S.J. Watson Interviews Sophie Hannah S.J. Watson is the New York Times bestselling author of Before I Go to Sleep. SJ: In The Monogram Murders, you channeled the voice of the legendary Hercule Poirot. How was writing a longstanding character invented by someone else different from writing your own? Sophie: Not as different as you might think. I know Poirot so well, from reading all the Christie Poirot novels lots of times. In a way, writing this book felt similar to writing about a real person I was very familiar with. It was a bit like writing an episode in the biography of someone I greatly admire. SJ: What is your all-time favorite Agatha Christie mystery? Sophie: That’s a tough one. Currently, Sparkling Cyanide - so clever and surprising - but I change my mind all the time. My favorite Poirot novel is After The Funeral. SJ: What kind of research did you do prior to sitting down and writing The Monogram Murders? Sophie: I reread all the Christie Poirots, and I booked a week's holiday at Greenway, Agatha Christie's former holiday home in Devon. I hoped that inspiration would strike if I went there, and it did. On the first night there, I propped myself up in bed with my laptop, about five metres away from an enormous portrait of Agatha, and starting