- The Double Traitor
- The Lion Tamer's Daughter
- The Great Stone Face
- Clark Gifford's Body
- The Golden Spiders
- THE DEAD SECRET
- The Valley of Fear
- The Horizontal Man
- A Shilling for Candles
- Paperback Thriller
- Blood on the Bosom Divine
- Thus Was Adonis Murdered
- The Nursemaid Who Disappeared
- The Beast Must Die
Agatha Christie
(1890 - 1976)
 Murder Is Easy A series of murders is committed in a sleepy
village near London; they are investigated by Luke Fitzwilliam, who happens
to be a policeman but is detecting out of curiosity. A chance encounter
with an old woman (Lavinia Pinkerton) in a train who is on her way to
report a series of deaths to Scotland Yard, and her subsequent "accident",
interest Fitzwilliam enough to send him to WychwoodunderAshe to investigate.
Most of the characters are suspects, including Mr. Ellsworthy (one of
Christie's few homosexuals), an antique shop keeper; and Honoria Wynflete,
Miss Pinkerton's friend in the village, who is rather like Miss Marple.
Superintendent Battle is called in near the end, but it is Fitzwilliam
who solves the crime.
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:: | 1939 | Luke Fitzwilliam | Nove |
| 4:50 From Paddington What Mrs. McGillicuddy in fact saw, as the American title says, while riding the 4:50 train from Paddington to the West, was a murder being committed in a passing train on the neighboring track. At first, the only person who believes her is her friend Miss Marple; as Miss Marple's investigation proceeds, the police become involved. The action centers around Rutherford Hall, the home of the Crackenthorpe family. Miss Marple is growing more frail, and has to enlist the help of her grandnephew David, who works for the railways, as well as the adventurous young Lucy Eylesbarrow, who poses as a maid in the Crackenthorpe house and her protege Inspector Dermot Craddock. (She finds the solution with somewhat unbelievable intuition, and has to perform a couple of unlikely physical feats.) The story was adapted into a film, "Murder, She Said", in 1961.
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:: | 1957 | Miss Marple | Novel |
| Ordeal By Innocence None of Christie's usual characters appear. Arthur Calgary, a wellknown geophysicist, returns to England from the Antarctic to find that a young man convicted in the death of his mother has died in prison; Calgary knows he was innocent and can prove it. He visits the family in South Devon, hoping to cheer them, but Jacko Argyle's family are not relieved; the police investigation is now reopened, and another murder takes place before the truth is discovered. Calgary is present at the house at Viper's Point for the finale. Mediocre detection, but sharp social observation.
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:: | 1959 | Arthur Calgary | Novel |
| Cat Among The Pigeons One of the best of the later Poirot stories. The action takes place at a girls' school in England, run by the sensible Miss Bulstrode, although it is also concerned with a revolution in Ramat, a fictional Middle Eastern country. Poirot attempts to discover who is murdering the staff of the school, and a plethora of motives is revealed. We meet two characters later to be encountered in thrillers: Colonel Pikeaway, in charge of intelligence, and Mr. Robinson, a fat and enigmatic financier.
:: | 1959 | Poirot, others | Novel |
| The Secret Adversary More of a thriller than a mystery, in which the Beresfordstobe enter the world of international espionage. Tommy Beresford and Tuppence Cowley are childhood friends in their 20s recently demobilized from the war, who meet by accident and are recruited by the Secret Service to save the country. Their task is to trace a girl (Jane Finn) who escaped from the sinking of the Lusitania with Allied documents which must now be found and suppressed; the puzzle is to identify their adversary (actually a master international criminal and spy) among the various characters they encounter (including Julius Hersheimmer, an American millionaire and Jane's cousin, Sir James Peel Edgerton, a distinguished barrister, and Albert, a liftboy). Tommy and Tuppence are good friends throughout the story, but reveal their deeper feelings for one another at the end (although marriage is not yet on the horizon). The story is also an interesting picture of the postwar social instability in England. It was eventually (1928) made into a film in Germany, "Die Abenteuer GmbH".
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:: | 1922 | Tommy & Tuppence Beresford | Novel |
| The Man In The Brown Suit A puzzlethriller rather than a straight mystery. The heroine is Anne Beddingfeld, a spirited and romantic young woman who is seeking adventure (and money) after the death of her father. She witnesses a suspiciouslooking "accidental" death, and persuades a newspaper to commission her to investigate. After a second death occurs in the house of Sir Eustace Pedlar, MP, she sails for Cape Town to follow the trail, travelling with Sir Eustace and his maliciouslooking secretary Guy Pagett. Most of the story occurs on the boat, and then on a train in South Africa and Rhodesia, presented through the diaries of Sir Eustace and Anne. The villain is a master criminal, and Anne eventually unmasks him, while the reader is kept guessing as to which characters are friends and which are enemies. One of the characters, the silent Colonel Race, will reappear in three subsequent novels. The setting and characters were inspired by Christie's recently completed roundtheworld trip with her husband.
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:: | 1924 | Anne Beddingfeld | Novel |
| The Secret Of Chimneys An early thriller, the plot concerned with events in the small Balkan country of Herzoslovakia. Except for the very beginning, the action takes place either in London (where Baron Lolopretjzyl, the Herzoslovakian representative, lives at Harridge's Hotel) or at Chimneys, the stately home of the Marquis of Caterham, the setting for many diplomatic events. Other characters who may or may not be heroic include Anthony Cade, an upperclass Englishman, and the young woman Virginia Revel. The intelligent and commonsensical policeman Superintendent Battle makes his first appearance here, although it is not he but Lady Eileen ("Bundle") Brent who uncovers the "secret" of the title. Battle will appear in four other novels and four characters, plus the house Chimneys itself, reappear in The Seven Dials Mystery.
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:: | 1925 | Superintendent Battle | Novel |
| The Murder Of Roger Ackroyd One of the most ingenious (or infuriating, depending on your point of view) of Christie's novels. Narrated by a Doctor Sheppard, who takes the place of Hastings (now living in Argentina with his wife) in assisting Poirot. A wealthy widow in the village of King's Abbott, Mrs. Ferrars, is found dead, and Dr. Sheppard suspects suicide until Roger Ackroyd, a widower who was expected to marry her, is also killed. Poirot is Sheppard's new neighbor, and is relieved to escape the boredom of the vegetable marrows he has been growing by investigating the case. Most of the suspects were Ackroyd's house guests, including Ackroyd's niece, Flora; Major Blunt, a biggame hunter romantically interested in Flora; Geoffrey Raymond, Ackroyd's secretary; Ursula Bourne, a parlormaid; and Ralph Paton, an adopted son with gambling debts. Poirot is also assisted by Sheppard's sister Caroline, a middleaged village spinster who anticipates Miss Marple's character. Both a play (1928) and a film (1931) were made of the story, both called "Alibi".
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:: | 1926 | Hercule Poirot | Novel |
| The Big Four This novel rather uneasily combines Poirot and Hastings with the sort of international crime syndicate usually found in Christie's thrillers. It was rewritten from a series of short stories, and is loosely episodic in form. Hastings has arrived in London on a business trip from Argentina; Poirot has not yet retired to King's Abbott, and was about to travel abroad when a stranger bursts into his room, collapses and dies. The pair are set on the trail of the Big Four, an international crime cartel headed by an American, a French woman, a Chinese man, and an Englishman. Each of them are dealt with in separate episodes, with many uncharacteristic adventures, including the abduction of Hastings' wife in Argentina, the appearance (never to be seen again) of Poirot's brother Achille, and Poirot's own apparent death a mock funeral which overcomes Hastings with emotion. The Countess Vera Rossakoff also appears for the first time, and the agent Joseph Aarons makes a final appearance.
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:: | 1927 | Hercule Poirot | Novel |
| The Mystery Of The Blue Train The first Poirot novel to be told in the third person, with no Watsonlike narrator. An American millionaire's daughter, Miss Van Aldin, is found strangled in her compartment on the Blue Train (running from Paris to Nice), with a fabulous ruby stolen. Poirot is traveling to the French Riviera with his English valet, George, on the same train, and is drawn into the case. He is assisted by one of Christie's adventurous young ladies, Katherine Grey. The plot is an expansion of a short story ("The Plymouth Express") which appeared in the collection The Under Dog in 1951 in the USA, but not until 1974 in the UK (in the volume Poirot's Early Cases). Christie apparently hated the book, but perhaps undeservedly.
