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During the First World War Agatha Christie trained as a dispenser in a hospital pharmacy, and in 1916 she wrote a detective novel in which the victim dies of strychnine. The Mysterious Affair at Styles came out in 1920 and introduced Hercule Poirot, a Belgian refugee living in an English village. Fifty-five years later, when she let Poirot die in Curtain, The New York Times gave him a front-page obituary. In between she wrote 66 detective novels and 14 short-story collections, and Guinness World Records lists her as the best-selling fiction writer of all time, with more than two billion copies sold. This guide covers her 14 key books, in order, and where to begin, followed by the complete Poirot and Miss Marple reading order.
By Lisanne Swart · 14 key books · 1920–1976 · Updated October 2026
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Quick answer
Agatha Christie wrote 66 detective novels: 33 with Hercule Poirot, 12 with Miss Marple, four with Tommy and Tuppence and 17 others. Her best-known books are The Murder of Roger Ackroyd (1926), Murder on the Orient Express (1934), Death on the Nile (1937) and And Then There Were None (1939), which has sold about 100 million copies. Start with And Then There Were None: it needs no detective and no series knowledge. The complete Poirot and Marple lists, in order, are further down the page.
Where to Start with Agatha Christie
If you want a standalone with no detective at all
→ And Then There Were None (1939) — her best-selling book.
If you want to start with Poirot
→ Murder on the Orient Express (1934) — twelve suspects on a train stuck in the snow.
If you want to start with Miss Marple
→ A Murder Is Announced (1950) — a village, a newspaper notice and a murder at 6.30.
If you want the book crime writers voted the best
→ The Murder of Roger Ackroyd (1926).
14 Agatha Christie Books, in Order
The Mysterious Affair at Styles
Her first novel, written in 1916. Emily Inglethorp, the wealthy owner of Styles Court in Essex, is poisoned with strychnine, and Hercule Poirot, a retired Belgian detective living nearby as a war refugee, investigates. Captain Hastings narrates, as he will in many later Poirot books. It was published in the United States in 1920 and in Britain in 1921.
The Murder of Roger Ackroyd
Poirot has retired to the village of King’s Abbot to grow vegetable marrows when the local squire, Roger Ackroyd, is found stabbed in his study. The story is told by the village doctor, James Sheppard. Its ending caused a long argument about whether a detective novel had played fair with its readers, and in 2013 the 600 members of the Crime Writers’ Association voted it the best crime novel ever written.
The Murder at the Vicarage
The first Miss Marple novel. Colonel Protheroe, the most disliked man in St Mary Mead, is found shot dead in the vicar’s study, and the vicar, Leonard Clement, narrates while his elderly neighbour Miss Marple works out who did it. Miss Marple had first appeared in a short story in 1927.
Murder on the Orient Express
The Orient Express is stopped by a snowdrift in Yugoslavia, and in the morning an American passenger, Samuel Ratchett, is found stabbed in his compartment. Poirot, travelling home from Istanbul, has a carriage full of suspects and no way for anyone to have left. It was filmed in 1974 with Albert Finney and in 2017 with Kenneth Branagh as Poirot.
The A.B.C. Murders
Poirot receives letters signed “ABC” that announce murders in advance, and the killer works through the alphabet: Andover, Bexhill-on-Sea, Churston. Next to each body lies an ABC railway guide. Hastings narrates, alongside chapters that follow a man called Alexander Bonaparte Cust.
Death on the Nile
The heiress Linnet Doyle is on her honeymoon on a Nile steamer with her new husband Simon, followed everywhere by his former fiancée, Jacqueline de Bellefort. When Linnet is shot, Poirot, on holiday in Egypt, investigates with Colonel Race. Kenneth Branagh’s film version came out in 2022.
And Then There Were None
Ten strangers are invited to an island off the Devon coast by a host who never appears. A gramophone record accuses each of them of a past killing that went unpunished, and they begin to die one by one, in the order of a nursery rhyme framed in their rooms. With about 100 million copies sold, it is her best-selling book; it first appeared under a different title, explained in the questions below.
