Agatha Christie Mystery Challenge

The 52 Book Club's Agatha Christie Challenge

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!

The Agatha Christie Mystery Challenge -- photo of eight different Agatha Christie covers in a row

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:

  1. Read the books in order of publishing date. (List below) For this version of the challenge, simply complete the list in order.
  1. 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.
  1. 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 TITLEPublishing Year
The Mysterious Affair at Styles1920
The Secret Adversary1922
The Murder on the Links1923
The Man in the Brown Suit1924
Poirot Investigates1924
The Secret of Chimneys1925
The Murder of Roger Ackroyd1926
The Big Four1927
The Mystery of the Blue Train1928
The Seven Dials Mystery1929
Partners in Crime – Short Stories1929
The Mysterious Mr Quin – Short Stories1930
The Murder at the Vicarage1930
The Sittaford Mystery1931
Peril at End House1932
The Thirteen Problems – Short Stories1932
Lord Edgware Dies1933
The Hound of Death – Short Stories1933
Murder on the Orient Express1934
The Listerdale Mystery – Short Stories1934
Why Didn’t They Ask Evans?1934
Parker Pyne Investigates – Short Stories1934
Three Act Tragedy1934
Death in the Clouds1935
The A.B.C Murders1936
Murder in Mesopotamia1936
Cards on the Table1936
Dumb Witness1937
Death on the Nile1937
Murder in the Mews – Short Stories1937
Appointment with Death1938
Hercule Poirot’s Christmas1938
Murder is Easy1939
And Then There Were None1939
Sad Cypress1940
One, Two, Buckle My Shoe1940
Evil Under the Sun1941
N or M?1941
The Body in the Library1942
Five Little Pigs1942
The Moving Finger1942
Towards Zero1944
Death Comes as the End1944
Sparkling Cyanide1945
The Hollow1946
The Labours of Hecules – Short Stories1947
Taken at the Flood1948
Crooked House1949
A Murder is Announced1950
They Came to Baghdad1951
Mrs. McGinty’s Dead1952
They Do It with Mirrors1952
After the Funeral1953
A Pocket Full of Rye1953
Destination Unknown1954
Hickory Dickory Dock1955
Dead Man’s Folly1956
4.50 from Paddington1957
Ordeal by Innocence1958
Cat Among the Pigeons1959
The Adventure of the Christmas Pudding – Short Stories1960
The Pale Horse1961
The Mirror Crack’d from Side to Side1962
The Clocks1963
A Caribbean Mystery1964
At Bertram’s Hotel1965
Third Girl1966
Endless Night1967
By the Pricking of My Thumbs1968
Hallowe’en Party1969
Passenger to Frankfurt1970
Nemesis1971
Elephants Can Remember1972
Postern of Fate1973
Poirot’s Early Cases – Short Stories1974
Curtain1975
Sleeping Murder1976
Miss Marple’s Final Cases – Short Stories1979
Problem at Pollensa Bay – Short Stories1991
While the Light Lasts – Short Stories1997

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?

21 thoughts on “Agatha Christie Mystery Challenge”

  1. 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!

    1. 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.”

  2. 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.

    1. 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. 😉

  3. Char Mulligan-Micek

    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!

    1. 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!

  4. 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?!

    1. 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! ?

  5. 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! ?

    1. 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?

      1. 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.

  6. Lynn Davidson

    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. ?

    1. Liz Mannegren

      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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