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:: | 1928 | Hercule Poirot | Novel |
| The Seven Dials Mystery A puzzlethriller, which uses several of the characters
and the house from The Secret of Chimneys (1924). A young man is found
dead in his bed in Chimneys, with seven alarm clocks ranged around the
mantelpiece. As in The Secret Adversary, the identities of the members
of a secret society (headquartered in the Seven Dials Club, situated in
that seedy corner of London) must be discovered, as well as two murders
accounted for. Superintendent Battle has a hand in the solution, and a
major part is played by Lady Eileen ("Bundle") Brent. Lord Caterham
is still owner of Chimneys. The story was made into a TV film in 1981.
Courtesey of: http://stout.physics.ucla.edu/%7eyoder/mystery/christie.html
:: | 1929 | Superintendent Battle | Novel |
| The Murder At The Vicarage The first Miss Marple novel. Set amidst the village
life of St. Mary Mead, where Miss Marple has always lived, it is narrated
by the vicar of the title (the Rev. Leonard Clement). An irritating parishioner,
Colonel Protheroe, is found dead in the vicar's study; suspects include
the vicar himself, his wife Griselda, and his teenage nephew Dennis, as
well as the Colonel's wife, daughter, an anthropologist, and a mysterious
Mrs. Lestrange. Miss Marple's neighbor, Dr. Haydock, and novelist nephew
Raymond West, will be recurring characters. The story was produced as
a play (not by Christie) in 1949.
Courtesey of: http://stout.physics.ucla.edu/%7eyoder/mystery/christie.html
:: | 1930 | Miss Marple | Novel |
| The Sittaford Mystery A mystery without any of Christie's regular heroes,
in which a young woman named Emily Trefusis is engaged to a young man
who is arrested for the murder of his uncle, Capt. Trevelyan. She is convinced
of his innocence and sets out to unmask the real culprit, which she does
with the help of the police inspector in charge of the case. The answer
is related to the mysterious arrival of Mrs. Willett and her daughter
in the village of Sittaford (the Hazlemoor of the US title is the house
in which Trevelyan dies), and the bleak setting on Dartmoor contributes
to the plot. Emily is another of Christie's "adventurous young lady"
heroines.Courtesey of: http://stout.physics.ucla.edu/%7eyoder/mystery/christie.html
:: | 1931 | Emily Trefusis | Novel |
| Peril At End House Set in the resort town of St. Loo on the south coast
of England (modeled after Torquay). Poirot and Hastings (who is again
visiting England from his home in Argentina) are staying at a hotel, and
meet a young woman, Nick Buckley, who lives above the town at End House
and has recently had several narrow escapes. Poirot thinks someone is
trying to kill her, and she too is convinced after her cousin is killed
at End House, perhaps mistaken for her. Most of the characters are friends
of Nick's, including the Jewish art dealer Jim Lazarus and a mysterious
Australian couple. The story was produced as a play in London in 1940.
Courtesey of: http://stout.physics.ucla.edu/%7eyoder/mystery/christie.html
:: | 1932 | Hercule Poirot | Novel |
| Lord Edgware Dies Hastings is again at Poirot's side (though he will
return to Argentina at the end of the story) to investigate a crime in
the West End of London, with action at many fashionable venues (the Savoy
Hotel, a mansion in Regent's Park). The dinner party for 13 takes place
at Sir Montagu Corner's mansion at Chiswick. When Lord Edgware, a most
unsympathetic character, is murdered, suspicion falls on his wife, the
actress Jane Wilkinson, but it is possible that Jane has been impersonated
by the brilliant American actress Carlotta Adams. Inspector Japp is Poirot's
rival, as usual. Oddly, Poirot interrupts his investigation to solve the
case of the Ambassador's Boots, which had in fact been solved by Tommy
and Tuppence (in Partners in Crime). Filmed in 1934.
Courtesey of: http://stout.physics.ucla.edu/%7eyoder/mystery/christie.html
:: | 1933 | Hercule Poirot | Novel |
| Murder On The Orient Express 1 Murder is committed in one of the sleeping compartments on the IstanbulCalais coach of the famous Orient Express train; almost the entire action takes place in that coach and in the restaurant car following. Poirot is returning on the train from Syria (where he has just solved a crime for the French government), and when the train is forced to halt in Yugoslavia by a snowstorm just after the murder, Poirot is prevailed upon by the railway director, M. Bouc, to investigate. The murder victim is an American businessman named Ratchett. The suspects are an international collection of travellers: Mrs. Hubbard, a loquacious American; the Princess Dragomiroff, an exotic Russian travelling with her maid; the Count and Countess Andrenyi, Hungarian diplomat and wife; Mary Debenham, an English governess; the British Colonel Arbuthnot, returning from India; Greta Ohlsson, a Swedish missionary, and a few othersmany of whom are not what they seem. Poirot's final solution is among the most audacious of Christie's plots (in fact, he puts forward two theories and allows M. Bouc to choose between them). A wellknown film was made of the story in 1974, at the time the most profitable British film ever made.
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:: | 1934 | Hercule Poirot | Novel |
| The Abc Murders is once more joined by Hastings, again on extended leave from his Argentine ranch. The story begins with Poirot receiving a taunting letter promising a crime in Andover on a given day; sure enough, a murder occurs there, and more letters follow. It soon becomes clear that the criminal is working his way through the alphabet (Alice Ascher was killed in Andover, waitress Betty Barnard is murdered in Bexhill, Sir Carmichael Clark killed in Churston, and in Doncaster something goes wrong when a Mr. Earlsfield is killed). A railway timetable ("The ABC Rail Guide", as it is called) is left next to each victim. Poirot and Hastings find the method in ABC's pretended madness and the reason for the alphabetical order, and stop the killing spree in time to save the fifth victim. The prime suspect for most of the book is a mysterious Mr. Alexander Bonaparte Cust. A film of the story, "The Alphabet Murders", was made in 1966, but it is not a faithful adaptation.
Courtesey of: http://stout.physics.ucla.edu/%7eyoder/mystery/christie.html
:: | 1935 | Hercule Poirot | Novel |
| Death In The Clouds Murder is committed on a passenger airplane, during a regular flight from Paris to London. Poirot is one of the passengers, and the murderer can only be one of the 10 other passengers in the rear compartment, or one of the stewards. The murder is only realized just before landing, and Poirot investigates the crime in London and Paris, working with Inspector Japp as well as M. Fournier of the Surete. Madame Giselle (the murdered passenger) has only a minor puncture wound on her throat, and the actual cause of death is one of the puzzles. The other passengers include an aristocrat, an exchorus girl, two whitecollar workers with romantic interests, a doctor, a businessman, two French archaeologists, and the crime novelist Daniel Clancy, suspected by Japp.
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:: | 1935 | Hercule Poirot | Novel |
| Why Didn't They Ask Evans? The cryptic question of the title is uttered by a man who has apparently fallen off a cliff on the west coast of Wales, just before he dies. The only one to hear him is the vicar's son, Bobby Jones, golfing nearby; together with his aristocratic friend, young Lady Frances ("Frankie") Derwent, he investigates the murder. The story is both thriller and mystery, as the team of Bobby and Frankie have a number of adventures before the meaning of the question is clear, including being bound and gagged by the villain and left in an attic to die, Bobby falling from a tree, and Frankie deliberately crashing her car. Filmed by London Weekend TV in 1980.
Courtesey of: http://stout.physics.ucla.edu/%7eyoder/mystery/christie.html
:: | 1935 | Bobby Jones and Frankie Derwent | Novel |
| Murder In Mesopotamia Amy Leatheran, a young nurse and the narrator of the novel, is employed by the archaeologist Dr. Leidner to look after his wife, Louise, who is apparently terrified of something or someone and who may be suffering from delusions. Mrs. Leidner tells Amy that she has been receiving threatening letters, perhaps written by her former husband who supposedly died in a train crash but written in a handwriting suspiciously similar to her own. When Mrs. Leidner is murdered, however, it appears that either the dead husband or his younger brother must have made good on these threats. To make matters worse, the crime appears to have been committed by one of those within the archaeological compound. Has the husband/brother been amongst them all along?
:: | 1936 | Hercule Poirot | Novel |
| Cards On The Table psychological problem for Poirot , one of his favorite cases. A dinner party is held by a connoisseur of the bizarre, Mr. Shaitana, in his Park Lane flat, to which are invited four investigators of crime and four people who Shaitana says have committed murders and not been caught. After the two groups play two separate games of bridge, Shaitana is found murdered. The four successful murderers are equally suspected; they include a young woman domestic, a widow who may have killed her husband, a doctor who lost several patients, and a Major who may have killed a botanist on the Amazon. The detectives are Poirot, Superintendent Battle of Scotland Yard, Colonel Race (known from The Man in the Brown Suit and here revealed to be a Secret Service agent), and Mrs. Ariadne Oliver, the crime novelist and gentle selfparody of Christie. One of the suspects reappears 25 years later in The Pale Horse. The story was (not too successfully) adapted as a play, with the character of Poirot removed, which opened in London in 1981.
