Whenever I need a good murder mystery, Agatha Christie is who I turn to. With so many amazing novels, choosing what to read isn’t always easy. That is why we have created a list of the five best Agatha Christie books of all time. Keep reading to find out which five books made our list!
With so many books to choose from, choosing just five books from Agatha Christie wasn’t easy. Leaving off some classics felt wrong but we had to meet the five book limit for this list. And after some tough decisions, we finally were able to choose the five best Agatha Christie books.
And just to be clear, these are our picks based on how we felt after reading the books. Christie has written over 60 books and we haven’t read all of them, mostly her more popular works. One day, we may make a complete list of all her books but you can check out our book reviews for many of her books at Books of Brilliance. You can see the full list below
The Five Best Agatha Christie Books
- The Murder of Roger Ackroyd (1926)
- And Then There Were None (1939)
- Murder on the Orient Express (1934)
- A Murder is Announced (1934)
- Death on the Nile (1937)
The Murder of Roger Ackroyd
The novel that I decided to list as the best Christie novel is The Murder of Roger Ackroyd. It is the best mystery novel by Christie in my opinion. And while it may not be the most iconic book, it is the novel that I thought about the most after finishing it. A few months after this novel was released, Christie ended up disappearing for 11 days. You can read about that disappearance here!
And Then There Were None
This is the novel that you will automatically think of first when thinking about Christie. And Then There Were None is a brilliant whodunit novel that has inspired dozens of novels. The premise of ten people on an island dying one by one is simple yet ingenious. Every other author angry at themselves, yelling “why didn’t I think of this!?”
Murder on the Orient Express
Coming in third is Murder on the Orient Express, a novel that imagines a train as the murder scene. And just like the two previous novels, it is clever and will keep readers entertained. The novel is well written and a lot of fun and highlights Christie’s best tropes.
A Murder is Announced
Hercule Poirot is Christie’s most popular detective but Miss Marple is a close second. And A Murder is Announced is considered the best novel in the Miss Marple series. As the title suggests, a time and place for a murder is announced and Miss Marple has to solve this clever murder and figure out who was behind it and why.
Death On The Nile
While on a holiday vacation, Hercule Poirot happens to be on a cruise where a murder takes place. Linnet Ridgeway has been murdered and Poirot must solve this murder mystery and find out the motive of the murder. This sounds like a typical murder on a cruise but anyone that has read a Christie novel knows that is never the case. I loved this book and it is one I think of often when thinking about Christie’s best works.
Conclusion
These are the five best Agatha Christie books of all time. While the order of these novels may be different for many fans, most of these should be in everyone’s top five. Even then, leaving out a couple of novels doesn’t feel right but that just showcases how amazing of a writer Christie was!