Five Little Pigs
Carla Lemarchant asks Poirot to look again at a murder sixteen years old: her mother, Caroline Crale, was convicted of poisoning her father, the painter Amyas Crale, and died in prison. Poirot interviews the five other people who were there and asks each to write down what they remember. It was first published in the United States as Murder in Retrospect.
Crooked House
Aristide Leonides, the head of a rich family who all live together in one sprawling house, is poisoned with an injection. Charles Hayward, who wants to marry Leonides’s granddaughter Sophia, joins the investigation. In her foreword Christie called it one of her own special favourites and said she had saved the idea for years.
A Murder Is Announced
A notice in the local paper of Chipping Cleghorn announces that a murder will take place at Little Paddocks, the house of Letitia Blacklock, on Friday at 6.30 pm. Neighbours turn up expecting a party game; then the lights go out and shots are fired. Miss Marple, staying nearby, helps the police.
4.50 from Paddington
From her train, Mrs McGillicuddy sees a woman being strangled in a carriage on a passing train, but no body is found. Her friend Miss Marple works out where it could have been thrown off and sends the young professional housekeeper Lucy Eyelesbarrow to work at Rutherford Hall, the home of the Crackenthorpe family. It was filmed in 1961 as Murder, She Said, with Margaret Rutherford.
The Pale Horse
After a priest is killed in a London street, Mark Easterbrook and Ginger Corrigan look into The Pale Horse, a village inn where three women claim they can kill at a distance. Ariadne Oliver, Christie’s detective-novelist character, appears. Its description of thallium poisoning helped identify real cases, including the serial poisoner Graham Young in 1971.
Curtain
Written during the Blitz and kept in a bank vault, it was published in September 1975, a few months before her death. Poirot, old and in a wheelchair, summons Hastings back to Styles Court, now a guest house, because he believes a murderer is staying there. On 6 August 1975 The New York Times ran a front-page obituary of Poirot.
Sleeping Murder
Miss Marple’s last case, also written during the Blitz and stored with Curtain, and her final published novel, which came out after her death. Gwenda Reed, newly married and arrived from New Zealand, buys a house in a seaside town and starts to remember things about it, including a woman lying dead in the hall.
In What Order to Read Agatha Christie
You do not need to read Christie in order. Almost every novel is a self-contained case, and Poirot and Miss Marple barely change from book to book. The exceptions are small but worth knowing: Curtain is Poirot’s last case and returns to the house of his first, so read it after The Mysterious Affair at Styles and after a good number of other Poirot books; Sleeping Murder was written as Miss Marple’s farewell; and the four Tommy and Tuppence novels age their detectives in real time, from young adventurers in 1922 to a retired couple in 1973.
Some later Poirot books also mention the culprits of earlier cases, and the detective novelist Ariadne Oliver recurs from Cards on the Table onwards. If you want to be safe from spoilers, read the series in publication order, using the complete lists below. Most readers simply start with the famous ones and fill in the rest.
A reading path
1. And Then There Were None (1939)
2. Murder on the Orient Express (1934)
3. A Murder Is Announced (1950)
4. The Murder of Roger Ackroyd (1926)
5. Curtain (1975)
Every Agatha Christie Novel, by Series and in Order
Beyond the 14 key books: 73 more, grouped by kind.
Open a group with the + to see every book in it.