Courtesey of: http://stout.physics.ucla.edu/%7eyoder/mystery/christie.html
:: | 1937 | Hercule Poirot | Novel |
| Dumb Witness Poirot receives a long and rambling letter from
Emily Arundell, an elderly spinster who lives at Littlegreen House in
the village of Market Basing, Berkshire; she asks him to undertake an
investigation for her but forgets to tell him what it is. Poirot and Hastings
visit Market Basing to find that she has died of a heart attack, but investigate
the case anyway. The 'dumb witness' of the title is a dog, a wirehaired
terrier called Bob, who plays an important role in the plot and who is
given some 'dialogue'. The story is another take on the village murder
with a small number of suspects and a death by poison. (Hastings accepts
the dog at the end, presumably returning to Argentina with him).
Courtesey of: http://stout.physics.ucla.edu/%7eyoder/mystery/christie.html
:: | 1937 | Hercule Poirot | Novel |
| Appointment With Death Poirot is a member of a party of tourists on an excursion to Petra in TransJordan when one of their number is killed, and he is asked to help with the investigation. The party includes the Boynton family, a large American brood touring the Middle East and consisting of old Mrs. Boynton (fat, grotesque, and cruel), her four children, and the wife of one of them; as well as a French psychiatrist, a young Englishwoman medical student, and Lady Westholme, a redoubtable British Member of Parliament. It is Mrs. Boynton who is murdered. The atmosphere of the Holy Land sights is well conveyed. Christie adapted the novel into a play, produced in 1945.
Courtesey of: http://stout.physics.ucla.edu/%7eyoder/mystery/christie.html
:: | 1938 | Hercule Poirot | Novel |
| Death On The Nile of Christie's finest, set on the steamer
Karnak, cruising the Nile. (The stage is set in a first chapter which
outlines how all of the characters came to be in Egypt.) The beautiful
and rich Linnet Ridgeway has lured handsome Simon Doyle away from her
best friend Jacqueline and married him; Jacqueline retaliates by following
the couple on their entire honeymoon as a silent presence. During the
cruise, Linnet is killed; other passengers suspected are a grand American
lady, a novelist (Mrs. Otterbourne) and her daughter, an upperclass Englishwoman
and her son, two solicitors, an Italian archaeologist, and a young radical.
The Secret Service agent Colonel Race is also a passenger, but unlike
Poirot (who is on holiday) he is shadowing a murderer. Christie adapted
the story herself into a play in 1945, as "Murder on the Nile",
and a starstudded film (including David Niven, Mia Farrow, Angela Lansbury,
Bette Davis, and Peter Ustinov as Poirot) was made under the original
title in 1977.
Courtesey of: http://stout.physics.ucla.edu/%7eyoder/mystery/christie.html
:: | 1938 | Hercule Poirot | Novel |
| Ten Little Niggers on an isolated island without contact of the outside civilization, Agatha Christie's novel And Then There Were None is the story of ten strangers invited to an island by a mysterious host. The book starts out with an introduction to the ten characters. Although this is effective in telling the characters, it is also boring and does not catch your attention right away. But as soon as the guests arrive on Indian Island, this boredom disperses and an exciting thriller breaks through. What is also exciting about this novel is you have no idea who is committing these strange murders. The first night these people are at the house they are greeted with an eerie voice that accuses them of murders that were committed but were never convicted of in the past. When the guests arrive there is no trace of U.N. Owen, but as the guests start to die this mysterious figure reveals his ugly face. This book shows fear in peoples conciences, the guilt that lies within, and the hate among strangers. Anyone who wants to read a suspenseful murder mystery, and wants to stay on the edge of their seats, should read this wicked novel of horror and fear... Courtesey of: http://stout.physics.ucla.edu/%7eyoder/mystery/christie.html :: | 1939 | None | Novel |
| Hercule Poirot's Christmas This novel combines the traditional murder in the English country houseparty with a lockedroom (i.e. seemingly impossible) crime. Perhaps a less realistic story, the Christmas party is that of the family of a wealthy and unpleasant old man, assembled from around the world, and the old man is (naturally) murdered on Christmas eve. Poirot has been staying nearby, with Colonel Johnson of the Middleshire Police (whom he met before, in ThreeAct Tragedy) and is called in. The family is rather a collection of stereotypes (the exotic foreigner, the strong and silent Colonial son, the sympathetic wife, and so on), and the lockedroom clue perhaps disappointing.
Courtesey of: http://stout.physics.ucla.edu/%7eyoder/mystery/christie.html
:: | 1939 | Hercule Poirot | Novel |
| Sad Cypress The prologue introduces young Elinor Carlisle, accused of murdering her wealthy Aunt Laura and currently standing trial. The aunt had been helpless after a stroke, and was known to wish herself dead; her doctor, Peter Lord, brings in Poirot to prove Elinor innocent. The beginning is melodramatic and clumsy, but the characterisations are some of Christie's most realistic and the evocation of old age, illness and suffering, and its effects on Aunt Laura's family, are well drawn.
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:: | 1940 | Hercule Poirot | Novel |
| One, Two, Buckle My Shoe Christie's most successful example of the murder mystery inspired by a nursery rhyme. Each chapter of the novel corresponds roughly to a line of the verse. The first victim is a Harley Street dentist; Poirot suspects he is not a suicide, since Poirot himself was a patient of his only an hour previously, and the dentist had seemed in good spirits. Chief Inspector Japp does his share of investigating the mystery, which proves to have ramifications involving international conspiracy. The atmosphere of Europe on the brink of war is well described. The novel contains the only occasion on which Poirot is known to have attended a church service, and also reminds us that he still dreams of Countess Vera Rossakoff, the aristocratic thief he had met in The Big Four.
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:: | 1941 | Hercule Poirot | Novel |
| Evil Under The Sun Poirot is holidaying on a resort island off the coast of Devon, and feels certain there will be murder committed, but cannot prevent it. The victim is envied and disliked by many, and the suspects are other guests at the Jolly Roger Hotel on Smuggler's Island. An American couple, the Odell Gardeners, provide comic relief. Poirot enjoys the assistance of the chief constable, Colonel Weston. A wellknown film version was released in 1982, with the scene changed to the Adriatic, and with Poirot played by Peter Ustinov.
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:: | 1941 | Hercule Poirot | Novel |
| N Or M? The first Christie novel to be set in the Second World War. Tommy and Tuppence Beresford now have a grownup son and daughter, and are too old for the war effort; finally, to their delight, they are informally asked by the Secret Service to assist in the rounding up of a group of Fifth Columnists. Their old errandboy, Albert, now a pub owner, agrees to help them again, and they discover the identity of the chief spy and foil the enemy plans. Perhaps the least convincing of the Beresfords' adventures; nevertheless, easy to read.
Courtesey of: http://stout.physics.ucla.edu/%7eyoder/mystery/christie.html
:: | 1941 | Tommy & Tuppence Beresford | Novel |
| Five Little Pigs Poirot is called on to investigate a crime committed some years in the past. A painter, Amyas Crale, not a particularly attractive figure, is murdered; his wife Caroline is found guilty of his murder and dies in prison. Sixteen years later, her daughter asks Poirot to clear her mother's name. The other five principal suspects are still alive, and each writes for Poirot a memoir of those events. The different interpretations of the different characters, and their own changes in the course of sixteen years, are well portrayed and make interesting reading. Christie herself made the story into a play, "Go Back for Murder", which opened briefly in 1960.
Courtesey of: http://stout.physics.ucla.edu/%7eyoder/mystery/christie.html
:: | 1942 | Hercule Poirot | Novel |
| The Body In The Library The first Marple novel in twelve years, the action taking place at Col. and Mrs. Bantry's country house in St. Mary Mead. Dolly Bantry is awakened by her maid rushing in to exclaim that there's a "body in the library", and the usual village regulars are represented in the ensuing excitement (the vicar, the Rev. Leonard Clement; his wife Griselda and infant child; Dr. Haydock, Miss Marple's physician and neighbor; Mrs. Price Ridley, the village busybody; Sir Henry Clithering, former police commissioner and friend of the Bantrys; and the universally disliked Inspector Slack). The victim is a dance hostess at a coastal hotel, so the suspects need not be village residents. Miss Marple bests Inspector Slack at his own game once again.
