An Agatha Christie Reading List

September 13, 2024

Literature

Nesha Ruther

Writer at Bond & Grace

If you read all the Hercule Poirot books and the Miss Marple books and you’re practically living on a knife’s edge until the next Knives Out movie is released, you may be as addicted to mysteries as Sherlock Holmes was to opium. And while nobody can write quite like the queen of crime Agatha Christie, here are eight authors she would undoubtedly approve of, and whose strange and surprising stories are sure to leave you satisfied.

The Hound of the Baskervilles by Arthur Conan Doyle

If there is one author who rivals Christie in terms of mysteries it is Sir Arthur Conan Doyle. When Christie briefly went missing in 1926, Doyle even consulted a medium in the hopes of finding her. Christie was eventually discovered (no thanks to the medium) but Doyle’s strength lay in writing mysteries, not solving them. The Hound of the Baskervilles is truly a classic for the ages.

The Woman in White by Wilkie Collins

While some of the books on this list we can only assume Christie would love, The Woman in White got a real-life endorsement from the queen of crime herself. It is well deserved, Collins was a contemporary of Charles Dickens and one of the first writers to combine Gothic influences with psychological realism to create a whole new perspective on horror and mystery.

Unexpected Night by Elizabeth Daly

Elizabeth Daly earned the lofty title of being Christie’s favorite American author. Set in 1940s New York, gentleman sleuth Henry Gamadge is out to solve the case of a death that looks natural but is anything but, a large inheritance, a mysterious nighttime rendezvous, and a troupe of actors who suddenly start dying off.

The Long Goodbye by Raymond Chandler

After the sophisticated and eccentric sleuths that Christie popularized came the rough, coarse, hardboiled PIs that marked the onset of noir. No character embodies this shift more than Raymond Chandler’s detective Philip Marlowe. The Long Goodbye is the sixth Philip Marlowe novel and one of Chandler’s best.

Gone Girl by Gillian Flynn

Christie was known for her clever and sophisticated plot twists, deftly leading the reader to believe one character committed the crime, only to reveal a sleight of hand and unveil the true suspect. Flynn pushed this technique to new heights with her iconic thriller Gone Girl, in which nothing is as it seems and the victim and killer may be one and the same.

My Sister, The Serial Killer by Oyinkan Braithwaite

The first book from Nigerian author Oyinkan Braithwaite follows the teenage Korede, who is the accomplice and cleanup crew for her beautiful sister Ayoola, who can’t stop killing her boyfriends. A darkly comic novel that Christie would surely approve of, My Sister the Serial Killer proves blood is thicker, and much harder to clean up, than water.

A Good Girl’s Guide to Murder by Holly Jackson

Following 17-year-old crime enthusiast Pippa Fitz-Amobi, this charming YA novel follows Christie’s legacy of grisly crimes committed in charming English villages. Five years earlier, popular girl Andi Bell was brutally killed, her boyfriend Sal Singh confessed before committing suicide, but Pippa is not convinced, and is out to find the real killer.

I Have Some Questions For You by Rebecca Makkai

If there is a 21st-century continuation of the mystery novel it is the true crime podcast. Pulitzer Prize finalist Rebecca Makkai combines both in this intensely readable mystery that follows podcaster Bodie Kane as she returns to her old boarding school to teach a course, and potentially re-open the case of Thalia Keith, her high school roommate who was murdered in the spring of their senior year.

So lock your doors, draw your blinds, and enjoy these Agatha-approved mysteries just in time for autumn!