agatha christie recs

[marissab]

I want a gripping read for my hols. Love classic who dunnits on tv and have devoured the entire works of sherlock holmes so thought i might try an agatha christie. Which one should i go for?

Either that or maybe one of the books the hitchcock films were based on. You know, a real classic, exciting whodunnit that keeps you guessing.

My favourites are

"And Then There Were None"
" N or M" (WWII spy romp raher than who done it)
"A Murder is Announced" (Miss Marple)
"Five Little Pigs" (Poirot)

Actually I can't think of many that I don't like and wouldn't read again! Just dive in and pick one, would probably start with a Miss Marple or a Poirot.

Can't help on the Hitchcock front have only read "The lady Vanishes" and wasn't that impressed, the flm was much better!

Have you seen the prices in kindle store nettie? £4.99 a book, some of em!!!

Five little pigs is good because it's one of the few Agatha Christies where you can work out whodunnit as you go along. In some of them, Poirot disappears off to London to find out some crucial information he only reveals at the end, or the plot centres around two people being related but obviously you can't see them so wouldn't know that they're siblings etc.

I love her really but sometimes they're really frustrating.

I'd also agree with "And then there were none" - I found the ending of this really disturbing whne I first read it, and also The 4.15 from Paddington or Nemesis, both Miss Marple, or Hickory Dickory Dock which, like Five little pigs, is a Poirot.

Already got them all as physical books, and DH got most of given to him in ebook format, which he has just shared with me for my new Nook. So if you hunt around and are a bit techy you might find them out there, not that I'm suggesteing you do anything thats against the law or anything!

Personal think ebook prices are ridiculous, think I'll stick with library for any new fiction I read.

Back to Aggies, "The Man in the Brown Suit" is good adventure has strong female lead character. If you were into the girs boarding school books (chalet school/ mallory towers/trebizon) when younger, "Cat amongst the Pigeons" has that feel to it,as it is set in girls boarding school. I think if you want gentle country mystery go with Miss Marple, if you want a more stylish, sophisticated 30s sort of vibe go with Poirot. I thik there are some gems among the others though, but some people disagree.

"And Then There Were None" - absolute classic

Personally I prefer her earlier work.

The Pale Horse & The Hollow are also good. Agree with the others about And Then There Were None being the best one though.

Georgette Heyer also wrote a set of detective novels - some of them were rather good too, but can't quite put my hand on them to give you names

You might like Wilkie Collins "The Moonstone" and "Armadale" , both are out of copyright so should be free on Kindle!
The book people used to do a boxset of classic crime will see if I can find a link.

Here you go

www.thebookpeople.co.uk/webapp/wcs/stores/servlet/qs_product_tbp?storeId=10001&catalogId=10051&langId=100&productId=175619&searchTerm=Crime+classics

"Lady Audley's Secret" is fab.

The Murder of Roger Ackroyd is good,
Death on the Nile
4:50 from Paddington (also known as What Mrs McGillicuddy Saw)
And then there were none (also sold as Ten Little Indians)
They came to Baghdad - creepy thriller rather than murder
A murder is announced
Murder on the Orient Express
The moving finger
N or M
Curtain

Short stories - Labours of Hercules, Thirteen Problems.

They're almost all good, though some you have to be in the mood for a 'country house' type story.

Sorry!

www.thebookpeople.co.uk/webapp/wcs/stores/servlet/qs_product_tbp?storeId=10001&catalogId=10051&langId=100&productId=175619&searchTerm=Crime+classics

Nettie you are a mindreader! After the shock price of aggie on kindle store, i pounced on the free version of the moonstone! I just love these early crime novels. Not too gory and full of forensics like modern crime novels. Just really good fun. I want to go marry sherlock holmes so we can be anti social, drink absinthe and fight victorian villains together, forever

You'd probably like the Lucifer Box trilogy, think they are by Mark Gatiss.

I love a good whodoneit, even as a child my fave tv show was Scooby Doo, and my copy of "Peabody's First Case" is falling to bits but DS2 loves it too! Have fab memories of summer holidays spent in solitude reading Aggies (was anti social teen!)

Josephine Tey is a wonderful author. Really well written, good characterisation and some twists and turns in the plots. My favourite is 'The Franchise Affair' but she wrote loads. Her first book was published in 1929. She died in 1952 leaving her estate (including the rights to her novels) to The National Trust.

Try dick Francis as well. All very readable. All who dunnits around horse racing

I love N or M. In fact I love most of AC's books. Death in the Clouds is good.

And then there were none is my favourite book ever! Just to show off I read it for the first time on Burgh island amazing!!!
Definitely read it

'After the Funeral' is my favourite.
Also, very highly recommend 'The Floating Admiral' by the Detective Club.
Amazingly clever book - was a syndicate effort, written by members of the detection club - eg, Agatha Christie, Dorothy L Sayers (my herring!!), GK Chesterton and others. They used to meet up, and then wrote a book, each wrote a chapter, and the later contributors had no idea what the earlier chapter writes had in mind as a solution... Sheer genius, and very readable if just as a straight story.

heroine, not herring

The murder of roger ackroyd.

Genius

stickortwist.

Would second "The Floating Admiral" and the Josephine Tey one about Richard III.

I love Agatha Christie-I wanted to call my dd Agatha but dh vetoed it

My favourites are-

Nemesis
Cat among the pigeons
N or M
At Bertrams Hotel
By the pricking of my thumbs-my all time favourite!-is a tommy and tuppence book.

Lots of charity shops have a Christie collection. The earlier ones are the best,I love The Hollow and Evil Under The Sun. Endless Night is a rather different read,too.

I like old Hercule and hate Miss M. I don't think Agatha C is much good for a holiday read though because they are v v short.

Then take two or three! It's funny how different we all are,I love Poirot, like Miss M, but really dislike Tommy and T.