Courtesey of: http://stout.physics.ucla.edu/%7eyoder/mystery/christie.html
:: | 1942 | Miss Marple | Novel |
| The Moving Finger Narrated by Jerry Burton, a young man who has come to the small market town of Lymstock with his sister, Joanna, to recuperate from an accident. An outbreak of poisonpen letters in the village leads to two deaths, the first apparently suicide but the second definitely murder; the letters accuse various villagers of improbable and illicit sexual acts. The vicar's wife, Maud Dane Calthrop, invites her friend Miss Marple to stay at the vicarage, and she solves the puzzle alongside the local police and citizens. The characters are strong, particularly Megan Hunter, an awkward young woman who serves as the romantic interest in the plot.
Courtesey of: http://stout.physics.ucla.edu/%7eyoder/mystery/christie.html
:: | 1942 | Miss Marple | Novel |
| Death Comes As The End A novel set in Ancient Egypt, told as though based on a recently discovered cache of letters dating from the pharaohs. The family murders which occur throughout the story have to be solved by the survivors, there being no detectives in that society. The plot is not very complicated, and perhaps may be guessed, although the picture of life in a vanished civilization is well researched and interesting.
Courtesey of: http://stout.physics.ucla.edu/%7eyoder/mystery/christie.html
:: | 1944 | None | Novel |
| Towards Zero Starring Superintendent Battle, last seen in Murder is Easy, who investigates a sinister affair in which murder may or may not be predestined. (Christie's assertion that destiny moves us towards a final zero hour gives the book its title.) Most of the action takes place at Gull's Point, a country house overlooking a coastal estuary and owned by Lady Tressilian. The murder does not take place until late in the book, leading to welldeveloped characterizations. Some of the residents (and suspects) include Nevile Strange, tennisplayer and sportsman; Mr. Treves, an old lawyer; and the suicidal Angus MacWhirter, who plays an important plot role by preventing a second suicide. Christie adapted the story into a play, produced in 1956.
Courtesey of: http://stout.physics.ucla.edu/%7eyoder/mystery/christie.html
:: | 1944 | Superintendent Battle | Novel |
| Sparkling Cyanide Another novel in which a crime is investigated some time after it has been committed. Rosemary Barton had died in a dinner party at a fashionable restaurant when her drink was laced with cyanide. Her widower George does not believe the police verdict of suicide, and reassembles all the guests a year later at the same restaurant as an "experiment" which he clearly expects to lead to the apprehension of the real murderer. The scheme goes awry, and another death occurs in the anniversary party. Colonel Race makes his last appearance (he was invited to both occasions, but did not show) and helps another investigator to discover the murderer. There are a couple of weak plot devices near the end, but most of the story is very successful.
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:: | 1945 | Other | Novel |
| The Hollow Poirot is staying at his weekend cottage near The Hollow, country home of Sir Henry and Lady Angkatell, and arrives there for lunch to discover a dying man lying by the swimming pool with a woman waving a revolver at him. The murder victim is Dr. John Christow, whose slowthinking widow Gerda is an important character in the plot. The novel is more concerned with characterization than many Christies, and the plot is relatively uncomplicated. Christie adapted the novel into a play which was produced in 1951.
Courtesey of: http://stout.physics.ucla.edu/%7eyoder/mystery/christie.html
:: | 1946 | Hercule Poirot | Novel |
| Taken At The Flood Set in postwar England, where the Cloade family is beset by troubles including accidental death, murder and suicide, and where the overall mood is one of dissatisfaction and ill will. The family wealth seems about to pass into the hands of a stranger, and questions of identity arise in the postwar confusion. Poirot solves the mystery with the aid of a new detective, Superintendent Spence, who will appear in three later novels.
Courtesey of: http://stout.physics.ucla.edu/%7eyoder/mystery/christie.html
:: | 1948 | Hercule Poirot | Novel |
| Crooked House The investigator and narrator is Charles Hayward, the son of a Scotland Yard commissioner. Elderly Aristide Leonides is extremely wealthy, and lives in a crooked house, in which he is murdered by a member of his family. Hayward, in love with his grauddaughter, unofficially investigates the situation with his father Sir Arthur. The plot is not very lively, but the ending is startling.
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:: | 1949 | Charles Hayward | Novel |
| A Murder Is Announced One of the most entertaining Marple novels, with a welldrawn picture of England's postwar muddle. A newspaper advertisement in the village of Chipping Cleghorn announces that a murder will take place at a specified time and location, and a number of people turn up at Little Paddocks, where Letitia Blacklock lived with a companion, two young relatives, and a paying guest. A murder does in fact occur, although not the one expected, and Miss Marple (who is staying in a nearby spa for her rheumatism) seems to know something about the murdered man; her friendship with Sir Henry Clithering allows her access to the case. The solution involves a lot of coincidence and a few farfetched incidents. A stage adaptation was made in 1977, after Christie's death.
Courtesey of: http://stout.physics.ucla.edu/%7eyoder/mystery/christie.html
:: | 1950 | Miss Marple | Novel |
| They Came To Baghdad A thriller rather than a straight mystery, in which the heroine is another adventurous young woman named Victoria Jones. She is sacked from her London job, and falls in love on the spot with an attractive stranger she meets in a park, determining to follow him to Baghdad. Soon she is helping to foil the plans of an authoritarian group which intends to sabotage a world summit meeting and thus destroy world peace. The plot is preposterous, but highly readable, and the portrayal of Baghdad and the Middle East is quite authentic, Agatha by this time having spent some years in archaeological digs in Iraq.
Courtesey of: http://stout.physics.ucla.edu/%7eyoder/mystery/christie.html
:: | 1951 | Victoria Jones | Novel |
| Mrs. Mcginty's Dead old woman (Mrs. McGinty) has been killed, evidently for the sake of a little money, in the village of Broadhinny. Poirot, now living alone in London, thinks the crime uninteresting, but he is visited by Superintendent Spence and asked to consider the case. The woman's lodger, James Bentley, has been convicted of the crime, but Spence is unsatisfied and manages to persuade Poirot to investigate. The milieu is solidly workingclass, with characters such as Major and Mrs. Summerhayes, who run the awful boarding house where Poirot stays; Mrs. McGinty's niece, Bessie Burch, who is not sorry; and Bentley himself, a very unsympathetic character. The lady novelist Ariadne Oliver is present once more, now more than ever a parody of Christie herself. Poirot works against time to find the real murderer before Bentley is hanged. A British film, "Murder Most Foul", was based very loosely on this story, with Miss Marple substituted for Poirot; it was released in 1964.
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:: | 1952 | Book Club edition, 1952) UK publication: 1952 (Collins) US publication: 1952 (Dodd | Novel |
| They Do It With Mirrors Miss Marple is reminiscing with her old school friend Ruth and finds that she is worried about her sister, Carrie Louise, who is married to an idealist, Lewis Serrocold, and running a home for delinquent boys in the south of England. Carrie is the widow of Mr. Gulbrandsen, a famous millionaire and philanthropist, and it is Gulbrandsen's brother who is murdered while visiting the Sorrocolds. There are two more murders before the end is reached, and Miss Marple goes to stay with the Serrocolds to keep an eye on Carrie Louise, whose life may be in danger. Not the most complex Christie plot.
Courtesey of: http://stout.physics.ucla.edu/%7eyoder/mystery/christie.html
:: | 1952 | Miss Marple | Novel |
| After The Funeral The family of the late Richard Abernethie, a wealthy old man, is gathered to hear his will when one of the family remarks that he must have been murdered. When this relative (Cora Lansquenet) is herself murdered, the family solicitor, Mr. Entwhistle, called in Poirot. The Abernethie family is so complicated that a tree is provided, and the mystifications of the plot are among Christie's most convoluted. Mr. Goby, an eccentric investigator who last assisted Poirot in the 1926 Mystery of the Blue Train, comes out of retirement to help him again. An awful 1963 film, "Murder at the Gallop", was based loosely on this story, with Miss Marple substituted for Poirot and the action shifted to a riding school.
Courtesey of: http://stout.physics.ucla.edu/%7eyoder/mystery/christie.html
:: | 1953 | Hercule Poirot | Novel |
| A Pocket Full Of Rye Another nurseryrhyme story, with murders committed in the order of the images in "Sing a Song of Sixpence". The first victim (the "king" of the rhyme) is Rex Fortescue, a financier, found with loose grain in his pocket; the second, his wife, was poisoned with cyanide at teatime. The third victim, a parlourmaid, is strangled with a stocking and found with a clothespeg on her nose, at which point Miss Marple makes the connection to the rhyme, asking Inspector Neele to investigate the question of blackbirds. The action takes place around Yewtree Lodge, Fortescue's house in the suburbs.
