N or M?

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He hires an actress to play his late wife, but during this second party he himself drops dead, also from cyanide poisoning. The best Agatha Christie books all have something unique about them — often a twist on, or a blending of, genre — but this one is just a very solid whodunnit. Most of the best Agatha Christie books have a murder at their centre, and someone — often Poirot or Marple — to solve it. Here, however, we have the Belgian sleuth on the trail of a serial killer. To say any more would be to spoil it but Endless Night is a fantastic gothic novel. It’s still Christie, which means it remains mysterious and trusting people is a bad idea. If you haven’t read Murder on the Orient Expressand have always wondered if it lives up to the hype, it certainly does.

Like the other best Christie novels, Crooked House is not a Poirot or Marple novel. It is a standalone story about a young British man named Charles. This is a Christie novel with a really great title (though it was originally published in the US under the name Remembered Death). Her death is ruled as suicide, but her husband soon receives an anonymous note telling him that it was murder, and so he recreates that same dinner party with those same guests. When we meet Charles, he’s working in Cairo. There, he meets Sophia: a fellow Brit who comes from a big suburban family in London: the Leonides Family.Peril at End Houseis one of those Christie novels that is more famous than most but not quite as celebrated as it should be (especially for so high on this list of Agatha Christie books ranked). The titular library is not a public one, but rather the personal library of Colonel and Mrs Bantry, who awake to find a dead woman on the hearth rug. There are many moving parts to this novel, and Poirot is of course the most entertaining game piece on the board.

Fortunately, Charles’ father is an inspector, and so the two of them spend time at the titular crooked house, investigating the death and interviewing members of Sophia’s family. Despite its popularity, it is not her very best novel, but it’s also not overrated. Murder on the Orient Express really is just that good, and most of this is down to the incredible twist.

III. Major aspect

Told from the perspective of Poirot’s long-term friend and confidante, Hastings, who is visiting from his new home in South America, The ABC Murders begins with Poirot having received a taunting typewritten letter. It’s a wonderfully simple premise, which is one of the novel’s greatest strengths. And the fact that we have no detective gives it an air of claustrophobia and tension. On the same day, Mike meets a young American girl; the rich heiress to a great American business and fortune.