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Novel top 3: Agatha Christie


emelee

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I post one author - you guys post a top 3 list of the novels (or shortstories) by that author that you like the best.
Here you can discuss your top 3 list more in detail and discuss with others about their top list of Agatha Christie´s works.

 

 

 

For this, the third of the Novel Top 3 threads, is the classic crime author


Agatha Christie


Born September 15, 1890 as Agatha Mary Clarissa Miller in Torquay, Devon (England) to parents Frederick Alvah Miller (1846-1901), an American stockbroker and Clara Boehmer (1854-1926). As a child, Christie loved to read and she was very inspired by Louisa M Alcott (Little women), Edith Nesbit (The Story of the Treasure Seekers, The Railway Children), thrillers, detective novels, Wilkie Collins (The woman in white) and Arthur Conan Doyle's Sherlock Holmes mysteries. Her childhood was often spent alone or with her pets. As she grew older, she started searching for a husband. After five short relationships, she met Archibald Christie (1889–1962) who she married. The couple moved to London. However, in 1926, her husband had fallen in love with another woman and asked for divorce. It had been a rough year for Christie, who disappeared and was missing for over a week. She was later found under a false name in a Yorkshire hotel. The Christies divorced but Agatha kept her husband's surname and full custody of their daughter Rosalind Hicks Pritchard (1919–2004). Agatha went on and married archaeologist Sir Max Mallowan (1904-1978) in 1930 in a marriage decribed as happy. During the second world war, Christie worked in a pharmacy and later used her newfound knowledge of poisons in her novels. 

Agatha Christie died on 12 January 1976 at age 85 from natural causes at her Winterbrook House, survived by her husband, daughter Rosalind and grandson Mathew (born in 1943).

 

 

Agatha-Christie-006.jpg

 

Works by Mrs Christie;

 

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Agatha_Christie_bibliography

 

 

Novels
The Mysterious Affair at Styles, 1920 

The Secret Adversary, 1922 
The Murder on the Links, 1923 
The Man in the Brown Suit, 1924 
The Secret of Chimneys, 1925 
The Murder of Roger Ackroyd, 1926 
The Big Four, 1927 
The Mystery of the Blue Train, 1928 
The Seven Dials Mystery, 1929 
The Murder at the Vicarage, 1930 
The Sittaford Mystery, 1931 
Peril at End House, 1932 
Lord Edgware Dies, 1933 
Murder on the Orient Express, 1934 
Why Didn't They Ask Evans?, 1934 
Three Act Tragedy, 1935 
Death in the Clouds, 1935 
The A.B.C. Murders, 1936 
Murder in Mesopotamia, 1936 
Cards on the Table, 1936 
Dumb Witness, 1937 
Death on the Nile, 1937 
Appointment with Death, 1938 
Hercule Poirot's Christmas, 1938 
Murder is Easy, 1939 
Ten Little Niggers aka And Then There Were None, 
Sad Cypress, 1940 
One, Two, Buckle My Shoe, 1940 
Evil Under the Sun, 1941 
N or M?, 1941 
The Body in the Library, 1942 
Five Little Pigs, 1942 
The Moving Finger, 1942 
Towards Zero, 1944 
Death Comes as the End, 1944 
Sparkling Cyanide, 1945 
The Hollow, 1946 
Taken at the Flood, 1948 
Crooked House, 1949 
A Murder is Announced, 1950 
They Came to Baghdad, 1951 
Mrs McGinty's Dead, 1952 
They Do It with Mirrors, 1952 
After the Funeral, 1953 
A Pocket Full of Rye, 1953 
Destination Unknown, 1954 
Hickory Dickory Dock, 1955 
Dead Man's Folly, 1956 
4.50 from Paddington, 1957 
Ordeal by Innocence, 1958 
Cat Among the Pigeons, 1959 
The Pale Horse, 1961 
The Mirror Crack'd from Side to Side, 1962 
The Clocks, 1963 
A Caribbean Mystery, 1964 
At Bertram's Hotel, 1965 
Third Girl, 1966 
Endless Night, 1967 
By the Pricking of My Thumbs, 1968 
Hallowe'en Party, 1969 
Passenger to Frankfurt, 1970 
Nemesis, 1971 
Elephants Can Remember, 1972 
Postern of Fate, 1973 

 

Curtain, 1975 

Sleeping Murder, 1976 
Both written over 30 years earlier, but not published.