Courtesey of: http://stout.physics.ucla.edu/%7eyoder/mystery/christie.html
:: | 1954 | Miss Marple | Novel |
| Destination Unknown A thriller, based like several others on the idea of a wealthy megalomaniac bent on world domination or anarchy. The heroine is Hilary Craven, who is saved from suicide by the intervention of a stranger. He happens to be a Secret Service agent who recruits her (since she evidently doesn't mind dying) to investigate a world conspiracy. She has an adventure involving disappearing scientists, and the scene moves from England to Casablanca to the Atlas Mountains of the Sahara, where a secret scientific complex exists. There is a domestic murder mystery embedded in the conspiracy story, as well.
Courtesey of: http://stout.physics.ucla.edu/%7eyoder/mystery/christie.html
:: | 1955 | Hilary Craven | Novel |
| Hickory Dickory Dock The story has no real connection with the nursery rhyme. Poirot is introduced to the affair through Miss Lemon, making her first appearance in a Poirot novel; her sister, who runs a boarding house for students, has had an outbreak of petty theft. Poirot investigates, and the trail leads to murder. The students are typecast: Sally Finch, an American girl; Mr. Akibombo, West African; Chandra Lal and Gopal Ram, Indians; and some British students, one of whom simulates a neurosis in order to attract a young psychologist.
Courtesey of: http://stout.physics.ucla.edu/%7eyoder/mystery/christie.html
:: | 1955 | Hercule Poirot | Novel |
| Dead Man's Folly The first murder occurs at a village fete in Nassecombe in Devon, where the girl playing the "body" in a 'Murder Hunt' is found dead. The affair was organized by Mrs. Ariadne Oliver, the detective novelist, who invited Poirot because she felt something might go wrong (they had met twice before, in Cards on the Table and Mrs. McGinty's Dead). A traditional Poirot novel, enlivened by the presence of Mrs. Oliver, Christie's selfparody as usual. The murderer is not apprehended at the end, and may never be.
Courtesey of: http://stout.physics.ucla.edu/%7eyoder/mystery/christie.html
:: | 1956 | Hercule Poirot | Novel |
| The Pale Horse A crime novel which is essentially a study of evilthe Pale Horse of the title is an organization of professional murderers who utilize black magic, as well as the name of a house in the village of Much Deeping. Mrs. Ariadne Oliver, the matronly crime novelist, Christie selfparody, and friend of Poirot, is a leading character, but none of Christie's other regulars are present. She is a friend of Mark Easterbrook, the narrator; he puts in some good work to solving the Pale Horse murders, but the police detective LeJeune is the one to solve them. Other leading roles are played by previous minor characters, such as Rhoda Dawes, the wife of Colonel Shepard, from Cards on the Table, and the Rev. Caleb Dane Calthrop and his wife, from The Moving Finger.
Courtesey of: http://stout.physics.ucla.edu/%7eyoder/mystery/christie.html
:: | 1962 | Mark Easterbrook | Novel |
| The Mirror Crack'd From Side To Side Modern times are arriving in St. Mary Mead: Dolly Bantry, Miss Marple's good friend, has sold her house (Gossington Lodge), and it eventually comes into the possession of Marina Gregg, a famous film star. At a fete held on the grounds, one of the party dies from a poisoned drink, and it is thought that Miss Gregg is the intended victim. (The title comes from Tennyson, with reference to the 'frozen look' observed by one of the characters on Gregg's face). Miss Marple's young protege Inspector Craddock investigates, but it is she that arrives at the truth. St. Mary Mead has changed, as English villages were doing, with new shops and housing developments; also present are some film people, including Marina's husband and director Jason Hudd. A lavish but disappointing Hollywood film was made of the story (as "The Mirror Crack'd") in 1980, with Angela Lansbury, Elizabeth Taylor, and Rock Hudson.
Courtesey of: http://stout.physics.ucla.edu/%7eyoder/mystery/christie.html
:: | 1963 | Miss Marple | Novel |
| The Clocks Poirot is called into a case by Colin Lamb, an intelligence agent of some kind whose father knew Poirot. A body has been discovered in the seaside town of Crowdean, in the house of a blind woman, and in a room full of clocks, most of which do not belong there. Lamb happens to be passing by when the body is discovered, and goes to Poirot, his old mentor [Christie said that Lamb was probably Superintendent Battle's son]. There are really two separate plots, which are linked at the end. One of the more unusual late books, with an amusing lecture on fictional detectives given by Poirot. Courtesey of: http://stout.physics.ucla.edu/%7eyoder/mystery/christie.html
Courtesey of: http://stout.physics.ucla.edu/%7eyoder/mystery/christie.html
:: | 1964 | Hercule Poirot | Novel |
| A Caribbean Mystery The only occasion when Miss Marple ventured abroad. She has been sent by Raymond West, her nephew, to St. Honore in the West Indies on holiday. The characters she meets at the resort include the elderly, crotchety and extremely wealthy Jason Rafiel, who will influence the plot of Nemesis, as well as a pleasant but boring old Indian Army Major who tells interminable stories of his experiences but mysteriously shuts up just before he is about to show Miss Marple the 'picture of a murderer'. Much of the plot is concerned with concealed relationships.
Courtesey of: http://stout.physics.ucla.edu/%7eyoder/mystery/christie.html
:: | 1965 | Miss Marple | Novel |
| At Bertram's Hotel Raymond West and his wife again decide to do something for dear Miss Marple, and give her a week at Bertram's Hotel in London, which she had loved as a girl. She is about 75 years old by this point, and the story is slowerpaced, giving her woolly thought processes time to be explored. There are indeed strange goingson at Bertram's; murder is not the only crime, but there is a murder in due course, near the end. Elvira Blake is one of Christie's more interesting modern young people, and the police are led by Chief Inspector Davy, assisted by the mysterious Mr. Robinson (of Cat Among the Pigeons). The solution is clever but probably impossible for the reader to discover on his/her own.
Courtesey of: http://stout.physics.ucla.edu/%7eyoder/mystery/christie.html
:: | 1966 | Miss Marple | Novel |
| Third Girl Poirot confronts 'modern' youth as a very old
man in this novel, in which (to stave off boredom) he agrees to see a
young woman who 'might have' committed a murder. The girl turns out to
be Norma Restarick, the third of three who share a flat, and is evidently
something of a hippie. With the aid of the novelist Mrs. Ariadne Oliver,
and the information gatherer Mr. Goby, Poirot arrives at a solution, although
the plotting is not the strongest point of this novel and it is unclear
how he makes several conclusions. Some reviewers find it a failure, but
the reader may enjoy the 'swinging sixties' as presented by Christie,
herself over 75.
Courtesey of: http://stout.physics.ucla.edu/%7eyoder/mystery/christie.html
:: | 1967 | Hercule Poirot | Novel |
| Endless Night : A very different Christie novel, narrated by the young man Michael Rogers, who falls in love and marries during the course of the book. There is no real investigator, and little actual detection; the suspense is sustained by an indepth portrait of a psychotic killer. The plot is difficult to discuss without giving it away, but there is a powerful kick in the tail. One of Christie's finest and most respected novels of her later years. A film of the novel was made in England in 1972, but weak direction and the introduction of an illadvised erotic scene diminished its success.
Courtesey of: http://stout.physics.ucla.edu/%7eyoder/mystery/christie.html
:: | 1968 | Michael Rogers | Novel |
| By The Pricking Of My Thumbs : Tommy and Tuppence make their first appearance since the Second World War, now an elderly married couple, 70 years old. Still seeking adventure, the pair have gone to visit an aunt in a nursing home, where another queer elderly inmate implies that there is a child walled up in the fireplace. The aunt's death some weeks later gives Tommy an excuse to try to investigate this crime in the past. The light and frivolous tone of Christie's Tommy and Tuppence books continues unchanged, and Christie's comic salute to old age makes cheerful reading, although conversations tend to meander and irrelevant details intrude more than they used to.
Courtesey of: http://stout.physics.ucla.edu/%7eyoder/mystery/christie.html
:: | 1968 | Tommy & Tuppence Beresford | Novel |
| Halloween Party : At a Hallowe'en party attended by the unquenchable Mrs. Ariadne Oliver, Poirot's old friend and Christie's spoof on herself, a 13yearold girl who has been telling everyone that she witnessed a murder is found drowned in a tub of apples. Poirot is enlisted to help, and he finds Superintendent Spence living in the neighborhood, who helps him with information about the locals. Poirot cannot prevent a second murder, but stops the criminal just before a third. The novel is a little odd, with Christie's characterizations beginning to fade and a few loose ends left untied.
