A FanFiction eBook as a Tribute to Agatha Christie

As a tribute to the Queen of Crime, Agatha Christie, the 2a LO and 2d LO students at Wojciech Korfanty High School in Jastrzębie-Zdrój, Poland, wrote a fan fiction short story collection “The New Investigations of Hercule Poirot”.

The task of writing a detective story was a classwork assignment and it took three consecutive English classes to plot, complete and revise the stories. The students were given the opening paragraph and the closing sentence of the story which they could use, change or replace to their liking. The parts suggested were the following:

Hercule Poirot frowned/brightened up. He had never investigated such a(n) interesting/surprising/shocking/dramatic/funny/easy/difficult case before. At the moment he was…(where? with whom? doing what?)… and remembering the whole story.

It all began when…

‘As always,’ he thought boastfully, ‘Hercule Poirot proved to be the greatest detective in the world!’

Moreover, the students were asked to focus on some specific grammar structures, including direct and reported speech and modal verbs of deduction. As for the target vocabulary, they were supposed to employ body verbs such as “frown”, “giggle” or “gasp” as well as adjectives describing places, e.g. “shabby”, “luxurious” or “cramped”.

The great enthusiasm and commitment which all the students brought to this project will certainly make up for some possible shortcomings that may be found within these covers.

Hopefully, you will enjoy reading the stories as much as the authors enjoyed writing them!

After you have read the collection,
please, vote for the best short story.
You can choose more than one.