Dame Agatha Mary Clarissa Christie, Lady Mallowan was an English writer. She is known for her 66 detective novels and 14 short story collections, particularly those revolving around her fictional detectives Hercule Poirot and Miss Marple. The Big Four was first published in the UK by William Collins & Sons on 27 January 1927 and in the US by Dodd, Mead and Company later in the same year. It... Read More
The Clocks is a work of detective fiction by Agatha Christie and first published in the UK by the Collins Crime Club on 7 November 1963 and in the US by Dodd, Mead and Company the following year. Reviews at the time of publication found the writing up to Christie's par, but found negatives: the murder of a character about to add useful information was considered "corny" and "unworthy" of the au... Read More
The Mysterious Affair at Styles is a detective novel by British writer Agatha Christie. It was written in the middle of the First World War, in 1916. The novel is narrated in the first person by Arthur Hastings, a guest at Styles Court, a lavish manor outside of Essex, England. As the story begins, the inhabitants of Styles Court awaken one morning to find that the rich elderly owner of the est... Read More
The Mystery of the Blue Train is a work of detective fiction by Agatha Christie, first published in the United Kingdom by William Collins & Sons on 29 March 1928 and in the United States by Dodd, Mead and Company later in the same year. This novel features the first description of the fictional village of St. Mary Mead, which would later be the home of Christie's detective Miss Marple. It a... Read More
After the Funeral is a work of detective fiction by Agatha Christie and first published in the US by Dodd, Mead and Company in March 1953 under the title of Funerals are Fatal and in the UK by the Collins Crime Club on 18 May of the same year under Christie's original title. At its heart, After the Funeral is a story of England in transitioning times. The war has led to changes in all layers o... Read More
Agatha Christie is one of the most popular writers in history. Almost four billion copies of her novels have been sold across the globe, and her book sales are beaten only by William Shakespeare. Here, we take a look at the life of the best-selling author, whose novels include some of the most recognisable characters in British literature, including Poirot and Miss Marple. Appointment with Deat... Read More
Agatha Christie was an English detective novelist and playwright whose books have sold more than 100 million copies and have been translated into some 100 languages. Dead Man's Folly was first published in the US by Dodd, Mead and Company in October 1956 and in the UK by the Collins Crime Club on 5 November of the same year. En route to Nasse House, Poirot gives a lift to two female hitch-hiker... Read More
Death on the Nile is a book of detective fiction by British writer Agatha Christie. The story follows the main character, Hercule Poirot, where he embarks on a vacation in Egypt, but finds himself solving two murder cases. Hercule Poirot is a French private investigator that is famous for solving some of the world's most perplexing mysteries. While he is on vacation and sailing on a riverboat u... Read More
Evil Under the Sun is a work of detective fiction by Agatha Christie and first published in the UK by the Collins Crime Club in June 1941 and in the US by Dodd, Mead and Company in October of the same year. The plot has some similarities to the Christie short story Triangle at Rhodes, which was first published in the US in This Week magazine in February 1936 and in the UK in issue 545 of the St... Read More
Five Little Pigs is a work of detective fiction by British writer Agatha Christie, first published in the US by Dodd, Mead and Company in May 1942 under the title of Murder in Retrospect and in the UK by the Collins Crime Club in January 1943 although some sources state that publication occurred in November 1942. The novel was received positively at the time of publication. Poirot was hired by... Read More
Hercule Poirot's Christmas is a work of detective fiction by Agatha Christie and first published in the UK by the Collins Crime Club on 19 December 1938. On Christmas Eve, Simeon Lee’s throat is slashed. In the aftermath, his four sons and their wives who have come to spend the festive time at Gorston Hall start to look quizzically at one another and think: is it one of us? Pilar Estravados arr... Read More
Often referred to as the "Queen of Crime" or "Queen of Mystery", Agatha Christie is the world's best-selling mystery writer and is considered a master of suspense, plotting, and characterisation. Some critics, however, have regarded Christie's plotting as superior to her skill with other literary elements. Novelist Raymond Chandler criticised her in his essay "The Simple Art of Murder", and Ame... Read More
Agatha Mary Clarissa Miller was born on 15 September 1890 into a wealthy upper-middle-class family in Torquay, Devon. She was the youngest of three children born to Frederick Alvah Miller, an affluent American stockbroker, and his Irish-born wife Clara Miller née Boehmer. Agatha's mother Clara had been born in Belfast in 1854 to Captain Frederick Boehmer and Mary Ann West as the couple's only d... Read More
Agatha Christie wrote her first short story, The House of Beauty while recovering in bed from an undisclosed illness. This was about 6,000 words on the topic of "madness and dreams", a subject of fascination for her. Biographer Janet Morgan commented that despite "infelicities of style", the story was nevertheless "compelling". Other stories followed, most of them illustrating her interest in s... Read More
Agatha Christie always had been a fan of detective novels, having enjoyed Wilkie Collins's The Woman in White and The Moonstone, as well as Sir Arthur Conan Doyle's early Sherlock Holmes stories. She wrote her own detective novel, The Mysterious Affair at Styles, featuring Hercule Poirot, a former Belgian police officer noted for his twirly large "magnificent moustaches" and egg-shaped head. Po... Read More
Lord Edgware Dies is a work of detective fiction by British writer Agatha Christie, published in the UK by the Collins Crime Club in September 1933 and in the US by Dodd, Mead and Company later in the same year under the title of Thirteen at Dinner. Attending a performance by impressionist Carlotta Adams, Hercule Poirot is approached by actress Jane Wilkinson. A few days later Lord Edgware is f... Read More
Agatha Christie was an English crime novelist, short-story writer and playwright. Her reputation rests on 66 detective novels and 14 short-story collections that have sold over two billion copies. Christie's writing career began during the war after she was challenged by her sister to write a detective story. She produced The Mysterious Affair at Styles, which was turned down by two publishers... Read More
Famed crime novelist Agatha Christie published the classic Murder on the Orient Express in 1934. It first appeared in serialized form in the Saturday Evening Post from July to September 1933. Its themes include revenge, the reality of true evil, and the real meaning of justice. Fortunately, or unfortunately, as the case may be, one of the passengers happens to be Hercule Poirot, the Belgian det... Read More
Agatha Christie was an English crime novelist, short-story writer and playwright. She married Archibald Christie in December 1914 but the couple were divorced in 1928. After he was sent to the Western Front in the First World War, she worked with the Voluntary Aid Detachment and in the chemist dispensary, giving her a working background knowledge of medicines and poisons. Christie's writing car... Read More
One, Two, Buckle My Shoe is a work of detective fiction by Agatha Christie first published in the United Kingdom by the Collins Crime Club in November 1940, and in the US by Dodd, Mead and Company in February 1941 under the title of The Patriotic Murders. It is one of several of Christie's crime fiction novels to feature both the Belgian detective Hercule Poirot and Chief Inspector Japp. This i... Read More