Hercule Poirot novels in order
33
33 books · 1920–1975
- 1920The Mysterious Affair at StylesPoirot’s first case
- 1923The Murder on the Linksa murder in a French seaside town
- 1926The Murder of Roger Ackroydvoted the best crime novel ever by the CWA in 2013
- 1927The Big FourPoirot against an international gang
- 1928The Mystery of the Blue Trainmurder on a train to the Riviera
- 1932Peril at End Housea young woman in Cornwall survives three near misses
- 1933Lord Edgware DiesUS title: Thirteen at Dinner
- 1934Murder on the Orient ExpressUS title: Murder in the Calais Coach
- 1934Three Act TragedyUS-first edition; US title: Murder in Three Acts
- 1935Death in the Cloudsmurder on a flight to Croydon
- 1936The A.B.C. Murdersan alphabetical killer
- 1936Murder in Mesopotamiaset on an archaeological dig in Iraq
- 1936Cards on the Tablefour sleuths, four suspects, one bridge game; with Ariadne Oliver
- 1937Dumb WitnessUS title: Poirot Loses a Client
- 1937Death on the Nilemurder on a Nile steamer
- 1938Appointment with Deathset in Petra
- 1938Hercule Poirot’s Christmasa family Christmas and a locked room
- 1940Sad Cypressa courtroom and a poisoning
- 1940One, Two, Buckle My Shoemurder at a dentist’s practice
- 1941Evil Under the Suna holiday hotel on a Devon island
- 1942Five Little Pigsa sixteen-year-old murder; US title: Murder in Retrospect
- 1946The Hollowa country-house weekend
- 1948Taken at the FloodUS title: There Is a Tide
- 1952Mrs McGinty’s Deadwith Ariadne Oliver
- 1953After the FuneralUS title: Funerals Are Fatal
- 1955Hickory Dickory Docka London student hostel
- 1956Dead Man’s Follya murder hunt game turns real
- 1959Cat Among the Pigeonsa girls’ boarding school
- 1963The Clocksa body in a room full of clocks
- 1966Third Girla young woman who thinks she may have killed someone
- 1969Hallowe’en Partybasis of the 2023 film A Haunting in Venice
- 1972Elephants Can Rememberan old double death; with Ariadne Oliver
- 1975CurtainPoirot’s last case, written during the Blitz
Miss Marple novels in order
12
12 books · 1930–1976
- 1930The Murder at the VicarageMiss Marple’s first novel
- 1942The Body in the Librarya stranger found dead in a colonel’s library
- 1942The Moving Fingerpoison-pen letters; US-first edition, UK 1943
- 1950A Murder Is Announceda murder advertised in the local paper
- 1952They Do It with MirrorsUS title: Murder with Mirrors
- 1953A Pocket Full of Ryea nursery-rhyme murder
- 19574.50 from Paddingtona murder seen from a passing train
- 1962The Mirror Crack’d from Side to Sidea film star moves to St Mary Mead
- 1964A Caribbean MysteryMiss Marple on holiday in the West Indies
- 1965At Bertram’s Hotelan old-fashioned London hotel
- 1971Nemesisa task set by a dead man
- 1976Sleeping Murderher last case, published after Christie’s death
Tommy and Tuppence
5
5 books · 1922–1973
- 1922The Secret Adversarythe young couple’s first adventure
- 1929Partners in Crimeshort stories, not a novel
- 1941N or M?hunting spies in the Second World War
- 1968By the Pricking of My Thumbsa disappearance from a care home
- 1973Postern of Fateher last written novel
Standalone novels
17
17 books · 1924–1970
- 1924The Man in the Brown Suitadventure in South Africa; with Colonel Race
- 1925The Secret of Chimneyswith Superintendent Battle
- 1929The Seven Dials Mysterywith Superintendent Battle
- 1931The Sittaford Mysterya séance on Dartmoor
- 1934Why Didn’t They Ask Evans?a dying man’s last words
- 1939Murder Is Easywith Superintendent Battle
- 1939And Then There Were Noneher best-selling book
- 1944Towards Zerowith Superintendent Battle
- 1944Death Comes as the Endset in ancient Egypt; US-first edition, UK 1945
- 1945Sparkling Cyanidewith Colonel Race
- 1949Crooked Houseone of Christie’s own favourites
- 1951They Came to Baghdada spy thriller in Iraq
- 1954Destination Unknownvanishing scientists
- 1958Ordeal by Innocencea convicted man is cleared too late
- 1961The Pale Horsewith Ariadne Oliver
- 1967Endless Nightnarrated by a young man who marries an heiress
- 1970Passenger to Frankfurta political thriller
Written as Mary Westmacott
6
6 books · 1930–1956
- 1930Giant’s Breada composer’s life
- 1934Unfinished Portraitdrawn closely from her own life
- 1944Absent in the Springa woman stranded alone in the desert
- 1948The Rose and the Yew Treea post-war election in Cornwall
- 1952A Daughter’s a Daughtera mother and daughter
- 1956The Burdentwo sisters
The years · 1890–1976
Quick facts about Agatha Christie
- Known for
- Inventing Hercule Poirot and Miss Marple and building the classic fair-play whodunit, in books that have sold more than two billion copies.
