The Christie Files

Dame Agatha Christie, Queen of Mystery and “Surfer Girl”. Yes, that’s right: It’s a little-known fact about Dame Agatha that is revealed in her autobiography – she was a surfer.

As far as mysteries go, Dame Agatha didn’t just write them and create a high standard for other authors to follow, but she created some, too. Most famously, she went missing for eleven days in 1926 which caused a sensation. Neither a massive police search nor seances organised by Arthur Conan Doyle were able to locate her. When she was eventually found in Harrogate she claimed she was suffering from a lapse of memory, leaving her disappearance open to more speculation than any of her novels. And famously, Dame Agatha never recovered her memory of that event.

The Reading List:

I’ve been a fan of Dame Agatha’s for a long time. I have read most of Dame Agatha’s mysteries in my teens (though mostly in translation) but as I am in the process of a re-read, I need a list to keep me right. I’ve limited my list to the novels at this point, but may add the short story collections later.

Year published	Title	Detectives	My Rating
1920	The Mysterious Affair at Styles	Hercule Poirot Arthur Hastings, Inspector Japp
1922	The Secret Adversary	Tommy and Tuppence
1923	The Murder on the Links	Hercule Poirot Arthur Hastings, Monsieur Giraud
1924	The Man in the Brown Suit	Colonel Race Anne Beddingfeld
1925	The Secret of Chimneys	Superintendent Battle Anthony Cade
1926	The Murder of Roger Ackroyd	Hercule Poirot Inspector Raglan
1927	The Big Four	Hercule Poirot Arthur Hastings, Inspector Japp
1928	The Mystery of the Blue Train	Hercule Poirot
1929	The Seven Dials Mystery	Superintendent Battle Eileen “Bundle” Brent
1930	The Murder at the Vicarage	Miss Marple Inspector Slack
1931	The Sittaford Mystery also Murder at Hazelmoor	Emily Trefusis Inspector Narracott
1932	Peril at End House	Hercule Poirot Arthur Hastings, Inspector Japp
1933	Lord Edgware Dies also Thirteen at Dinner	Hercule Poirot Arthur Hastings, Inspector Japp
1934	Murder on the Orient Express also Murder in the Calais Coach	Hercule Poirot
1934	Why Didn’t They Ask Evans? also The Boomerang Clue	Bobby Jones Frankie Derwent
1935	Three Act Tragedy also Murder in Three Acts	Hercule Poirot Mr. Satterthwaite
1935	Death in the Clouds also Death in the Air	Hercule Poirot Inspector Japp
1936	The A.B.C. Murders also The Alphabet Murders	Hercule Poirot Arthur Hastings, Chief Inspector Japp
1936	Murder in Mesopotamia	Hercule Poirot Captain Maitland, Dr. Reilly
1936	Cards on the Table	Hercule Poirot Colonel Race, Superintendent Battle, Ariadne Oliver
1937	Dumb Witness also Poirot Loses a Client/Mystery at Littlegreen House	Hercule Poirot Arthur Hastings
1937	Death on the Nile	Hercule Poirot Colonel Race
1938	Appointment with Death	Hercule Poirot
1938	Hercule Poirot’s Christmas also Murder for Christmas/A Holiday for Murder	Hercule Poirot
1939	Murder is Easy also Easy to Kill	Superintendent Battle Luke Fitzwilliam
1939	And Then There Were None	Sir Thomas Legge Inspector Maine
1940	Sad Cypress	Hercule Poirot
1940	One, Two, Buckle My Shoe also An Overdose of Death/The Patriotic Murders	Hercule Poirot Chief Inspector Japp
1941	Evil Under the Sun	Hercule Poirot Colonel Weston, Inspector Colgate
1941	N or M?	Tommy and Tuppence
1942	The Body in the Library	Miss Marple Inspector Slack
1942	Five Little Pigs also Murder in Retrospect	Hercule Poirot
1942	The Moving Finger also The Case of the Moving Finger	Miss Marple
1944	Towards Zero also Come and Be Hanged	Superintendent Battle Inspector James Leach
1944	Death Comes as the End	Hori
1945	Sparkling Cyanide also Remembered Death	Colonel Race Chief Inspector Kemp
1946	The Hollow also Murder After Hours	Hercule Poirot Inspector Grange
1948	Taken at the Flood also There is a Tide…	Hercule Poirot Superintendent Spence
1949	Crooked House	Charles Hayward Chief Inspector Taverner
1950	A Murder is Announced	Miss Marple Chief Inspector Craddock
1951	They Came to Baghdad	Victoria Jones
1952	Mrs McGinty’s Dead also Blood Will Tell	Hercule Poirot Ariadne Oliver, Superintendent Spence
1952	They Do It with Mirrors also Murder with Mirrors	Miss Marple Inspector Curry
1953	After the Funeral also Funerals are Fatal	Hercule Poirot Inspector Morton, Mr. Goby
1953	A Pocket Full of Rye	Miss Marple
1954	Destination Unknown also So Many Steps to Death	Mr. Jessop, Captain Leblanc
1955	Hickory Dickory Dock also Hickory Dickory Death	Hercule Poirot Inspector Sharpe
1956	Dead Man’s Folly	Hercule Poirot Ariadne Oliver
1957	4.50 from Paddington also What Mrs. McGillicuddy Saw!/Murder She Said	Miss Marple Chief Inspector Craddock, Lucy Eyelesbarrow
1958	Ordeal by Innocence	Arthur Calgary Superintendent Huish
1959	Cat Among the Pigeons	Hercule Poirot Inspector Kelsey, Adam Goodman
1961	The Pale Horse	Inspector Lejeune Ariadne Oliver, Mark Easterbrook
1962	The Mirror Crack’d from Side to Side also The Mirror Crack’d	Miss Marple Chief Inspector Craddock
1963	The Clocks	Hercule Poirot Det. Inspector Hardcastle, Colin Lamb
1964	A Caribbean Mystery	Miss Marple
1965	At Bertram’s Hotel	Miss Marple Chief Inspector Fred “Father” Davy
1966	Third Girl	Hercule Poirot Ariadne Oliver, Chief Inspector Neele, Mr. Goby
1967	Endless Night	Sergeant Keene
1968	By the Pricking of My Thumbs	Tommy and Tuppence
1969	Hallowe’en Party	Hercule Poirot Ariadne Oliver, Superintendent Spence
1970	Passenger to Frankfurt	Stafford Nye
1971	Nemesis	Miss Marple
1972	Elephants Can Remember	Hercule Poirot Ariadne Oliver
1973	Postern of Fate Last novel Christie wrote	Tommy and Tuppence
1975	Curtain Poirot’s last case, written 36 years earlier.	Hercule Poirot Arthur Hastings
1976	Sleeping Murder Miss Marple’s last case, written 36 years earlier	Miss Marple

The Short Stories:

Work in Progress!

Other works by Dame Agatha:

Work in Progress!

Books about Dame Agatha:

Work in Progress!