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Agatha Christie was born in Torquay in 1890 and became, quite simply, the best-selling novelist in history. Her first novel, The Mysterious Affair at Styles, written towards the end of the First World War, introduced us to Hercule Poirot, who was to become the most popular detective in crime fiction since Sherlock Holmes. She is known throughout the world as the Queen of Crime. Her books have sold over a billion copies in the English language and another billion in 44 foreign languages. She is the author of 80 crime novels and short story collections, 19 plays, and six novels under the name of Mary Westmacott and saw her work translated into more languages than Shakespeare. Her enduring success, enhanced by many film and TV adaptations, is a tribute to the timeless appeal of her characters and the unequalled ingenuity of the plots.
First came a sinister warning to Poirot not to eat any plum pudding...then the discovery of a corpse in a chest...next, an overheard quarrel that led to murder...the strange case of the dead man who altered his eating habits...and the puzzle of the victim who dreamt his own suicide.
Think you know Agatha Christie? Think again! To the world she was Agatha Christie, legendary author of bestselling whodunits. But in the 1930s she wore a different hat, travelling with her husband, renowned archaeologist Max Mallowan, as he investigated the buried ruins and ancient wonders of Syria and Iraq. When friends asked what this strange 'other life' was like, she decided to answer their questions by writing down her adventures in this eye-opening book. Described by the author as a 'meandering chronicle of life on an archaeological dig', Come, Tell Me How You Live is Agatha Christie's very personal memoir of her time spent in this breathtaking corner of the globe, living among the working men in tents in the desert where recorded human history began.
A 2014 World Book Night selection. 'It's been hushed up very nicely, hasn't it? But he was murdered, wasn't he?' There are certain things that are best left unsaid. Though tragedy had touched the life of the wealthy Richard Abernethie, his sudden death seemed pretty unremarkable for a man of his age. So why would his sister wait until his funeral to say he had been murdered? When she is savagely killed with a hatchet the next day, her extraordinary remark suddenly takes on a chilling significance. In desperation, the family solicitor turns to Hercule Poirot to unravel the mystery...
A wheelchair-bound Poirot returns to Styles, the venue of his first investigation, where he knows another murder is going to take place...
Agatha Christie's world-famous serial killer mystery, reissued with a striking new cover designed to appeal to the latest generation of Agatha Christie fans and book lovers.
Agatha Christie's seasonal mystery thriller, reissued with a striking new cover designed to appeal to the latest generation of Agatha Christie fans and book lovers.
Agatha Christie's ingenious murder mystery, reissued with a striking new cover designed to appeal to the latest generation of Agatha Christie fans and book lovers.
Agatha Christie's most famous murder mystery, reissued with a striking new cover designed to appeal to the latest generation of Agatha Christie fans and book lovers.
Agatha Christie's most audacious crime mystery, reissued with a striking new cover designed to appeal to the latest generation of Agatha Christie fans and book lovers.
Agatha Christie's first ever murder mystery, reissued with a striking new cover - includes for the first time the original courtroom climax as an alternate ending.
With the Murder of Roger Ackroyd, Agatha Christie wanted to write a mystery that the reader couldn't solve. When Roger Ackroyd is murdered following the suicide of his friend Mrs Ferrar, it seems everyone has something to gain from his death. Only the mustachioed Hercule Poirot is able to uncover the mystery. Agatha Christie is the original 'Queen of Crime' and this is absolutely first-rate stuff. Will you guess who the murderer is? I doubt it. February 2010 Guest Editor Simon Kernick on The Murder of Roger Ackroyd A classic example of masterful plotting and the best of all her books, in my opinion. It has a huge twist that at the time was both brave and original, and which has been imitated many times since, both in film and literature. When I first read it, it knocked me for six.
Agatha Christie's world-famous mystery thriller, reissued with a striking new cover designed to appeal to the latest generation of Agatha Christie fans and book lovers. 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!
October 2013 Guest Editor Linwood Barclay on The Man in the Brown Suit by Agatha Christie... My introduction to the mystery genre was really the Hardy Boys, but my first real, honest-to-God crime novel for grownups (although I read it when I was around twelve) was this one by the Grand Dame of whodunits. While this was my first, it was far from my favourite. Around the age of eleven or twelve, I read And Then There Were None, and that one made my head spin. Christie came up with countless original plots that the rest of us have been ripping off and disguising as our own for decades.
November 2012 Guest Editor Kate Mosse on Sleeping Murder... No list would be complete without the Queen of Crime herself. I first stumbled upon Christie on a wet teenage family holiday. Her characterisation, her neat and slick plotting, the way she summons up a sense of place and period. This is one of my favourites, the last Miss Marple, a tale of old secrets and long shadows.
