We picked up our first Agatha Christie mystery as something to listen to on a short road trip to visit family. Little did we know how much we would come to love her incredible mystery novels. I have actually been on an Agatha Christie kick for the past year or so.

Agatha Christie has created some of mystery’s most enduring and recognizable characters, such as the Belgian detective Hercule Poirot or the shrewd Miss Marple. She wrote some 66 mystery novels and 14 short-story collections. That’s a crazy amount of books to read, and it can be hard to know where to begin. So this week, we’ve put together a list of our top five Agatha Christie mysteries. 

One quick disclaimer about the list: It is a running list of sorts because we have not read the whole library of Agatha Christie mysteries. We have read an awful lot of them, just not all of them. So the list is subject to some change if a new one really knocks our socks off..

5. Five Little Pigs (1942)

Five Little Pigs is a slow burn. In it, Carla Lemarchant asks Hercules Poirot, Agatha Christie’s famous Belgian detective, to solve the murder of her father, which happened sixteen years previously. Carla’s mother was convicted of the crime, but she is sure that her mother was innocent. Now, Poirot must reconstruct the events of the past and help Carla get the closure she needs.

This mystery stands out to us primarily for the way it’s told. Because the murder happened so long ago, all of the evidence is gone except for the memories of the people who were there at the time. So, Poirot carefully extracts those memories through a series of interviews and requests for narrative accounts. Five of the characters (the titular “Little Pigs,” so to speak) provide both oral and written accounts of what happened.

The trick for Poirot (and ultimately the reader) is to spot the discrepancies. Those narratives contain everything you need to know to figure out the mystery. The whole novel takes a very cerebral approach, and the resolution is immensely satisfying as a result. 

4. A Murder Is Announced (1950)

A Murder is Announced was one of the first Agatha Christie novels Michela and I listened to together. I think what made it so special for us was the same thing that drove the characters in the book: the rather odd circumstances for the murder.

In most murder mysteries, someone discovers the murder after the fact. But as the title of this novel hints, that’s not the case here. Instead, the residents of Chipping Cleghorn wake up to an announcement in the local paper that a murder will take place that evening at Little Paddocks. No one is more surprised than the owner of Little Paddocks, Letitia Blacklock. Nevertheless, she prepares for all of the guests she now knows will be coming to see what all the fuss is about. 

Everyone arrives, and at 6:30, the lights go out, an unidentified man arrives yelling, “Stick ‘em up!” and somebody shoots the intruder in the dark. Now, everybody must know what’s going on here. Who announced the murder? Who was the intruder? Why did it all happen?

These are all questions for the fabulous Miss Marple. Though perhaps less well known than Hercule Poirot, Miss Marple has solved her share of Agatha Christie’s mysteries. She’s here to set things straight.

Sort of. She really doesn’t show up until the end, just to solve the whole thing. That was a tad disappointing because I would have liked to have seen more of her. On the other hand, it is fun to jump between various villagers, get a lot of different perspectives, and piece it all together with the villagers.

A Murder is Announced does do one thing really well that some of Agatha Christie’s books don’t always do: give you everything you need to know to solve the case. Sometimes, the result is contingent on some side investigation that you don’t hear about, and the solution gets sprung on you at the last second. But this one gives you everything along the way, even if you have to make some unique inferences and the solution still pops out of left field. It all makes sense with the information you were given. That’s satisfying even if you end up saying, “Golly, I sure was stumped by that one.”

3. Death on the Nile (1937)

Death on the Nile begins with a lot of stage setting. The actual murder doesn’t happen for quite some time, but do pay attention because all of the details in the beginning come back later on.

Linnet and Simon Doyle are taking a nice cruise down the Nile for their honeymoon. The trouble is that Linnet and Simon only met a couple of months ago…while Simon was engaged to Linnet’s best friend Jacqueline. (Le gasp!) Jacqueline has taken things rather well, on the whole. She’s only stalked them on their honeymoon (which was easy because it’s the exact same honeymoon Simon was going to take her on) and tried to ruin it at every opportunity. No big deal. She’s totally over it.

And yet, for some reason, Linnet is concerned that Jacqueline means her harm. Can’t imagine why. Luckily, Hercule Poirot is also taking a pleasure cruise on the same boat. (He probably needs it after that messy situation on the Orient Express). Linnet initially asks Poirot for protection from Jacqueline, which he declines to give since that’s not really his line of work. He does try to dissuade Jacqueline from pursuing her vindictive purposes, but to no avail.

When Linnet is found dead in her cabin, folks initially suspect Jacqueline. But things aren’t that simple, and there may be a lot more going on here than meets the eye. It’s up to Poirot to unravel the truth before more innocent lives are claimed.

I read this book some time before Michela did, and oh boy did I enjoy listening to her as she progressed through the story. The gasps of horror and angry shouts of  “How could Linnet do that?” made my day every time. I even heard the occasional sarcastic mutter of “Simon just keeps getting classier and classier doesn’t he.” (Maybe that was just me muttering that…) And Death on the Nile is a book that evokes a lot of emotion in the reader. I am still outraged at Linette and Simon for the horrid way they treated Jacqueline. But I cannot be too angry because Jacqueline responded in kind with her creepy “I’m going to ruin your honeymoon” antics.

