She’s called the Queen of Crime. And with over 70 mysteries to her name, it’s little wonder why. Agatha Christie has long been a favourite author over here at The 52 Book Club. (She was our author of the year on our very first challenge!) Her mysteries include favourites like And Then There Were None, Murder on the Orient Express, and Death on the Nile.
That’s why we’re excited to announce our very first author challenge — the Agatha Christie mystery challenge!
How our Agatha Christie Mystery Challenge works:
The goal of this challenge is simple — read through all of Agatha Christie’s mystery stories. Unlike our annual challenges, this doesn’t have to be completed in a year.
Here are three ideas for working through the challenge:
- Read the books in order of publishing date. (List below) For this version of the challenge, simply complete the list in order.
- Complete the list randomly. While many of the books feature the same characters, it’s not necessary to read them in order. Pick and choose from the list as you desire, checking off reads as you go.
- Mystery version! Draw from a hat! Finally, what better way to complete an Agatha Christie mystery challenge than with a little mystery of your own. Download the pdf below. Cut out each of the book titles and place them in a hat. Draw to randomly select your next read!
The Agatha Christie Mystery Challenge
Books are listed in order of publishing date. Click the button below to download a free printable version.
| BOOK TITLE | Publishing Year |
| The Mysterious Affair at Styles | 1920 |
| The Secret Adversary | 1922 |
| The Murder on the Links | 1923 |
| The Man in the Brown Suit | 1924 |
| Poirot Investigates | 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 |
| Partners in Crime – Short Stories | 1929 |
| The Mysterious Mr Quin – Short Stories | 1930 |
| The Murder at the Vicarage | 1930 |
| The Sittaford Mystery | 1931 |
| Peril at End House | 1932 |
| The Thirteen Problems – Short Stories | 1932 |
| Lord Edgware Dies | 1933 |
| The Hound of Death – Short Stories | 1933 |
| Murder on the Orient Express | 1934 |
| The Listerdale Mystery – Short Stories | 1934 |
| Why Didn’t They Ask Evans? | 1934 |
| Parker Pyne Investigates – Short Stories | 1934 |
| Three Act Tragedy | 1934 |
| 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 |
| Murder in the Mews – Short Stories | 1937 |
| Appointment with Death | 1938 |
| Hercule Poirot’s Christmas | 1938 |
| Murder is Easy | 1939 |
| And Then There Were None | 1939 |
| 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 |
| The Labours of Hecules – Short Stories | 1947 |
| 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 Adventure of the Christmas Pudding – Short Stories | 1960 |
| 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 |
| Poirot’s Early Cases – Short Stories | 1974 |
| Curtain | 1975 |
| Sleeping Murder | 1976 |
| Miss Marple’s Final Cases – Short Stories | 1979 |
| Problem at Pollensa Bay – Short Stories | 1991 |
| While the Light Lasts – Short Stories | 1997 |
Download the FREE PRINTABLE here:
Challenge Notes:
Since this is a Christie mystery challenge, we didn’t include autobiographies or any stories published under her Mary Westmacott pseudonym. We also chose to keep this strictly Christie and didn’t add the Charles Osborne adaptations of her plays or any novels by Sophie Hannah. Feel free to add those to your personal challenge if you wish.
We also chose to only include the UK short story collections to avoid reading the short stories twice. You can swap these out for the US editions if you prefer. On the printable, short story collections have been annotated with an asterisk.*
So, who’s in for this challenge? What is YOUR favorite Agatha Christie novel?
I would love to read the books in order, but would also like to see which prompts they fulfill. I see that they are listed on The Arctic Fury, but I completed most of those already. Is there a completed list we can consult? Between the 52Books Reading Challenge and Book Club I am booked, but am always pulled into by FOMO (Fear of Missing Out). I have only listened to Murder on the Orient Express (last year’s “takes place on a form of transportation” prompt.
Thanks!
Hmm, I don’t have a full list of prompts for each book but for the first book, Mysterious Affair at Styles it could potentially fit “an author that is deceased,” “mentioned in another book” “made into a TV series” or “an ending that surprises you.”
I’ve read several of her books and short stories over the years, and of course watched all of the Poirot and Marple movies on PBS. I have my hands full with the 52 book challenge, but I’ll mark off ones I’ve read. I’m actually reading “The ABC Murders” for a book mentioned in another book, and “Destination Unknown” for a book with a first chapter ending on an ODD page. Hmmm, did she write any books with a “dragon” reference??? Haha.
Thanks for the list and the marvelous challenge.
Yes, even if you don’t do the full challenge I hope the list is helpful to you as you track your reads! Those two sound like great reads for the 2021 challenge! We might have to do a bit of digging to find a dragon reference. 😉
I have been trying to collect all her Poirot books and was going to try to read them in order. So I will totally be on board for this. It may take years but will be great!
Yay! I’ve been trying to build up my collection too. Definitely a long term goal to read through them all but should be fun!
This should be fun! My sister has the whole collection she was gifted at her last birthday. The guests to her Murder Mystery Birthday party arrived in costume to “solve the crime” and came bearing Agatha Christie books as their presents. Each guest brought one book to as many as three books making sure to check off their selected titles on a Master List to ensure no duplicates. Guess who is going to visit her sister to borrow a few (many) of these wonderful books?!
The entire collection! That’s the most amazing birthday idea ever. And what fun having a murder mystery themed party. Now I know what I want once the pandemic ends! ?
I tried to read one Agatha Christie novel years ago and I couldn’t get into it. But, my reading tastes have changed a lot so I’m going to try this challenge. I’m always up for trying new challenges and different authors! Thank you for coming up with this, Liz! ?
It’s fun how reading preferences change with time. Hope you enjoy this time! Do you remember which book it was you tried to read last time?
Unfortunately, I don’t remember which one it was. I looked over the list and several sound really familiar, but they’re so well known that it’s probably just from seeing them mentioned.
Liz, I joined this challenge, expecting it will take me years to accomplish as I am participating in your 52books challenge and also the Indigo one.
I went to a book sale a couple of weeks ago and came home with several Agatha Christie books to add to the very few I already had (and haven’t read yet). I will work at adding to my collection over time. Reading has been a love of mine since before I could actually read the words, so I’m enjoying these challenges. ?
I am so glad you’re enjoying them, Lynn! I am also expecting this challenge to take me years to finish, haha. But it helps that it’s so fun to hunt the book sales for Christies! 😉
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Could this be added to StoryGraph
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Is there a Story Graph Challenge for this?