Agatha Christie's world-famous Miss Marple mystery, reissued with a striking new cover designed to appeal to the latest generation of Agatha Christie fans and book lovers. It's seven in the morning. The Bantrys wake to find the body of a young woman in their library. She is wearing evening dress and heavy make-up, which is now smeared across her cheeks. But who is she? How did she get there? And what is the connection with another dead girl, whose charred remains are later discovered in an abandoned quarry? The respectable Bantrys invite Miss Marple to solve the mystery! before tongues start to wag.
Maxim Jakubowski's view... The novel that introduced both Christie and her immortal creation Hercule Poirot. Still as ingenious all these years later as we follow the quaint detective display his incomparable powers of detection. If you like Agatha Christie try Ngaio MarshMaxim Jakubowski recommends: The Ngaio Marsh Collection by Ngaio Marsh
One of Sister Wendy Beckett's favourite books. The wonderful Hercule Poirot works his magic in this murder mystery set in the exotic location of Egypt. July 2010 Guest Editor Louise Candlish on Agatha Christie... I read this when I was about eleven and remember it being the first time I felt that nothing else mattered in the world except finding out what happened on the pages in my hands. I thought it was the most ingenious thing ever to have come out of anyone’s imagination.
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.
Agatha Christie's most exotic murder mystery, reissued with a striking new cover to tie in with the highly anticipated 2020 film adaptation. 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...
Agatha Christie's most exotic murder mystery in a sumptuous hardback Special Edition. 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...
Agatha Christie's most exotic murder mystery, reissued with a striking new cover to tie in with the highly anticipated 2020 film adaptation. 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...
Marking exactly 100 years since the publication of Agatha Christie's first novel, this new edition includes a previously deleted chapter and a newly discovered essay, 'Drugs and Detective Stories', in which Agatha Christie reminisces about the inspiration for Poirot's first case. 'Beware! Peril to the detective who says: It is so small - it does not matter... Everything matters.' 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... 'Agatha Christie is the gateway drug to crime fiction thanks to her storytelling skills. Just one book is never enough...' VAL McDERMID 'What a writer. A hundred years after her first novel, and we are all still standing in her shadow.' ANDREW TAYLOR 'Agatha Christie must surely be the most imitated author in the entire canon of literature - what greater acclaim could there be?' PETER JAMES
One of Agatha Christie's darkest and most sinister mysteries, newly adapted for BBC Television by the award-winning team behind And Then There Were None, Witness for the Prosecution, Ordeal by Innocence and The ABC Murders. When an elderly priest is murdered, the killer searches the victim so desperately that Father Gorman's already ragged cassock is torn in the process. But just what was the killer looking for? And what had a dying woman confided to the priest on her death-bed, only hours earlier? Maybe the three women, rumoured to practise the 'Dark Arts', who run the Pale Horse public house can provide the answers. Or maybe the solution lies in the darker side of human nature...
The love between a mother and daughter turns to jealousy and bitterness in this intense and personal drama. Ann Prentice falls in love with Richard Caulfield and hopes for a new life and happiness. Only her daughter, Sarah, takes an instant, jealous dislike to him. Resentment slowly corrodes their relationship as each seeks comfort in the formidable and knowing Dame Laura Whitstable who remarks, The trouble with sacrifice is that once it's made it's not over and done with. Christie is beady-eyed and brutally honest on the psychology of the motherdaughter relationship. THE GUARDIAN The play is a revelation and its emotional intensity is at variance with most of her crime plays. This is Christie writing with her heart rather than her head. She is not concerned with clues and suspects and alibis but with human dilemmas and life choices. THE GUARDIAN
A small cast, short version of an intimate psychological thriller taken from Philomel Cottage. Enid rejects her fiance for newcomer Gerald and moves to a remote country cottage with him - where a dark and terrible climax takes place.
In The Wasp's Nest, Hercule Poirot's come between a bitter triangle of lovers to prevent a sinister murder before it takes place. In Yellow Iris, a distressed phone call from a mystery woman brings Hercule Poirot to the hotel Jardin des Cygnes, where a man commemorates the four-year anniversary of his wife's sudden death - a death under very suspicious circumstances that Poirot himself witnessed. Gathered is everyone present on that fateful night and now Poirot must and a killer in the midst, before they strike again.
This classic Christie short story sees Hercule Poirot come between a bitter triangle of lovers to prevent a sinister murder before it takes place. This is part of the triple one act murder mysteries The Rule of Thumb.
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