Author: Agatha Christie

Agatha Christie is the best-selling author of all time. She wrote eighty crime novels and story collections, fourteen plays, and several other books. Her books have sold roughly four billion copies and have been translated into 45 languages. She is the creator of the two most enduring figures in crime literature-Hercule Poirot and Miss Jane Marple-and author of The Mousetrap, the longest-running play in the history of modern theatre.

Agatha Mary Clarissa Miller was born in Torquay, Devon, England, U.K., as the youngest of three. The Millers had two other children: Margaret Frary Miller (1879–1950), called Madge, who was eleven years Agatha’s senior, and Louis Montant Miller (1880–1929), called Monty, ten years older than Agatha.

During the First World War, she worked at a hospital as a nurse; later working at a hospital pharmacy, a job that influenced her work, as many of the murders in her books are carried out with poison.

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Murder on the Orient Express

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Murder on the Orient Express
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, Book # 11
Harper Collins
January 1st 1934
Paperback
274
English
December 16, 2021 December 18, 2021
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Just after midnight, a snowdrift stops the Orient Express in its tracks as it travels through the mountainous Balkans. The luxurious train is surprisingly full for the time of the year but, by the morning, it is one passenger fewer. An American tycoon lies dead in his compartment, stabbed a dozen times, his door locked from the inside.

One of the passengers is none other than detective Hercule Poirot. On vacation.

Isolated and with a killer in their midst, Poirot must identify the murderer—in case he or she decides to strike again.

About the book

Last review of 2021, I still have a read book that I need to review but I will post it in the new year.

We are on the famous train that has inspired directors and screenwriters so much. Perhaps it is the best known book by Agatha in the world, but is it worth it? Is its notoriety justified?

Poirot is travelling with other passengers when the train stops due to snow. In addition, a passenger was killed during the night. Was it someone from outside or is there a killer on the train?

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Lord Edgware Dies

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Lord Edgware Dies
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, Book # 10
Harper Collins
1933
Paperback
352
English
December 11, 2021 December 15, 2021
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Poirot had been present when Jane bragged of her plan to ‘get rid of’ her estranged husband. Now the monstrous man was dead. And yet the great Belgian detective couldn’t help feeling that he was being taken for a ride.

After all, how could Jane have stabbed Lord Edgware to death in his library at exactly the same time she was seen dining with friends? And what could be her motive now that the aristocrat had finally granted her a divorce?

About the book

Lady Edgware must eliminate her husband from her life. And to do so, she asks Poirot to help her. But she doesn’t ask for a murder, of course, she asks Hercule to persuade her husband to sign the divorce. And Poirot is shocked when he learns from Mr. Edgware that not only he also wants a divorce, but that he has already told his wife.

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Hercule Poirot’s Christmas

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Hercule Poirot's Christmas
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, Book # 21
Harper Collins
December 19th 1938
Paperback
335
English
December 6, 2021 December 10, 2021
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In Hercule Poirot's Christmas, the holidays are anything but merry when a family reunion is marred by murder — and the notoriously fastidious investigator is quickly on the case. The wealthy Simeon Lee has demanded that all four of his sons — one faithful, one prodigal, one impecunious, one sensitive — and their wives return home for Christmas. But a heartwarming family holiday is not exactly what he has in mind. He bedevils each of his sons with barbed insults and finally announces that he is cutting off their allowances and changing his will. Poirot is called in the aftermath of Simeon Lee's announcement.

About the book

Poirot’s Christmas is cut short when the superintendent of Colonel Johnson, with whom he is spending Christmas, announces the murder of the grumpy Simeon Lee. In fact, the man is found by his children locked in his room with his throat cut.

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A Murder Is Announced

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A Murder Is Announced
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, Book # 4
HarperCollins Publishers
June 1950
Paperback
382
English
December 1, 2021 December 5, 2021
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Promoted on both sides of the Atlantic as Agatha Christie's 50th book and published in 1950 by William Collins, A Murder is Announced is a staple of crime fiction and is often considered the best of all the Miss Marple novels. The villagers of Chipping Cleghorn, including Jane Marple, are agog with curiosity over an advertisement in the local gazette which reads: ‘A murder is announced and will take place on Friday October 29th, at Little Paddocks at 6.30 p.m.’ A childish practical joke? Or a hoax intended to scare poor Letitia Blacklock? Unable to resist the mysterious invitation, a crowd begins to gather at Little Paddocks at the appointed time when, without warning, the lights go out…

About the book

A death announcement is posted in the local Chipping Cleghorn newspaper. A murder is announced and will take place on Friday October 29th, at Little Paddocks at 6.30 p.m.. Friends are requested to take note of this warning which will never be repeated. Everyone in town feels compelled to go to Miss Blacklock’s house to really see if this crime will happen, and indeed someone dies. Murder or misfortune? After the incident, the commissioner tries to understand what really happened and gets help from a rather particular woman, first a guest in a hotel in the area and then by the wife of the parish priest of the town (they were also present that evening). Obviously this little woman is Miss Marple who happens to be able to be useful despite her ailments.

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The Moving Finger

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The Moving Finger
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, Book # 3
HarperCollins Publishers
July 1942
Paperback
299
English
November 28, 2021 November 30, 2021
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The placid village of Lymstock seems the perfect place for Jerry Burton to recuperate from his accident under the care of his sister, Joanna. But soon a series of vicious poison-pen letters destroys the village's quiet charm, eventually causing one recipient to commit suicide. The vicar, the doctor, the servants—all are on the verge of accusing one another when help arrives from an unexpected quarter. The vicar's houseguest happens to be none other than Jane Marple.

About the book

The book is narrated by Jerry Burton, a pilot who must remain calm after an injury and what could be better than a country holiday in the small town of Lymstok where nothing happens? So he is in this village when anonymous letters start arriving to most of the citizens. These letters, full of absurdities, end up creating two deaths. The potential culprits are many, but only Miss Marple will be able to solve the case.

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