Author. One of the most prominent mystery writers, she was born  in Torquay, England, the youngest daughter of Frederick Alvah and Clarissa Miller. As a child, she was educated at home, and later studied singing and piano in Paris. Her writing career began with the publication of “The Mysterious Affair at Styles” in 1920. She wrote over 70 novels and short story  collections, including “The Murder of Roger Ackroyd” (1926), “Murder on the  Orient Express” (1934), and “Death on the Nile” (1937), over a dozen plays,  including “The Mousetrap”, and six romantic novels under the pseudonym ‘Mary Westmacott.’  Her books, which have sold over a billion copies in the English  language and over a billion in foreign languages, have only been outsold by  the Bible and Shakespeare. In 1930, she married noted English archaeologist Sir Max Mallowan, whom she often accompanied to excavation sites in Syria and Iraq. She was made a Dame Commander of the British Empire in 1971, and died in Wallingford, Oxfordshire. (bio by: Anonymous)  Family links:  Spouse:  Max Edgar Lucien Mallowan (1904 – 1978)*  Children:  Rosalind Hicks (1919 – 2004)* *Calculated relationship