Anyone else just bloody love Agatha Christie books?

[Puffypuffin]

I've read them all (bar Poirot's last case) over the years and every time I can't think what to read I go back and read one of them again. Love the descriptions of the characters, the settings, the clothes, all of it!

First one I read in my teens was The Murder of Rodger Ackroyd and I still think it's one of the best whodunnits I've read.

Anyone else have a favourite AC book?

Yes, it's a standalone story so you don't need to have read the others.

The Miss Silver books by Patricia Wentworth are a good close second IMO if you exhaust all the Christies.

I really loved Why Didn’t They Ask Evens.

The R4 play adaptations are brilliant.

Thanks 😀

I love them! My favourites are Death on the Nile and 4.50 From Paddington.

I love the fact that Agatha Christie's own favourite review of her books was by a pharmacological organisation which praised the accuracy of her depictions of the effects of poisons (Agatha Christie trained as a dispenser during WW1) - I've got the book 'A is for Arsenic - the Poisons of Agatha Christie' which is fascinating.

My favourite books are probably the ones with Poirot and Mrs Oliver and the early Miss Marples. I'm not at all a fan of the Parker Payne ones.

Lucy Worsley’s biography of Agatha Christie is well worth reading if you are an AC fan.

I just read my very first one!
I've been in a reading trough, nothing I picked up appealed and I fancied something period and lightweight.
Two pages in and I couldn't believe I had never even tried AC before. The characters, the wit, the writing.
The nearest thing they remind me of is Enid Blytons boarding school books which I read as a child.

The A.B.C Murders

I’ve never read one! Off to search online.

They're great OP

I have all my mums too. She passed recently so I’m too upset to read them at the mo, hopefully I’ll be ready by autumn.

Thanks! I need stocking fillers!

My favs are the pale horse and a murder is announced.

I loved The Thirteen Problems when I was a teenager. Might have to see if it's still at my mum's house.

The only one I failed to read was Murder in Mesopotamia, but maybe I will give that another go.

Do give it another go. It draws extensively on her knowledge of life on archaeological digs and some of the characters are (allegedly) based on real people.

I highly recommend Come Tell me How You Live, AC's lighthearted memoir of her real life experiences accompanying her husband Max Mallowan on his Middle Eastern archaeological expeditions between the wars.

She draws so much on her own experience in her writing - drugs and poisons from her time as a dispenser, train travel (she did the S. African journey described in Man in the Brown Suit), The Middle East, archaeology, her own house in Devon which she used as a setting for two of her books.

I can remember someone complaining they were too two dimensional and formulaic. And that's why I love them. I love to snuggle in bed and relax before sleeping, and Agatha Christie did that for me.

A critic once remarked that Agatha Christie has given more pleasure in bed than any other woman, @user1471517095

I am currently rereading them all. I love them so much - completely agree with OP here. I would always have said that Death on the Nile and Murder is Announced were my faves, but have loved Crooked House and Five Little Pigs on a reread. Also the Miss Marple short stories are much better than I remembered!

I read them all as a child. I need to revisit them!

I love Agatha Christie! Been working my way through all her books for years now because I keep re-reading some of them. "A is for arsenic. The poisons of Agatha Christie" is also a great read - the clues in the title but it's a great insight into how clever her writing really is.

Oh fabulous! 😂

I'm so sorry about your mum. 😪 I'm finally in a place where my mum's books bring me lovely warm memories and I'm sure you'll have that too, when you're ready. Books are wonderful connections to our loved ones.

AC is my go-to when I'm ill, exhausted or just need some comfort. I am a big Poirot fan but occasionally enjoy a Marple.

My favourites are The Hollow, Peril at End House and The Clocks, although I will happily read any of them. I try and space them out so I forget the specifics of the solution but there are some I know practically by heart.

The Moving Finger is great! Such a comfort read. It ties up so neatly and has two romances thrown in.

yes! I love the miss Marple ones personally... acts all innocent and cutesy until she reveals it all. poirot books are enjoyable bit I find the character a little irritating. although I have to say, my love for sherlock Holmes definitely trumps all other detective stories.