Courtesey of: http://stout.physics.ucla.edu/%7eyoder/mystery/christie.html
:: | 1969 | Hercule Poirot | Novel |
| Passenger To Frankfurt The last of Christie's freeranging thrillers,
its plot so vague and disjointed that it hardly exists. (Her publishers
had grave doubts about the book, but Christie was now 80 years old and
could hardly be turned down.) Sir Stafford Nye, the main character, is
a failed diplomat who is sitting in the transit lounge at Frankfurt airport
when he is plunged into adventure after meeting a mysterious foreign woman.
Soon he is pitting his wits against some sort of worldwide conspiracy
once again. A few familiar figures appear: Col. Pikeaway and Mr. Robinson
(from Cat Among the Pigeons), and Nye's aunt Matilda Cleckheaton helps
keep an eye on things. The operas of Wagner turn out to be of great significance.
The book is something of a tract against extremism and totalitarianism
of all kinds, and very cynical in tone.
Courtesey of: http://stout.physics.ucla.edu/%7eyoder/mystery/christie.html
:: | 1970 | Sir Stafford Nye | Novel |
| Nemesis The last Miss Marple novel Christie wrote. The wealthy, elderly Jason Rafiel, whom Miss Marple met in A Caribbean Mystery, has died and left her a legacy on condition that she investigate a certain crime. She is not told more than that, but is soon invited to join a tour of famous houses of Britain at his expense, and it soon appears that she is investigating a murder as well as a rape that took place in the past. Christie has become more careless in her old age, but the book is still a good read.
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:: | 1971 | Miss Marple | Novel |
| Elephants Can Remember The last Poirot novel Christie wroteanother story in which a crime is investigated in the past. A girl's parents were killed, or committed suicide, twelve years in the past; the girl is now engaged to be married, and her future motherinlaw thinks it important to know who killed whom. Poirot and the novelist Mrs. Ariadne Oliver, who is scattier than ever, dig up the family history. (The elephants of the title are those who have clear memories of 12yearold events.) Several old Poirot characters appear, such as Superintendent Spence and Mr. Goby, still gathering information. Both Poirot and Christie are getting old, and the plot meanders, but the idea is still clever.
Courtesey of: http://stout.physics.ucla.edu/%7eyoder/mystery/christie.html
:: | 1972 | Hercule Poirot | Novel |
| Postern Of Fate The last novel Christie wrote. A rambling and selfindulgent piece of work, with a lot of incoherence and inconsistency. Tommy and Tuppence, aged and creaky, have moved into a new house with their everfaithful servant Albert Batt. Tuppence is sorting some old books when she finds a message concealed in a children's novel, which asserts that "Mary Jordan did not die naturally". She sets out to investigate the past crime, and after eighteen chapters, the plot picks up when a minor character is killed and it appears that the miscreants are still active. Colonel Pikeaway of the Special Branch and the financier Mr. Robinson appear here, both formerly associated with Poirot. The denouement is vague and a number of clues are never explained.
Courtesey of: http://stout.physics.ucla.edu/%7eyoder/mystery/christie.html
:: | 1973 | Tommy & Tuppence Beresford | Novel |
| Curtain: Poirot's Last Case Christie, at 85 years old, was unable to devote the necessary concentration to a new novel; her publishers persuaded her to release Curtain, which she had written during World War II and kept back for posthumous publication, planning Poirot's final case to coincide with her own death. Hastings returns as narrator for the first time since 1937; he is visiting Poirot once more while Poirot is staying (of all places) at Styles, the scene of his first book. Hastings is probably over 50; Poirot is very old and frail, using a wig and false moustaches to keep up his vanity, and maybe about 85 years old. It is a sad and nostalgic book, in which Poirot dies about two thirds of the way through, and in which the other characters (inhabitants of Styles) are for the most part disappointed and embittered. One of Hastings' four children (Judith) is also at Styles, and it is a problem concerning her that leads Hastings himself to contemplate murder. The criminal is apparently never brought to justice, but a manuscript of Poirot's, found by Hastings after Poirot's death, reveals the truth, and the ending is very surprising. When this book was published in the US, Poirot's obituary was printed on the front page of the New York Times! Courtesey of: http://stout.physics.ucla.edu/%7eyoder/mystery/christie.html :: | 1975 | Hercule Poirot | Novel |
| Sleeping Murder: Miss Marple's Last Case Like Curtain (Poirot's last case), Sleeping Murder had been written during the Second World War and kept by Christie for posthumous publication as Miss Marple's last case. The book was released ten months after Christie's death in January 1976. Miss Marple survives her last case, and in fact seems younger than she does in Nemesis, her previous novel; but Christie's chronologies need not be taken too seriously. The heroine of the book, Gwenda Reed, is attending a play when a line triggers suppressed memories of a murder in her childhood, which seems to be connected to her new house in Devon. Gwenda's husband, Giles, is a cousin of Raymond West, who enlists Miss Marple to find out what, if anything, actually happened. A very successful story of a 'distantpast' crime investigation. Courtesey of: http://stout.physics.ucla.edu/%7eyoder/mystery/christie.html :: | 1976 | Miss Marple | Novel |
| The Mysterious Affair At Styles Christie's first novel, introducing Poirot and Hastings. The action takes place during World War I at Styles Court, a country house in Essex, whose owner (John Cavendish) has invited young Capt. Hastings, his old friend, to stay and recuperate from his war injuries. Cavendish's wealthy stepmother, Mrs. Inglethorp, is found murdered by strychnine poisoning, and suspicion falls on all the other inhabitants of the house Mrs. Inglethorp's fortunehunting new husband Alfred, Cavendish's wife Mary and brother Lawrence, Mrs. Inglethorp's companion Evelyn Howard, and a local girl (Cynthia) with access to poisons at the hospital as well as Dr. Bauerstein, an expert on poisons staying in the village. Hastings is delighted to discover Poirot staying in the same village. They had met before the war, when Hastings worked for Lloyds of London in Belgium; Poirot is now a war refugee, despite his fame in Belgium, and Hastings persuades Cavendish to let Poirot take the case. Inspector Japp also appears near the end. The story is a traditional puzzlesolver, with plans of the house and illustrations of clues. Christie drew on her knowledge of poisons (gained in her hospital work) to present a plausible crime, which was copied by a reallife criminal years later. | 1920 | Hercule Poirot | Novel |
| The Murder On The Links Poirot and Hastings are now rooming together
in London (Hastings is Private Secretary to an MP) and are holidaying
together at a resort town in the north of France, when an eminent local
businessman is kidnapped and presumed murdered, masked men having broken
into his house and tied up his wife. There are discrepancies in his wife's
story, and the French police investigate, with young detective Giraud
of the Surete scorning Poirot's advice (to his own detriment, of course).
Hastings becomes infatuated with a young auburnhaired girl (who is suspected
for a time) and it seems likely that they will marry at the end of the
novel. One of Poirot's friends, the agent Joseph Aarons, will reappear
in The Big Four.
:: | 1923 | Hercule Poirot | Novel |
| The Adventure Of The Christmas Pudding A volume of 6 short stories, published in Britain only. 4 of the stories had already appeared in America, and the two new ones would do so in 1961 in Double Sin. Five of the stories star Poirot: The Under Dog (a long story in which Poirot correctly identifies the murderer of Sir Reuben Astwell, besting Inspector Miller; had previously appeared in the US in The Under Dog). The Dream (Poirot discoveres the murderer of millionaire Benedict Farley; a farfetched story that had previously appeared in The Regatta Mystery). Four and Twenty Blackbirds (another Poirot story based on the nursery rhyme; had appeared in Three Blind Mice). The Mystery of the Spanish Chest (an expanded version of "The Mystery of the Baghdad Chest", which appeared in The Regatta Mystery; in this version the story is told in the third person, with Hastings replaced by Miss Lemon). The Adventure of the Christmas Pudding (Poirot reluctantly spends Christmas in an English country house, where he copes with an enormous Christmas dinner and a body in the snow; later published in the US in Double Sin). The sixth story is a Miss Marple: Greenshaw's Folly (a bit unsatisfactorythere seems no rational method for Marple to arrive at her solution; this also published in Double Sin). Courtesey of:
http://stout.physics.ucla.edu/%7eyoder/mystery/christie.html
:: | (not | Marple, Poirot | Short |
| Poirot Investigates Short stories starring Poirot, originally serialized
in the weekly paper The Sketch (London). The British edition contains
11 stories, while there are 14 in the American. The 11 are:
The Adventure of the Italian Nobleman (includes Inspector
Japp)
The Case of the Missing Will (a young woman seeks out Poirot)
The Adventure of the Egyptian Tomb (deaths of a number of people involved
in the opening of a Tutankhamunlike tomb)
The Kidnapped Prime Minister
The Adventure of the Western Star
The Tragedy at Marsdon Manor
The Adventure of the Cheap Flat
The Mystery of Hunter's Lodge
The Million Dollar Bond Robbery
The Jewel Robbery at the Grand Metropolitan
The Disappearance of Mr. Davenheim
In the American edition, additionally: The Lost Mine;
The Chocolate Box; The Veiled Lady . (The 3 American stories were eventually
published in England in Poirot's Early Cases).