- 1890
- Born in Torquay, Devon
- 1920
- Poirot appears in The Mysterious Affair at Styles
- 1952
- The Mousetrap opens in London
- 1976
- Dies at Winterbrook House, Wallingford
- Born
- 15 September 1890, Torquay, Devon
- Died
- 12 January 1976, Winterbrook House, near Wallingford, Oxfordshire
- Married
- Archibald Christie (1914–1928); the archaeologist Max Mallowan (1930)
- Pen name
- Mary Westmacott, for six non-crime novels (1930–1956)
- Honours
- First Grand Master of the Mystery Writers of America (1955); Dame (DBE), 1971
- On stage
- The Mousetrap, running in London since 25 November 1952
- Sales
- More than two billion copies; the most-translated individual author (UNESCO)
The red mark is 1926: The Murder of Roger Ackroyd, the book crime writers later voted the best ever, published the year of her eleven-day disappearance.
How Agatha Christie Writes: The Fair-Play Puzzle
Christie’s novels are built as puzzles the reader can, in principle, solve. A closed circle of suspects — a train carriage, a country house, an island, a village — is given every clue the detective sees, and the art is in misdirection: what the reader is told to look at, and what is mentioned once in passing. She pushed the form further than anyone in The Murder of Roger Ackroyd, where the question of who tells the story becomes part of the trick, and in And Then There Were None, which removes the detective altogether.
Her knowledge of poisons came from her wartime work as a hospital dispenser, and she used it precisely. Poison is the weapon in her first novel, and the symptoms of thallium poisoning in The Pale Horse were exact enough that readers recognised real cases, including a nurse in 1977 who recognised it in a sick baby. She often structured books around nursery rhymes: One, Two, Buckle My Shoe, Five Little Pigs, A Pocket Full of Rye, Hickory Dickory Dock and Crooked House all take their titles from one.
Her prose is plain and fast, carried mostly by dialogue, which is one reason she translates so well. Her settings follow her own life: Devon and the English village, the trains and hotels of between-the-wars travel, and the Middle East she knew from her husband Max Mallowan’s archaeological digs, behind Murder in Mesopotamia, Death on the Nile and Appointment with Death. For writers who build mysteries the same way, see Authors like Agatha Christie.
Frequently asked questions about Agatha Christie’s books
How many books did Agatha Christie write?
She wrote 66 detective novels and 14 short-story collections under her own name, plus six non-crime novels as Mary Westmacott, plays including The Mousetrap, and an autobiography published after her death. Of the 66 novels, 33 feature Hercule Poirot, 12 Miss Marple and four Tommy and Tuppence; the other 17 are standalones or feature minor detectives such as Superintendent Battle.
What are Agatha Christie’s books in order?
Her key books in order are The Mysterious Affair at Styles (1920), The Murder of Roger Ackroyd (1926), The Murder at the Vicarage (1930), Murder on the Orient Express (1934), The A.B.C. Murders (1936), Death on the Nile (1937), And Then There Were None (1939), Five Little Pigs (1942), Crooked House (1949), A Murder Is Announced (1950), 4.50 from Paddington (1957), The Pale Horse (1961), Curtain (1975) and Sleeping Murder (1976). All 66 novels are listed by series further up this page.
