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Agatha Christie

Sixty-six novels across four detectives, where the last Poirot was written thirty years before it was published.

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Where to start with Agatha Christie

Christie wrote almost nothing that needs anything else read first, which is the good news and also why the question is hard. There is no starting book, only better and worse first books. These four are the ones most often given, and each opens a different part of the shelf.

  1. 1
    The Murder of Roger Ackroyd (1926) The Murder of Roger Ackroyd

    The book that made her reputation and the one whose ending everybody has heard about without knowing it. Read it before somebody spoils it, which they will.

  2. 2
    And Then There Were None (1939) And Then There Were None

    No detective, no series, ten strangers on an island. Her best selling book and the cleanest demonstration of what she could do.

  3. 3
    A Murder Is Announced (1950) A Murder Is Announced

    The usual first Marple rather than the first written. A village, a newspaper advertisement, and Marple at full strength.

  4. 4
    Agatha Christie's Poirot, series 1 Agatha Christie's Poirot

    Ten hour-long episodes from the short stories, and the performance most people mean when they picture Poirot. A gentler way in than the novels.

Then what? If Poirot takes, read The Mysterious Affair at Styles next and then work forward, saving Curtain for last; it only pays off after the others. If Marple takes, the twelve novels can be read in publication order, with A Caribbean Mystery before Nemesis. The Branagh films and the recent BBC and Netflix adaptations change endings and characters often enough that they are better watched after the books than instead of them.

A suggested way in, not an official one. The full list is below — tick anything off in either place.

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