The Five Best Golden Age of Mystery Books To Read

One of my favorite time periods in history is the golden age of mystery. it has produced many timeless mystery books that are still popular today! That is why we will be looking at the five best golden age of mystery books to read. Keep finding out which books made our list!

The golden age of mystery books first orginated around the first world war to somewhere around the 1950’s. It may have started as soon as 1911 and peaked around the 1920s and the 1930s. And leading the helm was the queen of mystery herself, Agatha Christie.

It is no coincidence that Christie’s career overlaps with the golden age of mystery. She is considered the queen of mystery for a reason. Christie published her first novel in 1920 on a dare and would go on writing dozens of novels during the golden age of mystery books.

Another author that has come to define the golden age of mystery is New Zealand author Ngaio Marsh. She has been given the nickname of queen of crime and her mystery novels are also worth checking out. You can see the full list below.

The Golden Age of Mystery Books

• The Mysterious Affair at Styles by Agatha Christie
• Murder on the Orient Express by Agatha Christie
• The Tiger in the Smoke by Margery Allingham
• Enter a Murderer by Ngaio Marsh
• And Then There Were None by Agatha Christie

The Mysterious Affair at Styles

In the Styles household, Emily Inglethorp, the elderly owner of the house is found dead in the morning hours. She has been poisoned with strychnine and the killer is assumed to be one of the residents of the Styles house. Who killed Emily Inglethorp and why? This is one of Agatha Christie’s best novels and is a must read no matter what your favorite genre is.

No mystery list is complete without Agatha Christie. She has helped push the genre forward and you can see her influence on many modern novels. And Murder on the Orient Express is one of her best novels. The mystery at hand is clever and while it may not be as popular as And Then There Were None, it is just as good if not better!

Enter a Murderer

Inspector Alleyn has been invited to watch a play but when one of the actors dies on stage, he must find out who the murderer is. Who is the murderer and how did he pull off this murder in front of everyone? If you haven’t read a Ngaio Marsh novel, then you are missing out. She has cemented herself as Christie’s rival when it comes to mystery novels and helped usher in the golden age of mystery!

And Then There Were None

Agatha’s Christie’s And Then There Were None is her most popular work and for good reason. The simple plot of having 10 people on an island that die one after the other and the murderer is one of them. They have to figure out who is the murderer before everyone else is killed. This novel is the sixth best selling of all time and has helped make Christie a household name as well as the best selling author of all time.

Conclusion

You can fill this list up with Agatha Christie novels and it would still be a great list. She was a big reason that mystery novels were popular and there hasn’t been an author like her since. Including three novels by her feels like overkill but it was impossible to leave off some of her most influential novels.

These are the five best golden age of mystery books that you should read. And while Christie does dominate the list, there are other author that are also worth checking out. What other books should have made our list? Let us know in the comments below!

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