Mirror, Murder On The Wall: Is Agatha Christie The Fairest Of Them All?

Here are my Top Ten picks for the best Agatha Christie books, at least in my opinion. And I take great pains to explain why, using the textual evidence from her books to show how peerlessly brilliant she was.

Agatha Christie is the best-selling single author of all time. She has sold over 4 billion copies to date (they’ve stopped counting!), and has been translated into over 100 languages. She has been outsold only by the Bible and Shakespeare. Her influence on the murder mystery genre is still being felt in the 21st century, with authors like RT Raichev, (a recent discovery of mine), frequently featured in Ellery Queen Mystery Magazine, and who has authored 9 published novels, carrying Agatha Christie’s literary torch. The books under discussion in my own book are The Mysterious Affair at Styles, Peril at End House, The Murder of Roger Ackroyd (masterpiece), Evil under the Sun, The Body in the Library, A Murder is Announced, Murder at the Vicarage, The ABC Murders, Death on the Nile and Lord Edgware Dies (the last two of which are my personal favourites).