10 Best Agatha Christie Books Ranked

Agatha Christie is the second best-selling author of all time, behind only William Shakespeare. Upon reading just one of her books, it’s easy to see why her mysteries have continued entertaining audiences long after her death. She crafted compelling twists and engaging protagonists, with Hercule Poirot being her most brilliant creation, but she also wrote adventures starring Miss Marple and Parker Pyne in case anyone wanted a break for Hercule every now and then. 

Christie’s novels have been adapted many times over into movies, stage plays, and television shows, and she’s inspired generations of mystery writers. Writer/director Rian Johnson even said he looked toward Christie for inspiration when figuring out how to take “Glass Onion” in a new direction after “Knives Out.” It’s easy to see why, as she was prone to playing with genres. Though her books may have largely been mysteries, there were also elements of comedy and horror thrown in for good measure. From Raymond Chandler to Dashiell Hammett, there are certainly plenty of other great mystery writers, but no one ever did it quite like Christie. 

Anyone looking for a good place to start with Christie’s bibliography should peruse this list of the best Agatha Christie books of all time, assembled by yours truly, a UCLA English grad. Don’t worry about having any surprises spoiled for you: While I’ll go over the basic set-up of each book, there won’t be any revelations as far as who the killer is. You can discover that on your own.

It’s a shame that “Death on the Nile” is now associated with Gal Gadot’s odd line reading of, “With enough champagne … to fill the Nile” in the 2022 film adaptation (seen above). Fortunately, this remains one of Agatha Christie’s most popular works with several adaptations to its name, and it’s easy to see why. It has a positively delightful collection of characters and pertinent themes that remain relevant to this day. 

Her most popular detective, Hercule Poirot, is actually just on holiday when he gets wrapped up in a murder plot. The immensely wealthy Linnet Ridgeway winds up murdered with a single gunshot wound to the head, and as is so often the case, everyone is a suspect. Linnet’s wealth means many people had reason to get rid of her to try to take some of her money and valuables for themselves. The ending to “Death on the Nile” proves just how far people will go for the sake of money and love. 

But Christie isn’t content with weaving yet another mystery for readers. There are also rich, lush descriptions of Egyptian scenery, as the characters’ river boat sails down the Nile, keeping everyone aboard while Hercule gets to work figuring out who would be mad enough to kill Linnet. 

“The Seven Dials Mystery” is an underrated Agatha Christie gem that seems far more frivolous than some of her other mysteries but has a real ingenuity to it. The story begins with a house of aristocrats wanting to play a prank on one guest who’s a heavy sleeper. They set up eight alarm clocks to scare and wake him up, but on the morning of the prank, one of the clocks is missing and the guest is dead. 

There’s no Hercule Poirot this time; instead, the mystery is handled by the young sleuth, Lady Eileen “Bundle” Brent, who could certainly be seen as a catalyst for future teen girl detectives like Nancy Drew and Enola Holmes. She represents the “flapper girl” sensibilities of the 1920s, and even though she wasn’t in many Christie novels, it’s worth reading at least one of her stories. 

Ultimately, “The Seven Dials Mystery” is one of Christie’s most fun works. Sure, there’s still a murder at the heart of it, but the characters are so entertaining it’s easy to forget about the more morbid aspects lurking in the corners. It’s also one of Christie’s most re-readable novels, as there’s always something new to appreciate or laugh it when giving it another spin.

For those interested, Netflix is turning the book into a series starring Mia McKenna-Bruce (seen above in a publicity photo announcing the project).

When /Film interviewed Rian Johnson for “Glass Onion,” he actually name-dropped “The A.B.C. Murders” as a great example of a typical whodunit that incorporates the subgenre of serial killer fiction. Many of Christie’s works involve one murder, maybe two if she’s feeling frisky. However, “The A.B.C. Murders” flips the script by having a serial killer run loose, meaning Hercule Poirot is running against a ticking clock to catch the murderer before they strike again. 

Hercule receives word that someone is going around killing people alphabetically based on their alliterative names, so the first person killed is Alice Ascher while the second is Elizabeth “Betty” Barnard and so forth. It’s one of her most nail-biting mysteries because, whereas in other stories the reader’s simply trying to figure out who did it, more people die the longer Hercule takes the solve the case. 

