Agatha Christie’s estate claims that, with the exception of the Bible and the works of William Shakespeare, she’s the most widely published author of all time. The Guinness Book of World Records credits her as the best-selling novelist ever, with roughly 2 billion copies sold. She was extremely prolific, writing 66 detective novels (along with numerous short story collections), but mystery readers are ravenous readers, and after her beloved detective, Hercule Poirot, died in Curtain (written decades before, but published in 1975), fans were bereft. (Hercule Poirot, to date, is the only fictional character to have been given an obituary in the New York Times.)

Christie's hallmarks, for the unfamiliar, include complex plots, bizarre clues, a cast of disparate characters with much to hide, the detective’s dramatic gathering of the remaining suspects for the big reveal of the guilty, Poirot’s matchmaking as a sideline, and a slightly dimwitted sidekick.

I grew up with her novels (the paperbacks were, in my experience, ubiquitous at library book sales, used book stores, guest rooms at beach houses, etc.), and honestly, have always preferred Miss Marple to Hercule Poirot. (I’m in the minority, though: Poirot is undeniably more famous, and there are many more novels featuring Poirot than Miss Marple.)

Christie’s never been a critic’s darling; the stories are unrealistic and stylized in the extreme. The characters are fairly flat (with a few exceptions). The stereotypes are, in the main, rather alarming for a 21st century reader. Yet, they’re still worth picking up, at least in my opinion: the plotting is masterful, the storylines clever, her recurring characters endearing, and the books are eminently readable. Start reading one in the evening, and if you go to bed before finishing the thing, well, you’re a better man than I am, Gunga Din.

For the Christie novice, here’s my (extremely subjective) selections of the best of Poirot:

The Mysterious Affair at Styles (1920):

Why not begin at the very beginning? This is our introduction to Hercule Poirot (and his sidekick, Hastings), featuring murder in an English country house.

The Murder of Roger Ackroyd (1926):

For the love of God, don’t read anything about this one before you pick it up. If you follow that simple instruction, you will never guess who the murderer is.

Murder on the Orient Express (1934):

This is Poirot's most famous case (don’t tell me you haven’t at least heard of it). What's better, the exotic setting or the conspiracy at the heart of the mystery? Why not both?

Death on the Nile (1937):

Here we find obessive love and dastardly doings in Egypt. A luxury river cruise isn't always so fabulous...

Five Little Pigs (1942): Hercule Poirot solves a crime 16 years after the fact, merely by carefully listening to the conflicting testimony of the witnesses. Here Christie tries her hand at a Rashomon-style story--which was quite a trick, as this novel came out eight years before the famous movie.

And then, if you’re really hooked on Poirot, you may as well see him out with Curtain (published in 1975, written back in the 1940s).

Happy reading!

AUTHOR: Agatha Christie

IMAGE: book cover, Hercule Poirot Ultimate Collection, Strelbytskyy Multimedia Publishing