:: | 1925 | Hercule Poirot | Short |
| Partners In Crime A collection of 17 short stories starring the nowmarried
Tommy and Tuppence Beresford, who (finding life dull) jump at the chance
to run a dubious detective agency for six months on assignment from the
Secret Service, joined by Albert, the erstwhile lift operator of The Secret
Adversary, who is now their officeboy. Tommy adopts the character and
methods of a different fictional detective for each case, giving Christie
the opportunity to parody such authors as Richard Freeman, Edgar Wallace,
G. K. Chesterton, Conan Doyle, H. C. Bailey, and finally herself (in a
satire of Poirot). Apart from the parodies, Tommy and Tuppence are rather
unmemorable in this book. Story titles:
The Adventure of the Sinister
Stranger;
The Affair of the Pink Pearl;
The Ambassador's Boots;
Blindman's
Buff;
The Case of the Missing Lady;
The Clergyman's Daughter;
The Crackler;
Finessing the King;
The Gentleman Dressed in Newspaper;
The House of Lurking
Death;
The Man in the Mist;
The Man Who Was No. 16;
The Red House;
The
Sunningdale Mystery;
The Unbreakable Alibi.
Courtesey of: http://stout.physics.ucla.edu/%7eyoder/mystery/christie.html
:: | 1929 | Tommy & Tuppence Beresford | Short |
| The Mysterious Mr. Quin Twelve short stories featuring Mr. Harley Quin,
a possibly supernatural personage who is the "friend of lovers"
and appears when a crime which threatens lovers' happiness is committed.
Usually, he works through his intermediary, the aged, bent and "driedup"
Mr. Satterthwaite. Satterthwaite meets Quin, seemingly by chance, at a
handful of different (and appropriate) venues, and and travels at Quin's
request to as far away as Banff to assist lovers in need. Quite different
from most Christie stories, these were considered something special by
Christie herself, who refused to write them unless she felt like it. Titles:
The Coming of Mr. Quin;
At the 'Bells and Motley';
The Bird with the Broken
Wing;
The Dead Harlequin;
The Face of Helen; Harlequin's Lane;
The Man
from the Sea;
The Shadow on the Glass;
The Sign in the Sky;
The Soul of
the Croupier;
The Voice in the Dark;
The World's End.
Courtesey of: http://stout.physics.ucla.edu/%7eyoder/mystery/christie.html
:: | 1930 | Other | Short |
| The Thirteen Problems A series of 13 short stories featuring Miss Marple.
In the first 6 stories, Miss Marple and her dinner guests (Raymond West,
her nephew, and his fiancee; Joyce Lempriere, an artist; Dr. Pender, the
vicar of St. Mary Mead; Mr. Petherick, a solicitor; and Miss Marple's
friend, Sir Henry Clithering, retired from Scotland Yard) form the Tuesday
Club, which meets every Tuesday night; at each meeting, a different member
propounds a mystery of which they have personal knowledge, and the others
do their best to solve it. In the second set of 6, the formula is repeated
at the country house of Colonel and Mrs. Bantry (the guests being Sir
Henry, Dr. Haydock, a famous actress, and Miss Marple). A separate story,
in which Sir Henry Clithering visits St. Mary Mead to stay with the Bantrys
and is drawn into a local crime investigation, was added for publication.
Miss Marple, naturally, solves every problem, never rising from her chair
until the last story (set, unusually, among the workingclass).
Titles: The Affair at the Bungalow
The Bloodstained Pavement
The Blue Geranium; A Christmas Tragedy
The Companion; Death by Drowning
The Four Suspects
The Herb of Death
The Idol House of Astarte
Ingots of Gold
Motive vs. Opportunity
The Thumb Mark of St. Peter
The Tuesday Night Club.
Courtesey of: http://stout.physics.ucla.edu/%7eyoder/mystery/christie.html
:: | 1933 | Miss Marple | Short |
| Parker Pyne Investigates 12 short stories, the only Christie work to feature
Parker Pyne, who says he is not a detective but a "heart specialist",
a consultant to those who are unhappy. In the first six cases, the unhappy
come to his small London office, where he uses his experience in a Government
statistics office to solve their problems, some of which lead to the uncovering
of crimes. (His secretary is Felicity Lemon, later to work for Poirot;
he has several other parttime helpers.) In the second set of six, he
is on holiday and reluctant to accept problems, but finds himself acting
as advisor or investigator when odd things happen or crimes are revealed.
The settings are mainly in the Middle East, which Christie knew well by
this time. Titles:
The Case of the MiddleAged Wife (Pyne's "loungelizard"
employee Claude Luttrell is used to make a straying husband jealous of
his wife);
The Case of the Discontented Soldier (introduces Mrs. Ariadne
Oliver, detective novelist, who will reappear in seven novels she presents
Pyne with a plot);
The Case of the Distressed Lady (about the theft of
an emerald ringtwo of his helpers pose as exhibition dancers);
The Case
of the Discontented Husband;
The Case of the Rich Woman;
The Case of the
City Clerk;
The Pearl of Price (set in Petra);
The House at Shiraz (set
in Shiraz);
Death on the Nile (a crime story, not to be confused with
the novel of the same name);
The Gate of Baghdad (set there); Have You
Got Everything You Want? (set on the Orient Express train);
The Oracle
at Delphi (set there).
Courtesey of: http://stout.physics.ucla.edu/%7eyoder/mystery/christie.html
:: | 1934 | publication: 1934 (Collins) US publication: 1934 (Dodd, Mead) Detective: Parker Pyne | Short |
| Murder In The Mews Only four stories appear in this volume, all
of them much longer than the average Christie short story. The English
title story, Murder in the Mews, is novellalength and finds Poirot and
Inspector Japp collaborating (more closely than usual) to solve a murder
disguised as a suicide in a mews house in Mayfair, which they stumble
across after dining out together. Dead Man's Mirror, used as the title
of the American edition, is also very long, and is an expanded version
of "The Second Gong", written earlier but unpublished at the
time. Here, Mr. Satterthwaite (of the Harley Quin stories and ThreeAct
Tragedy) is among the characters. The story is an example of the bodyinthelibrary
genre, complete with plan of study and hall, and Poirot measuring footprints
in the wet grass. The Incredible Theft does not appear in the American
edition (and is still unpublished in the US); it is an expanded version
of "The Submarine Plans", also written earlier and published
much later. The stolen plans are now those of a bomber, and Poirot recovers
them with ingenuity. The fourth story, Triangle at Rhodes, is shortest,
and reaches beyond the murdermystery genre; the title refers, in fact,
to a love triangle among English tourists.
Courtesey of: http://stout.physics.ucla.edu/%7eyoder/mystery/christie.html
:: | 1937 | Hercule Poirot | Short |
| The Regatta Mystery 9 short stories, including 5 Poirot stories, one Miss Marple, and two featuring Parker Pyne. The volume was never published in the UK, but all of the stories except "Yellow Iris" have appeared there in other collections. Contents: The Regatta Mystery, in which Parker Pyne clears someone from suspicion of having stolen a diamond from a merchant, Isaac Pointz (the theft takes place during lunch at a restaurant overlooking the marina); this story was also published in "Poirot Lends a Hand" (a wartime pamphlet) and Thirteen for Luck. The Mystery of the Baghdad Chest, a Poirot mystery narrated by Hastings, later rewritten and expanded as "The Mystery of the Spanish Chest" in The Adventure of the Christmas Pudding. How Does Your Garden Grow, in which Poirot gains insight into a crime by remembering the nursery rhyme; also published in Poirot's Early Cases. Problem at Pollensa Bay, set on Majorca, where Parker Pyne solves a problem for a middleaged English tourist; this story also published in Thirteen for Luck. Yellow Iris, a Poirot story which contains many plot elements repeated in the novel Sparkling Cyanide although Poirot himself does not appear thereand which contains his longago deportation from Argentina. Miss Marple Tells a Story, the only Marple mystery narrated by herself, also published in Miss Marple's Final Cases. The Dream, a farfetched Poirot story, also published in The Adventure of the Christmas Pudding; Poirot discovers the murderer of millionaire Benedict Farley. In a Glass Darkly, one of Christie's supernatural tales, which is quite out of place in this volume; it was also published (equally out of place) in Miss Marple's Final Cases. Problem at Sea, a Poirot story in which a passenger on an ocean liner is stabbed while the ship is docked at Alexandria; also published in Poirot's Early Cases as "The Mystery of the Crime in Cabin 66", and by itself as a pamphlet under the title "Crime in Cabin 66". The two Parker Pyne stories are the only appearances by Mr. Pyne outside of the volume Parker Pyne Investigates.