 

 

Short stories

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_short_stories_by_Agatha_Christie

 

 

Romance novels, written under the name Mary Westmacott

Giant's Bread
Unfinished Portrait
Absent in the Spring
The Rose and the Yew Tree
A Daughter's a Daughter
The Burden

Plays, many of them based on her novels
Black Coffee 
And Then There Were None
Murder on the Nile/Hidden Horizon
Appointment with Death
The Hollow
The Mousetrap
Witness for the Prosecution 
Spider's Web 
A Daughter's a Daughter 
Towards Zero 
Verdict
The Unexpected Guest 
Go Back for Murder
Rule of Three 
Fiddler's Three
Akhnaton 
Chimneys 
The Yellow Iris 
Three Blind Mice 
Butter in a Lordly Dish
Personal Call
Wasp's Nest 

 

 

Poetry

The Road of Dreams
Star Over Bethlehem and other stories
Poems

 

Collaborative Works
Behind The Screen.

A radio serial written together with Hugh Walpole, Dorothy L. Sayers, Anthony Berkeley, E. C. Bentley and Ronald Knox of the Detection Club. Published in book form in 1983 in The Scoop and Behind The Screen.
The Scoop.

A radio serial written together with Dorothy L. Sayers, E. C. Bentley, Anthony Berkeley, Freeman Wills Crofts and Clemence Dane of the Detection Club. Published in book form in 1983 in The Scoop and Behind The Screen.
The Floating Admiral.

A book written together with G. K. Chesterton, Dorothy L. Sayers and certain other members of the Detection Club.
Towards Zero

A West End theatre dramatisation of her 1944 novel co-written with Gerard Verner

Edited by emelee
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I think I'd have to agree with you, Emelee, for my top 2 (although the order could change at any given moment!):

 

1. And Then There Were None

2. The Murder of Roger Ackroyd

3. Murder on the Orient Express

 

The only other Christie I've read to date is the play The Mousetrap. My partner acted in it last year and I watched rehearsals, so I've watched/read it many times and really love it.

 

I have many more of Christie's books on my TBR pile. I think I'll try to read one every couple of months next year so I can make a dent in the pile. :)

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For me it goes;

 

1) The Murder Of Roger Ackroyd

2) Murder On The Orient Express

3) The Mysterious Affair at Styles

 

1 & 2 were absolutely firm choices, but number 3 could have been one of many, but I thought I would choose Hercule's first appearance.  :smile:

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I think I'd have to agree with you, Emelee, for my top 2 (although the order could change at any given moment!):

 

1. And Then There Were None

2. The Murder of Roger Ackroyd

3. Murder on the Orient Express

 

The only other Christie I've read to date is the play The Mousetrap. My partner acted in it last year and I watched rehearsals, so I've watched/read it many times and really love it.

 

I have many more of Christie's books on my TBR pile. I think I'll try to read one every couple of months next year so I can make a dent in the pile. :)

 

I could have easily had The murder on the orient express as my #3. I chose between that and ABC murders. But I chose the ladder because it was my first Christie novel, and therefore I have a soft spot for it. 

 

How fun with the play you were in. Sounds like something I would love to try.

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It's interesting seeing everyone's top three :). I haven't yet read any Agatha Christie books, though I have a couple on my TBR. None of those have been mentioned, but I hope they'll still be nice. Who knows, I might find some of these more famous ones, some time :).

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It's interesting seeing everyone's top three :). I haven't yet read any Agatha Christie books, though I have a couple on my TBR. None of those have been mentioned, but I hope they'll still be nice. Who knows, I might find some of these more famous ones, some time :).

 

You can't go wrong with any of those mentioned. And I think you can't go wrong with any Agatha novels. I do, however, prefer her Poirot novels over Miss Marple. 

And I think everyone should sometime read And then there were none. :)

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You can't go wrong with any of those mentioned. And I think you can't go wrong with any Agatha novels. I do, however, prefer her Poirot novels over Miss Marple. 

And I think everyone should sometime read And then there were none. :)

Thanks, I'll keep these things in mind :).

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  • 1 year later...

1. Crooked house

2. Nemesis

3. Cat among the pigeons

Crooked house shocked me with the philosophy that crime and the criminal's age is not connected. Even a little girl is capable of murder!!!! I never suspected her until the end. Guess it's true that they say even the seed can be rotten!

Nemesis showed me the danger of obsessed possesiveness. The things humans do in the name of affection!

Cat among pigeons shows you that the most evil of characters can dwell among the most innocent!

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  • 6 months later...
  • 2 months later...

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