until after World War I. Christie worked during the war at a hospital, fiat in surgical work and then in the dispensary. In 1916 she took up her sister's challenge, and in two weeks she had almost finished The Mysterious Affair at Styles, in which she introduced the Belgian detective, M. Hercule Poirot, a character who would serve her well over the next 60 years. Four or five publishers rejected the manuscript before the Bodley Head took it and offered her a contract for her next five novels (Wagoner 6-7).
Agatha and Archibald Christie were married in 1914. Her first novel was written in 1916. She had no intention then of being a professional writer, but she continued to write in order to get more money for the family she and Archie were starting. Over the next few years she published a number of novels and short stories, and her first bo
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