What order should I read the Poirot books?
In publication order, starting with The Mysterious Affair at Styles (1920) and ending with Curtain (1975): 33 novels in all, listed in full above. The order matters little for most of them, but read Curtain last, and read The Murder of Roger Ackroyd before any book or adaptation that might spoil it. Poirot also appears in short-story collections such as Poirot Investigates (1924) and The Labours of Hercules (1947).
What order should I read the Miss Marple books?
Start with The Murder at the Vicarage (1930) and end with Sleeping Murder (1976); the 12 novels in order are listed above. Miss Marple first appeared in a short story in 1927, and her early stories are collected in The Thirteen Problems (1932). Nemesis (1971) follows on from A Caribbean Mystery (1964), so read those two in order.
Do you need to read Agatha Christie in order?
No. Nearly every novel is a self-contained mystery. Reading in order helps in three places: Curtain should come after other Poirot books, the Tommy and Tuppence novels follow the couple as they age, and a few later books mention earlier solutions.
Where should I start with Agatha Christie?
And Then There Were None (1939) — it is self-contained, has no series detective and is her best-selling book. For Poirot, start with Murder on the Orient Express; for Miss Marple, A Murder Is Announced.
What is Agatha Christie’s most famous book?
And Then There Were None, with about 100 million copies sold, is her best-selling book; Murder on the Orient Express is probably her most famous Poirot novel, helped by the 1974 and 2017 films.
What is Agatha Christie’s best book?
In 2013 the 600 members of the Crime Writers’ Association voted The Murder of Roger Ackroyd (1926) the best crime novel ever written. Christie herself called Crooked House (1949) one of her own special favourites.
Why was And Then There Were None renamed, and have her books been edited?
The novel was first published in Britain in 1939 under the title of a nursery rhyme that contains a racial slur; American editions used And Then There Were None and, for some printings, Ten Little Indians, and the book has long been published under that name. In 2023 The Telegraph reported that HarperCollins had revised several of her novels with sensitivity readers, removing passages with insults or references to ethnicity. In 1947 the Anti-Defamation League had complained to her American publisher about antisemitic language in her books.
What happened when Agatha Christie disappeared?
On the night of 3 December 1926, months after The Murder of Roger Ackroyd came out and while her first marriage was breaking up, she left her home in Sunningdale; her car was found the next morning at Newlands Corner in Surrey. After a nationwide search she was found on 14 December at a hotel in Harrogate, registered under the name Mrs Tressa Neele. She never fully explained the eleven days.
Did Agatha Christie write under another name?
Yes. She wrote six novels without a murder in them as Mary Westmacott, from Giant’s Bread (1930) to The Burden (1956); a journalist revealed who Westmacott was in 1949. More writers who did the same are on my list of authors who wrote under pseudonyms.
Footnotes
- Agatha Christie — Wikipedia
- Agatha Christie bibliography — Wikipedia
- Miss Marple — Wikipedia
- Curtain: Poirot’s Last Case — Wikipedia
- The Pale Horse — agathachristie.com
- Agatha Christie’s Poirot — agathachristie.com
Bibliography last verified 9 October 2026. Where sources give different first-publication years, this page uses the year in library catalogues or the publisher’s own record.
This list was not put together by a machine.
The notes are all mine,
and the books are all hers.
Lisanne x
Written by Lisanne Swart, who has curated reading lists and author guides at lisanneswart.com since 2021.
See more on her personal bookshelf.
“I like living. I have sometimes been wildly, despairingly, acutely miserable, racked with sorrow, but through it all I still know quite certainly that just to be alive is a grand thing.”
— Agatha Christie, An Autobiography (1977)
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