“The A.B.C. Murders” also just so happens to be one of Christie’s trickiest mysteries to solve, if you’re reading it for the first time. However, once you know how it all plays out, it’s the most rewarding to go back and re-read to see all of the clues Christie left for you (and there are ample clues to solve it). A superb three-part miniseries based on “The A.B.C. Murders” came out on BBC in 2018 with John Malkovich playing a grizzled, more forlorn Hercule for anyone looking for a drastic departure seen from Kenneth Branagh in his various Christie adaptations like “Murder on the Orient Express” and “Death on the Nile.”

Perhaps you enjoy your whodunnits with a good measure of gothic romance thrown in. If that’s the case, then Agatha Christie’s “Endless Night” is for you. There’s no Hercule Poirot or Miss Marple here, as the story begins with young Michael Rogers believing he’s hit the jackpot when he acquires a gorgeous piece of land where he plans on building a house and starting a family. However, things quickly go awry as accidents begin happening all over, giving the sense that this idyllic land is tragically cursed. 

“Endless Night” was adapted into a 1972 film starring Hywel Bennett as Michael Rogers (seen above). This review from Time Out sums up just how different this story feels from the rest of Christie’s bibliography: “An example of the sort of thing Christie was writing in her later years: moody psychological studies very different from, and not so much fun as, her early thrillers.”

“Endless Night” isn’t as plot-driven as some of Christie’s other works. Instead, she develops a haunting, foreboding atmosphere, and the actual murder doesn’t occur until fairly late into the story. While plenty of other odd and ominous things happen to Michael throughout the book, he remains steadfast in starting a new life here. “Endless Night” almost plays like a horror novel where you yourself might start believing there’s something supernatural here. Of course, Christie’s always more interested in the human psyche than making ghosts a reality in her works. Much like “Hallowe’en Party,” which dabbles in the idea of the supernatural, there’s something far more sinister here than mere demons.

“Five Little Pigs” is essentially Agatha Christie doing “Rashomon,” a superb film from Akira Kurosawa. However, to be fair, “Five Little Pigs” came out first. Christie’s story opens with a case that’s already seemingly been solved. A man was murdered 16 years prior, and his wife was convicted of the crime due to the litany of evidence suggesting she did it. The wife has already died in prison, but the couple’s daughter, Carla, wants Hercule Poirot to take another look at the case, because she’s convinced someone else killed her father, and there are five suspects who could’ve done it. 

From there, Hercule speaks with the five suspects, each one offering their own account of what happened 16 years ago. “Five Little Pigs” offers a great amount of psychological depth for the central cast, and the book dives deeply into how reliable people’s memories are, especially considering the crime occurred so long ago. It’s all the more fascinating when none of the suspects have as obvious of a motive as killing the man as his wife did, yet there’s something telling Hercule and Carla there’s more to this story. 

“Five Little Pigs” is a great encapsulation of what makes Christie such a fantastic mystery writer: She’s always finding ways to make a reveal shocking yet obvious all along. It’s no wonder it’s been adapted several times across television, including an episode for the ITV series, “Agatha Christie’s Poirot,” seen above with the Crale family before tragedy tore them apart.  

Idyllic resorts and beautiful locations have often been the source of great murder mysteries. Just look at something like “The White Lotus” that uses beautiful scenery as a perfect juxtaposition between the grisly impulses of the guests. Agatha Christie understood this appeal all too well, as seen in “Evil Under the Sun” where Hercule Poirot once again tries to go on vacation but gets wrapped up in a murder plot. The guy just can’t catch a break. 

“Evil Under the Sun,” and its 1982 movie starring Maggie Smith (seen above), is a must-read and must-watch for anyone who enjoys “Knives Out,” as it also explores how wealth corrodes the soul. It’s not just that there’s a murderer in Hercule’s midst; the novel tackles an array of sore points from marital troubles in outright infidelity. Given how well-written such passages are, one can only imagine Christie drew from her own personal experience. 

Christie’s first marriage to Archibald Christie ended when she uncovered his infidelity, leading to an infamous moment where she went missing for 11 days, turning up later in a hotel. It’s never been fully confirmed what happened to Christie, although the most likely explanation is that she entered a fugue state and simply forgot where to go or where she lived. “Evil Under the Sun” doesn’t simply offer yet another fantastic Hercule Poirot mystery, it may also provide a glimpse into the author’s own psyche. 

Hercule Poirot often gets the lion’s share of attention when it comes to all-time great fictional detectives, but Miss Marple deserves her flowers, too. As a kindly old woman, suspects often let their guard around her, and she has a wealth of human experience to draw from to figure out the psychological reasoning behind certain cases. 

