Visitors to south Devon can uncover more ways than ever to follow in the footsteps of the world’s greatest crime fiction writer, Dame Agatha Christie, in 2009 – the 75th anniversary of one of her most famous novels: Murder on the Orient Express.

Fans of the famous author – as well as her two best-known sleuths, Miss Marple and Hercule Poirot – can turn detective themselves to discover a whole host of Christie commemorations on the English Riviera.

This year is a particularly exciting one for fans of the “Queen of Crime” with the reopening of her Devon holiday home, Greenway, after a multi-million pound refurbishment by the National Trust.

Fittingly, each September, Torbay and the English Riviera becomes the murder capital of Europe when the seaside towns of Torquay, Paignton and Brixham host the Agatha Christie Festival, celebrating the life of the author who was born in Torquay.

Taking place this year from September 13 to 20, the festival also marks the 75th anniversary of the first publication of Murder on the Orient Express with a special open-air screening of the 1974 film adaptation starring Albert Finney as Hercule Poirot, with Torre Abbey as a stunning backdrop.

With ITV planning to premiere eight new Agatha Christie films this year, including a new version of Murder on the Orient Express, fans will have plenty of inspiration to follow in the real-life footsteps of the author.

The first clue to discovering the author’s many connections with her hometown is contained within Torquay’s Tourist Information Centre, which incorporates a separate self-contained shop.

Here visitors can obtain a copy of the free Agatha Christie Mile leaflet, buy a copy of the Exploring Agatha Christie Country car trails booklet, or purchase a biography, one of the 80 crime novels, 19 plays, six non-crime novels, or two books of poems which she penned in her lifetime.

For a real life mystery, this year will also see the timely reintroduction of the Riviera Belle dining car on the Paignton to Dartmouth Steam Railway. To mark the occasion, a special murder mystery dinner is planned on the train, with a suitable miscarriage of justice for passengers to solve.

Completing the perfect Queen of Crime weekend, how about staying in the Agatha Christie Suite at the seafront Grand Hotel in Torquay where the writer spent her wedding night in 1914?