The Detective Novels of Agatha Christie
A Reader’s Guide
$39.95
In stock
About the Book
The most popular mystery writer of all time concocted a rich recipe of intrigue, character, and setting. All of Agatha Christie’s 66 detective novels are covered here in great detail. Each chapter begins with general comments on a novel’s geographical and historical setting, identifying current events, fashions, fads and popular interests that relate to the story. A concise plot summary and comprehensive character listing follow, and each novel is discussed within Christie’s overall body of work, with an emphasis on the development of themes, narrative technique, and characters over the course of her prolific career. An appendix translates Poirot’s French and defines the British idiomatic words and phrases that give Christie’s novels so much of their flavor.
About the Author(s)
Bibliographic Details
James Zemboy
Format: softcover (7 x 10)
Pages: 448
Bibliographic Info: appendix, index
Copyright Date: 2016 [2008]
pISBN: 978-1-4766-6595-5
eISBN: 978-0-7864-5168-5
Imprint: McFarland
Table of Contents
Preface 1
Introduction 3
The Mysterious Affair at Styles (1920) 15
The Secret Adversary (1922) 20
Murder on the Links (1923) 24
The Man in the Brown Suit (1924) 30
The Secret of Chimneys (1925) 34
The Murder of Roger Ackroyd (1926) 39
The Big Four (1927) 43
The Mystery of the Blue Train (1928) 48
The Seven Dials Mystery (1929) 53
Summary for the 1920s 57
Murder at the Vicarage (1930) 57
Murder at Hazelmoor (1931) 62
Peril at End House (1932) 69
Thirteen at Dinner (1933) 74
The Boomerang Clue (1934) 80
Murder in the Calais Coach (1934) 86
Murder in Three Acts (1935) 92
Death in the Air (1935) 97
The A.B.C. Murders (1935) 105
Murder in Mesopotamia (1936) 111
Cards on the Table (1936) 117
Death on the Nile (1937) 125
Poirot Loses a Client (1937) 131
Appointment with Death (1938) 144
A Holiday for Murder (1938) 149
Easy to Kill (1939) 155
And Then There Were None (1939) 162
Summary for the 1930s 166
Sad Cypress (1940) 167
The Patriotic Murders (1940) 174
Evil Under the Sun (1941) 181
N or M? (1941) 187
The Body in the Library (1942) 192
The Moving Finger (1942) 200
Murder in Retrospect (1943) 204
Towards Zero (1944) 209
Death Comes as the End (1945) 215
Remembered Death (1945) 218
Murder After Hours (1946) 224
There Is a Tide (1948) 231
Crooked House (1949) 239
Summary for the 1940s 243
A Murder Is Announced(1950) 245
They Came to Baghdad (1951) 253
Mrs. McGinty’s Dead (1952) 257
Murder with Mirrors (1952) 266
A Pocket Full of Rye (1953) 270
Funerals Are Fatal (1953) 275
So Many Steps to Death (1954) 282
Hickory, Dickory, Death (1955) 288
Dead Man’s Folly (1956) 293
What Mrs. McGillicuddy Saw (1957) 303
Ordeal by Innocence (1958) 311
Cat Among the Pigeons (1959) 315
Summary for the 1950s 323
The Pale Horse (1961) 327
The Mirror Crack’d (1962) 333
The Clocks (1963) 342
A Caribbean Mystery (1964) 348
At Bertram’s Hotel (1965) 353
Third Girl (1966) 360
Endless Night (1967) 367
By the Pricking of My Thumbs (1968) 369
Hallowe’en Party (1969) 375
Summary for the 1960s 382
Passenger to Frankfurt (1970) 382
Nemesis (1971) 387
Elephants Can Remember (1972) 393
Postern of Fate (1974) 398
Curtain (1975) 403
Sleeping Murder (1976) 407
Summary for the 1970s 414
Appendix: British Expressions 417
Title and Character Index 425
Subject Index 441
Book Reviews & Awards
“thoughtful and entertaining…highly useful…achieves its goal”—Booklist; “may be the most thorough guide to the 60 novels published between 1920 and 1976…provides thoughtful and helpful commentary”—ARBA; “a very worthwhile book for…a good encyclopedic introduction to the world of this most prolific and well loved crime author”—Reference Reviews; “excellent”—GAdetection; “the writing is lively, the author’s enthusiasm infectious”—Mystery Scene.
