie wrote 66 detective novels and 14 collections of short stories, with Hercule Poirot debuting in The Mysterious Affair at Styles in 1920, Tommy and Tuppence in The Secret Adversary in 1922 and Miss Marple in The Murder at the Vicarage in 1930. She also wrote six novels under the name Mary Westmacott. And Then There Were None (1939) is one of the best-selling novels in history, with around 100 million copies sold, and her play The Mousetrap, which premiered at London's Ambassadors Theatre on 25 November 1952, is the longest-running play in the world. She was made a Dame by Queen Elizabeth II in 1971, and a life-size bronze statue of her went up in Wallingford, Oxfordshire in 2023.
Lincoln Central Library sits in the Cultural Quarter and is run by GLL on behalf of Lincolnshire County Council, with free access to books, journals, audio books and WiFi. If you want to check the event timings before you go, the library is on 01522 782010.
Published Date
24 October 2026