Agatha Christie’s 50th novel, “A Murder Is Announced,” shows Miss Marple at her best. The story begins with an announcement in a newspaper that a murder is going to take place Friday evening. Instead of deterring people from gathering together, more people show up, expecting the whole thing to be a joke. This is a prime example of the kind of social commentary Christie infuses into many of her works. Published in 1950, “A Murder Is Announced” deals with post-war sensibilities and how there were changing societal attitudes about what work was appropriate for what people and how anyone could be drawn to commit a horrific crime under the right circumstances. 

“A Murder Is Announced” is also a great example of how Christie’s stories might often take place in quaint European villages, but there are universal themes. This particular story has been adapted into British, French, Japanese, and Korean TV episodes. ITV notably adapted it for their other Christie-centric series — “Agatha Chrisie’s Marple,” which sees Geraldine McEwan play the cunning detective (seen above). 

There’s a reason why “Murder on the Orient Express” is one of Agatha Christie’s most beloved and most often adapted stories, most recently coming to theaters with Kenneth Branagh’s 2017 film featuring an all-star cast including the likes of Daisy Ridley, Josh Gad, Penélope Cruz, Michelle Pfeiffer, Olivia Colman, and many others. It represents the platonic ideal of what a good murder mystery would be. You have Hercule Poirot on a train ride, and while he’s there, a murder takes place with everyone onboard having a pretty good reason why they would kill the victim. It’s a unique, isolated setting, as the train gets caught in a snowstorm, so no one can get on or off the vessel. At this point, people should really learn to save their murdering for when a world-famous detective isn’t around. 

“Murder on the Orient Express” has one of the most ingenious endings out of all of Christie’s works. It’s the kind of finale you won’t see coming when you’re reading the book for the first time, but once everything’s laid out for you, it feels like the only possible explanation. But what’s even more astonishing is what happens after, blurring the lines between what truly qualifies as justice. It’s a morally gray whodunnit that sticks with you long after you put the book down. 

It’s truly astonishing that a list of the best Agatha Christie books spans all decades of her career. She wasn’t an author that peaked early and then cranked out inferior works later on in her career. She always had a deft touch, and she proved early on that she wasn’t one to play by the rules in “The Murder of Roger Ackroyd.”

It goes without saying that the detective and mystery genres were well-established by the time Christie came around in the early 20th century. With that in mind, there were certain rules in place that authors followed so that a reader could reasonably figure out a given mystery on their own. “The Murder of Roger Ackroyd” is such a great Christie novel because it flies in the face of previous conventions. She broke the rules, and while that may have been met with controversy at the time, reading the novel today probably wouldn’t elicit something as strong. 

After all, we live in a postmodern (or even a post-postmodern) literary world, so the final twist may be seen as old hat. But even if it doesn’t shock you as it did readers in the 1920s, it’s still a fantastically crafted mystery that’s ripe for a big-screen adaptation. It technically served as the basis for 1931’s “Alibi,” which is a lost film, but the best adaptation we have so far probably belongs to an episode of ITV’s “Agatha Christie’s Poirot” (seen above). 

Unlike the best Agatha Christie books, there’s no surprise twist ending here. The choice for her best novel ever is probably the most obvious, but it’s often regarded as her best for a reason. “And Then There Were None” is Christie’s most astounding feat, as she herself admitted in “Agatha Christie: An Autobiography.” She wrote, “I don’t say [‘And Then There Were None’] is the play or book of mine that I like best, or even that I think it is my best, but I do think in some ways that it is a better piece of craftsmanship than anything else I have written.”

In the book, 10 strangers get invited to an island where they’re each accused of getting away with murder themselves, such as one individual killing two kids while speeding in their car. Over the course of the evening, they’re killed off one by one as their paranoia increases alongside the body count. With such a compelling mystery and an element of horror thrown in, it’s easy to see why “And Then There Were None” has been adapted numerous times. The 1945 film (seen above) is one of the three Christie movies that has a perfect 100% rating on Rotten Tomatoes, and there are plenty of other films, plays, and even an episode of “Family Guy” drawing from this spectacular mystery. 

It’s a superb work of fiction, and it’s sold over 100 million copies over the years, turning it into the best selling mystery novel ever. Even if you don’t consider yourself a massive Agatha Christie fan, the book’s a must-read for anyone who wants to better understand the mystery genre.