The Millers had two other children: Margaret Frary Miller (1879–1950), called Madge, who was eleven years Agatha's senior, and Louis Montant Miller (1880–1929), called Monty, ten years older than Agatha.īefore marrying and starting a family in London, she had served in a Devon hospital during the First World War, tending to troops coming back from the trenches.

She is the creator of two of the most enduring figures in crime literature-Hercule Poirot and Miss Jane Marple-and author of The Mousetrap, the longest-running play in the history of modern theatre.Īgatha Mary Clarissa Miller was born in Torquay, Devon, England, U.K., as the youngest of three. According to Index Translationum, she remains the most-translated individual author, having been translated into at least 103 languages. Her books have sold over a billion copies in the English language and a billion in translation. She wrote 66 crime novels and story collections, fourteen plays, and six novels under a pseudonym in Romance. Each novel, play and short story has its own entry on Goodreads.Īgatha Christie also wrote romance novels under the pseudonym Mary Westmacott, and was occasionally published under the name Agatha Christie Mallowan.ĭame Agatha Mary Clarissa Christie is the best-selling author of all time. These are just the novels Poirot also appears in this period in a play, Black Coffee, 1930, and two collections of short stories, Poirot Investigates, 1924, and Murder in the Mews, 1937.

Murders, 1936 12) Murder in Mesopotamia, 1936 13) Cards on the Table, 1936 14) Dumb Witness, 1937 and 15) Death on the Nile, 1937.

Librarian's note: the first fifteen novels in the Hercule Poirot series are 1) The Mysterious Affair at Styles, 1920 2) The Murder on the Links, 1923 3) The Murder of Roger Ackroyd, 1926 4) The Big Four, 1927 5) The Mystery of the Blue Train, 1928 6) Peril at End House, 1932 7) Lord Edgware Dies, 1933 8) Murder on the Orient Express, 1934 9) Three Act Tragedy, 1935 10) Death in the Clouds, 1935 11) The A.B.C. Suspects are plentiful, including the victim’s much younger husband, her resentful stepsons, her longtime hired companion, a young family friend working as a nurse, and a London specialist on poisons who just happens to be visiting the nearby village.Īll of them have secrets they are desperate to keep, but none can outwit Poirot as he navigates the ingenious red herrings and plot twists that contribute to Agatha Christie's well-deserved reputation as the queen of mystery. When Emily is poisoned and the authorities are baffled, Poirot puts his prodigious sleuthing skills to work. Agatha Christie's debut novel was also the first to feature Hercule Poirot, her famously eccentric Belgian detective.Ī refugee of the Great War, Poirot has settled in England near Styles Court, the country estate of his wealthy benefactor, the elderly Emily Inglethorp.

The mysterious affair at styles