Courtesey of: http://stout.physics.ucla.edu/%7eyoder/mystery/christie.html
:: | 1939 | Marple, Poirot, Pyne | Short |
| The Labours Of Hercules Poirot is contemplating retirement and is persuaded, from an idea by his friend Dr. Burton, to take on only 12 more cases, chosen to correspond to the classical labors of Hercules, his namesake. His efficient secretary, Miss Lemon, researches the classics for him. The story titles are the same as the myths:
The Nemean Lion (the kidnapping of a 'lionhearted' Pekingese dog);
The Lernean Hydra (Poirot solves a murder to suppress the manyheaded tongues of rumor and gossip);
The Arcadian Deer (Poirot acts as matchmaker to unite a 'Greek God' with his sweetheart);
The Erymanthian Boar (the capture of a violent gangleader in the Swiss Alps);
The Augean Stables (Poirot averts a political scandal by creating a false scandal of his own);
The Stymphalean Birds (the 'birds' are two beaknosed women in Herzoslovakia);
The Cretan Bull (the connection between myth and story is unclear);
The Horses of Diomedes (Poirot equates the flesheating horses of the myth with beasts who symbolically feed on humanity);
The Girdle of Hyppolita (a stolen Rubens painting, Inspector Japp appears, and a schoolgirl is missing);
The Flock of Geryon (the 'monster' is Dr. Anderson, leader of a religious sect, and Poirot investigates him at the instigation of Miss Carnaby, also in the first story);
The Apples of the Hesperides (a missing renaissance goblet, with jeweled apples in its design);
The Capture of Cerberus (Poirot descends into 'Hell', actually a London nightclub guarded by a dog named Cerberus, to foil a drug ring and meet Countess Vera Rossakoff again).
Courtesey of: http://stout.physics.ucla.edu/%7eyoder/mystery/christie.html
:: | 1947 | Hercule Poirot | Short |
| The Witness For The Prosecution And Other Stories A republication, in America only, of 9 stories, 8 of which had previously appeared in other collections in Britain. From The Hound of Death: The Witness for the Prosecution, The Red Signal, The Fourth Man, SOS, Where There's a Will (called "Wireless" in the UK), and The Mystery of the Blue Jar. From The Listerdale Mystery: Philomel Cottage and Accident. The remaining story is The Second Gong, a shorter version with a different ending of the novella "Dead Man's Mirror", which appeared in Murder in the Mews; in its short form, it has not been published in the UK.
Courtesey of: http://stout.physics.ucla.edu/%7eyoder/mystery/christie.html
:: | 1948 | Poirot, others | Short |
| Three Blind Mice And Other Stories A collection of 9 stories published in America only, although 7 of the stories were later published in different collections in the UK. The longest story, Three Blind Mice, was later made into the hugely successful play "The Mousetrap" and was itself based on a 1947 radio play of the same name; it is a variation on the theme of the isolated party of which one is a killer. There are four Miss Marple stories, which later appeared in Miss Marple's Final Cases although she is not a particularly old woman here: Strange Jest (in which no crime is actually committed); Tape Measure Murder (Marple assists Colonel Melchett and Inspector Black); The Case of the Perfect Maid (the disliked Inspector Slack appears in one of Marple's best stories); and The Case of the Caretaker (a problem presented by Dr. Haydock). Poirot has three cases: The ThirdFloor Flat; The Adventure of Johnnie Waverley (rather unbelievable); and Four and Twenty Blackbirds (Poirot takes an interest in others' eating habits). The last story is a reappearance of Harley Quin and his friend Mr. Satterthwaite, The Love Detectives. Courtesey of: http://stout.physics.ucla.edu/%7eyoder/mystery/christie.html :: | 1950 | Marple, Poirot, Quin | Short |
| The Under Dog And Other Stories A collection of 9 Poirot stories published only in the US; all of the stories were later reprinted in the UK in Poirot's Early Cases or The Adventure of the Christmas Pudding. ("The Under Dog" was also published by itself in Britain, in pamphlet form, in 1929.) Three of the stories involve Inspector Japp, and a number are narrated by Hastings. Most of them had been written by Christie much earlier. The stories:
The Under Dog (Poirot correctly identifies the murderer of Sir Reuben Astwell, besting Inspector Miller);
The Plymouth Express (part of the plot was used in The Mystery of the Blue Train);
The Affair at the Victory Ball (another use of the characters of Harlequin and Columbine);
The King of Clubs (Poirot is of service to Prince Paul of Maurania);
The Submarine Plans (later expanded into the story "The Incredible Theft", in Murder in the Mews);
The Adventure of the Clapham Cook (Poirot ventures into a lowerclass setting);
The Lemesurier Inheritance (a very good story);
The Market Basing Mystery;
The Cornish Mystery.
:: | 1951 | Hercule Poirot | Short |
| Double Sin A collection of 8 stories, four early ones and four from the 1950s. There are 4 Poirot stories and 2 with Miss Marple. Those not already published in the UK would later appear in Poirot's Early Cases or Miss Marple's Final Cases. The stories are: Double Sin (Poirot and Hastings travel across Devon to solve a problem for the agent Joseph Aarons, but find a theft from a passenger on the train equally interesting; an early story, in which Hastings is smitten by the young woman concerned). Wasps' Nest (an early story, without Hastings, in which Poirot solves a murder in the planning stage and prevents it from taking place) . The Theft of the Royal Ruby (a republication under a new title of "The Adventure of the Christmas Pudding", published in the volume of the same title in Britain). The Dressmaker's Doll (a supernatural tale with an effective nonconclusion). Greenshaw's Folly (Miss Marple; had also appeared in Adventure of the Christmas Pudding). The Double Clue (narrated by Hastings, in which Poirot first meets Countess Vera Rossakoff, who will impress him throughout his life). Sanctuary (set in Chipping Cleghorn, the locale of A Murder is Announced, with many of the same characters as well as Miss Marple). The Last Seance (a supernatural tale originally from The Hound of Death).
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:: | 1961 | Marple, Poirot | Short |
| The Golden Ball And Other Stories A collection of 15 short stories, published in the US only. All but 2 had previously appeared in the UK; those two have not yet been published there. None of the stories star any recurring characters. Originally published in The Listerdale Mystery (1934): The Golden Ball; The Listerdale Mystery; The Girl in the Train; The Manhood of Edward Robinson; Jane in Search of a Job; A Fruitful Sunday; The Rajah's Emerald; Swan Song. Originally published in The Hound of Death (1933) and mainly stories of the supernatural: The Hound of Death; The Gypsy; The Lamp; The Strange Case of Sir Andrew Carmichael; The Call of Wings. The two new stories are neither crime stories nor mysteries. Magnolia Blossom is about a woman who has to choose between remaining loyal to her husband in his financial difficulties, or to her lover. Next to a Dog is a story about a young woman who contemplates desperate measures in order not to be parted from her wirehaired terrier.
Courtesey of: http://stout.physics.ucla.edu/%7eyoder/mystery/christie.html
:: | 1971 | Other | Short |
| Poirot's Early Cases Christie was now so frail that her publishers doubted whether she could complete another novel; in its place, they reissued 18 short stories about Poirot, 14 narrated by Hastings, which had been originally published between 1923 and 1936. Most had not been collected in the UK, but all had appeared in the US. Titles: The Lost Mine (narrated by Poirot to Hastings); The Chocolate Box (Poirot's only 'failure'); The Veiled Lady (these three from the US edition of Poirot Investigates); How Does Your Garden Grow and Problem at Sea (from The Regatta Mystery; neither with Hastings); The ThirdFloor Flat and The Adventure of Johnnie Waverley (from Three Blind Mice); Double Sin; The Double Clue; Wasps' Nest (from Double Sin); The Market Basing Mystery; The Lemesurier Inheritance; The Cornish Mystery; The Adventure of the Clapham Cook; The King of Clubs; The Submarine Plans; The Plymouth Express; The Affair at the Victory Ball (all from The Under Dog). "The Market Basing Mystery" and "The Veiled Lady" had been published in Britain in 1966 in Thirteen for Luck.
Courtesey of: http://stout.physics.ucla.edu/%7eyoder/mystery/christie.html
:: | 1974 | Hercule Poirot | Short |