Read Between the Lines

Very fun puzzle. I love mysteries, so I saw the meta right away. That doesn't usually happen, but it is nice when it does! Thanks, Cap'n Rick.

Love it!

Thanks for the MEOW!

Good puzzle! I saw the answer before the mechanism - so I backsolved this one. It might not be so easy if you're unfamiliar with the novel.

Thanks Cap’n!

Curious if I caught everything intended: AGATHA, AND, THEN, THERE, WERE… there’s a TEN, as in “Ten Little Indians”, was there a NONE? Or anything else tucked way?

Nevermind, I had ADD for 14A, so I picked up AND from within 3D. Missed the symmetry that then would have led to the 000. Nice!

Smooth and fun in every way! Thanks!

And I would add - 13D describes it nicely!

Great meta! Thanks, Rick!

Love ATTWN! Though “The Murder of Roger Ackroyd” is my favorite Agatha Christie. I selected it for the Geezers’ Book Club I’m in. None of the guys (it’s all men) had ever read any AC, the best-selling author of all time. Two of the group (there were about a dozen participating that month) liked it, a couple of others expressed confusion (“I couldn’t follow the characters”), and the rest didn’t bother at all (though they showed up, as usual, for the camaraderie — great folks!) Oh, well. Back to Lincoln and Churchill biographies.

Fun puzzle. I wasn't thinking about the mystery until I got to the entry "Agatha" (I was about 3/4 done with the grid) and remembered there was a meta to solve and thought about her books and saw AND THEN THERE right and looked for the "were" and I hadn't enough of the puzzle to see the none off the bat.

So clever but was there any reason or sign post to look for the key words th..... Oh. Now I see it! Bee line, Bow Line, Fence Line, Bread line etc.... But I'm not familiar with the terms OPEN LINE, SNOW LINE (oh, wait... I've heard of snow line) or HOT LINE.

Lots of fun. I needed an easy one today. Thanks!

Clever and a lot of fun. Thanks Cap'n!

Another lovely creation. Thanks.

Loved it! Very clever. Found Agatha and AND THEN THERE WERE 000 by their symmetry. Didn't catch the LINES until after I'd submitted and read it in the comments. Thank you for a lovely challenge/AHA moment.

Luckily I happened to notice the THERE dead center and thought, that's weird. As was the AND. And I put 2+2 together. It was only after solving and more staring that I saw the line words. Kinda like the day meta we saw recently. I didn't get that one the right way eiither...thanks for the puzzle!

I saw the title emerge as I was filling the grid, Fast solve for me, but it was also one of my favorite books in my younger days so it was right there in my brain files. =) Thanks, Rick!

That was a good one! It took me a little while to realize where to look using "Read between the lines" but finally saw it! Thank you, Cap'n Rick.

Wow, did I ever make this puzzle puzzle more difficult. I kept trying to find alternates for the different lines, like SIDELINE = Sports Venue, BEELINE - Job Hunter's Site. I even missed all of the LINES the first time round, but when I went back then the AND THEN, which had caught my attention early and then I discarded it, started to look better. By the time I got to THERE I knew where I was going and arrived at the novel's subsequent title. Nice one Cap!

I was thinking this novel all along, especially with the Agatha at 67A, but was remembering the title incorrectly. But after checking the second nudge, when I took another look "between the lines" all of a sudden the first AND leaped out at me - and then the correct title immediately to mind and it was off to the races. But that's the way metas work - self-inflicted blindness sometimes until suddenly enlightenment arrives.

That is, I was remembering the title as "Ten Little Indians"...which was the beginning of the poem, not the end, which of course was the origin of the title.

Came very late to the puzzle, but enjoyed it, Rick (needed nudge 2 to get to the finish line) Like many folks this was the first (of many Christie mysteries I read when I was young)...thanks!