Best Agatha Christie Books

I love Agatha Christie’s books and have read almost all of them! I’ve still to read about 5 of her huge back-catalogue of brilliant stories. (Not including her stories written under her other pen names).

And I absolutely love her main detective characters, Poirot of course but also Miss Marple and the crime-solving duo Tommy and Tuppence.

But there’s more to her mystery books than those well-known characters. As you’ll see in this list of my favourite 10 best Agatha Christie books.

Leave a comment below and let me know which are your favourites too!

10 Best Agatha Christie Books

*Links included below are for free mystery audiobooks to download. Plus Poirot and Marple book series lists in order.

1. The Mysterious Affair at Styles

Published: 1921.

Plot: After the Great War, life can never be the same again … Wounds need healing, and the horror of violent death banished into memory.

Captain Arthur Hastings is invited to the rolling country estate of Styles to recuperate from injuries sustained at the Front. It is the last place he expects to encounter murder. Fortunately he knows a former detective, a Belgian refugee, who has grown bored of retirement …

*The Mysterious Affair at Styles Free Audiobook available from Audible on UK Amazon and US Amazon.

2. The Murder of Roger Ackroyd

Published: 1926.

Plot: Roger Ackroyd knew too much. He knew that the woman he loved had poisoned her brutal first husband. He suspected also that someone had been blackmailing her.

Now, tragically, came the news that she had taken her own life with a drug overdose. But the evening post brought Roger one last fatal scrap of information. Unfortunately, before he could finish the letter, he was stabbed to death…

*The Murder of Roger Ackroyd Free Audiobook available from Audible on UK Amazon and US Amazon.

3. Five Little Pigs

Published: 1942.

Plot: Beautiful Caroline Crale was convicted of poisoning her husband, yet there were five other suspects:

Philip Blake (the stockbroker) who went to market;
Meredith Blake (the amateur herbalist) who stayed at home;
Elsa Greer (the three-time divorcee) who had roast beef;
Cecilia Williams (the devoted governess) who had none;
and Angela Warren (the disfigured sister) who cried ‘wee wee wee’ all the way home.

It is sixteen years later, but Hercule Poirot just can’t get that nursery rhyme out of his mind…

*Five Little Pigs Free Audiobook available from Audible on UK Amazon and US Amazon.

4. And Then There Were None

Published: 1939.

Plot: Ten strangers, apparently with little in common, are lured to an island mansion off the coast of Devon by the mysterious U.N.Owen.

Over dinner, a record begins to play, and the voice of an unseen host accuses each person of hiding a guilty secret. That evening, former reckless driver Tony Marston is found murdered by a deadly dose of cyanide.

The tension escalates as the survivors realise the killer is not only among them but is preparing to strike again… and again…

*And Then There Were None Free Audiobook available from Audible on UK Amazon and US Amazon.

5. The ABC Murders

Published: 1936.

Plot: There’s a serial killer on the loose, bent on working his way through the alphabet. And as a macabre calling card he leaves beside each victim’s corpe the ABC Railway Guide open at the name of the town where the murder has taken place.

Having begun with Andover, Bexhill and then Churston, there seems little chance of the murderer being caught – until he makes the crucial and vain mistake of challenging Hercule Poirot to frustrate his plans …

*The ABC Murders Free Audiobook available from Audible on UK Amazon and US Amazon.

6. Endless Night

Published: 1967.

Plot: Gipsy’s Acre was a truly beautiful upland site with views out to sea – and in Michael Rogers it stirred a child-like fantasy. There, amongst the dark fir trees, he planned to build a house, find a girl and live happily ever after. Yet, as he left the village, a shadow of menace hung over the land. For this was the place where accidents happened. Perhaps Michael should have heeded the locals’ warnings: ‘There’s no luck for them as meddles with Gipsy’s Acre.’

Michael Rogers is a man who is about to learn the true meaning of the old saying ‘In my end is my beginning…’

*Endless Night Free Audiobook available from Audible on UK Amazon and US Amazon.

7. Crooked House

Published: 1949.

Plot: A wealthy Greek businessman is found dead at his London home… The Leonides were one big happy family living in a sprawling, ramshackle mansion. That was until the head of the household, Aristide, was murdered with a fatal barbiturate injection.

Suspicion naturally falls on the old man’s young widow, fifty years his junior. But the murderer has reckoned without the tenacity of Charles Hayward, fiance of the late millionare’s granddaughter…

*Crooked House Free Audiobook available from Audible on UK Amazon and US Amazon.

8. Murder on the Orient Express

Published: 1934.

Plot: Just after midnight, a snowdrift stops the Orient Express in its tracks. 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.

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

*Murder on the Orient Express Free Audiobook available from Audible on UK Amazon and US Amazon.

9. Death on the Nile

Published: 1937.

Plot: The tranquillity of a cruise along the Nile is shattered by the discovery that Linnet Ridgeway has been shot through the head. She was young, stylish and beautiful, a girl who had everything – until she lost her life.

Hercule Poirot recalls an earlier outburst by a fellow passenger: ‘I’d like to put my dear little pistol against her head and just press the trigger.’

Yet in this exotic setting’ nothing is ever quite what it seems…

*Death on the Nile Free Audiobook available from Audible on UK Amazon and US Amazon.

10. Peril at End House

Published: 1932.

Plot: Nick Buckley was an unusual name for a pretty young woman. But then she had led an unusual life. First, on a treacherous Cornish hillside, the brakes on her car failed. Then, on a coastal path, a falling boulder missed her by inches. Later, an oil painting fell and almost crushed her in bed.

Upon discovering a bullet-hole in Nick’s sun hat, Hercule Poirot decides the girl needs his protection. At the same time, he begins to unravel the mystery of a murder that hasn’t been committed. Yet.

*Peril at End House Free Audiobook available from Audible on UK Amazon and US Amazon.

Hope you enjoyed my top 10 Agatha Christie book list. What’s your favourite, let me know via the comment form below. For more recommended crime and mystery books, check out more of my Crime and Mystery Books – Top 10 Lists.