My Top 10 Agatha Christie Novels

The Mysteries That Hooked, Captivated And Blew Me Away

The Murder of Roger Ackroyd: My favourite Christie novel

Hello!!!

This is Joyie and welcome back to my little bookish corner of the internet where I talk all things books!

This week I’m reading Harmony Heights by Ong Chin Huat. Have you been reading anything this week?

Today I decided to finally do something I’ve been wanting to do for a long time–list out my top ten favorite Agatha Christie books. But I’m only going to consider all her mystery novels for this list, not her short stories or the novels written under her Mary Westmacott alias.

The Murder Of Roger Ackroyd

This one is not just my favourite Christie novel, but one of my favourite books in general. The plot-twist had me so stunned, I had to double-check if I was reading it right. Crazy clever writing, it literally changed the way I engage with books in general.

The Mysterious Affair At Styles

Christie’s debut novel. This book to me is a classic example of the Christie formula. You have the murder, you have the multiple suspects who all have some motive, and of course you have the criminal who always thinks two steps ahead. A brilliant whodunit.

The Murder At The Vicarage

My favourite Miss Marple novel. The story itself is very clever and engaging, but I really enjoyed the laid-back village setting and the way Miss Marple solves the mystery in her quiet observant style. A lot less imposing than Poirot’s, but not less fun.

Peril At End House

One of the most clever Christie villain’s in my opinion. It was also one of those novels where I couldn’t guess who the criminal could be, which was fun. The sense of impending danger in the closed-house setting was somewhat suffocating, but in a fun way.

Murder On The Orient Express

The concept of this book is brilliant, and I’ve never read anything like this in detective fiction elsewhere. Because of its unique morally challenging set-up, this story feels like something greater than just a whodunnit. Very thought-provoking and an unforgettable read.

Five Little Pigs

This book has a very melancholy tone to it. The crime here is solved in retrospect, for the closure of the victim’s daughter which adds an emotional weight to the story. The set-up is in a complicated family and it made me sad, but I also loved the conclusion.

Crooked House

The only book on this list without any of Christie’s famous detectives.. The crime here is solved by the young narrator, at his fiancé’s request. This story is set in a three-generational house, with a large and twisted family and the ending was not anything I was prepared for.

A Murder Is Announced

Another Miss Marple story I love. The set-up is quite interesting, with a murder being advertised in the local newspaper before it even gets committed. I could guess pretty early on who the murderer was, but it was still fun to uncover all the details of the storyline.

The A.B.C. Murders

A very popular Christie novel, with an interesting twist on the serial murder trope. Having read a similar story before, I could kind of tell the general direction the story was taking, but still it was fun to learn who the culprit was and their motives.

Death On The Nile

This was the first Christie novel I read. I could guess who the criminal was, because I’ve watched way too much true crime to know who to suspect in cases like that lol. So, while I wasn’t instantly swooned by it, I still think it was a fun story and I loved the set-up of the steamer cruising along the Nile.

This is just a top ten list and I have many more Christie books I like. It took me a while to get into the Christie style of mystery writing. But once I got into it, I read all of her mystery novels (there’s over sixty) in the span of one month and now I enjoy acting as the go-to Christie book recommender in my groups.

What about you? Have you read any Agatha Christie novels? I'd love to know!!!

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That’s it for today, I'll be back in your inbox next week.

Until then,

Joyie 🌻