Writers of Color 50 Books Challenge

You're right about that, I expressed myself poorly. I'm European, so I'm well aware of the difference in language teaching; what I wanted to point out was a level of privilege that Christie's readers had, which Alvarez's readers would not have had. As in, Spanish is a language of lower status than English, whereas a use of French in the mystery novels of that era told your readers that you had a certain kind of education.