Oh, and the murder-solving bit was good too. Lots of classic Poirot moments, twists from nowhere, herrings redder than my face after eating a ghost pepper, and brilliant deductions that make you shout, “How could I have missed that?” Overall, Death on the Nile is just a thoroughly good time.

2. The Murder of Roger Ackroyd (1926)

After reading just a couple of Agatha Christie’s mysteries, I decided that I wanted to read the Hercule Poirot novels in order. The first two in the series seemed a little lackluster to me. They were good, just a bit generic. I got the sense that Christie was trying to emulate a Sherlock Holmes mystery, but with a Belgian instead of an Englishman. 

The third book in the series, however, left a different impression. While reading The Murder of Roger Ackroyd, it felt like Christie flipped a switch. She snapped into her own identity as a writer for the first time. The Murder of Roger Ackroyd is the first book where I can tell that it’s an Agatha Christie novel instead of somebody trying to emulate Sir Arthur Conan Doyle.

In the book, Poirot has retired to the quiet English village of King’s Abbott  to try to grow vegetable marrows (whatever those are). But when Roger Ackroyd, a prominent local man, is murdered, Poirot comes out of retirement at the request of Ackroyd’s niece to snuff out the murderer. Although all of the evidence seems to point to one perpetrator, Poirot isn’t so sure. He’s after the truth, wherever that may lead him.

The whole affair is told from the perspective of Dr. Sheppard, the local doctor. I thought this a nice change from the two previous books, which were told from the perspective of Captain Hastings. Hastings tends to be like Dr. Watson in the Sherlock Holmes books…but a bit dimmer and more easily impressed. I vastly prefer later books told in third person without Hastings at all, but even having Dr. Sheppard narrate was an improvement for me. He’s a bit sharper and shrewder, and that leads to some excellent moments later in the book.

As with most of Agatha Christie’s work, The Murder of Roger Ackroyd boasts beautiful pacing and a gripping mystery. But the solution to this one stands out. I obviously won’t spoil anything, but the end of this mystery is twistier than my toddler’s crazy straw. There’s a reason it has been voted one of, if not the best mysteries ever written. 

1. And Then There Were None (1939)

We made the mistake of listening to this as our first experience with Agatha Christie. That was a mistake only in the sense that nothing afterward has ever measured up, despite all of her novels being excellent. And Then There Were None is a masterpiece of fiction. We listened to it on a road trip from Boston to D.C. to visit family. We didn’t quite finish it on the trip…so when we got inside the house, we went to unpack our suitcases and took probably 30 minutes longer than necessary so that we could finish listening to the book before returning to spend time with our family. (I know, I know. We are bad children.)

But the book is just that good. Ten completely unrelated individuals are invited to an island mansion off the coast of England for an overnight stay. Each is given a unique reason for being there. But once they arrive, they discover that their host is not there at all. It’s just a butler, a housekeeper, and a weird little rhyme about ten little soldiers who each run into a different misfortune.

That won’t stop the guests enjoying themselves, however. Until, that is, just after dinner, when a mysterious voice comes over the phonograph and announces that each of the people present is a murderer, details their crimes, and ask if they have a defense. The guests all think it’s a sick joke.

But then they discover the butler dead the next morning. (Dun-Dun-Dun!) Soon, the guests are dying one by one, each in a different way. Each new death correlates with the weird little rhyme I mentioned earlier, and now they’re all terrified and desperate to find and stop the murderer before it’s too late.

And Then There Were None is one of the most gripping mysteries I have ever read. The increasingly limited cast of characters work so well together to build suspense cast suspicion in every direction at once. I constantly found myself saying “She did it.” Only for the person I suspected to up and die. It happened time and again, and I am sure Agatha Christie crafted this book fully intending to lead readers around and around in circles until the big reveal at the end. And oh boy was that reveal worth the wait.

Little wonder And Then There Were None is the world’s best-selling mystery novel, and one of the top-selling novels of all time.

Who to Read With

Agatha Christie’s mysteries are written for adults, but they are generally very wholesome murder mysteries. They are not the gritty, gross kinds of mysteries you might find today. Of course, there is always a murder (that’s part of the deal). But the details of each murder are usually not gory, just matter of fact. And sometimes characters may be having affairs with one another, but again the details are never included. It’s always frowned upon and mentioned in a matter of fact way. There are usually  a couple of hecks and darns in a given book, just so you’re aware, but nothing more than that. 

Overall, I’d say these books would be best enjoyed with family members over about age 12 or so, on account of the murder-ey bits.

Listen Together

We tend to listen to these books on Hoopla, as most (if not all) of them are available for free on that platform. If you don’t have access to Hoopla through your library, they are also available on Audible. If you have the option of getting one narrated by Dan Stevens or Hugh Fraser, do it. They’re our favorite narrators.

They’re all available in hard copy on Amazon and Bookshop. If you decide to buy from bookshop, your purchase will help support local bookstores that have been struggling due to the pandemic. So consider buying there to help a local business!

Did we miss one of your favorites? Let us know in the comments! And be sure to subscribe to our email list so you don’t miss other great recommendations and tips for family media time.

Feature image by Markus Winkler on Unsplash