Agatha Christie Books in Order: Poirot, Marple & More

Looking for Agatha Christie books in order after watching Murder on the Orient Express? Or maybe you’ve already read a few Poirot or Miss Marple mysteries and just want to know what comes next. Either way, Christie’s bibliography gets bigger and messier fast once you move beyond the most famous titles.

Christie wrote 66 detective novels, 14 short story collections, several standalone works, and The Mousetrap, the longest-running play in the world. So whether you want a simple checklist or a complete guide to her different series and characters, having everything organized in one place makes the reading order a lot easier to follow.

Below, you’ll find all of Agatha Christie’s books grouped by category so you can track what you’ve read and figure out where to go next.

Jump to:

• The Hercule Poirot Books
• The Miss Marple Books
• Other Agatha Christie Books
• Short Stories & Non-Fiction Books
• Agatha Christie Writing as Mary Westmacott
• Who is Agatha Christie?
• Agatha Christie Books FAQ

The Hercule Poirot Books

Hercule Poirot is Agatha Christie’s most famous detective, and his books are usually best read in publication order. Most of the mysteries work as standalones, but reading them this way lets you follow Poirot’s career as Christie wrote it, catch the occasional callback to earlier cases, and build naturally to Curtain, which should be saved for last.

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. Black Coffee (1930 play; novelised by Charles Osborne in 1998)
7. Peril at End House (1932)     
8. Lord Edgware Dies / Thirteen at Dinner (1933)    
9. Murder on the Orient Express / Murder in the Calais Coach (1934)      
10. Three Act Tragedy / Murder in Three Acts (1934)    
11. Death in the Clouds / Death in the Air (1935)   
12. The A.B.C. Murders (1936)   
13. Murder in Mesopotamia (1936)      
14. Cards on the Table (1936)    
15. Dumb Witness / Poirot Loses A Client (1937)  
16. Death on the Nile (1937)     
17. Appointment with Death (1938)    
18. Hercule Poirot’s Christmas / Holiday for Murder / Murder for Christmas (1938)  
19. One, Two, Buckle My Shoe / Overdose of Death (1940) 
20. Sad Cypress (1940)     
21. Evil Under the Sun (1941)    
22. Five Little Pigs / Murder in Retrospect (1942)  
23. The Hollow / Murder After Hours (1946)   
24. Taken at the Flood (1948)    
25. Mrs. McGinty’s Dead / Blood Will Tell (1952)  
26. After the Funeral / Funerals Are Fatal (1953)      
27. Hickory Dickory Dock (1955) 
28. Dead Man’s Folly (1956)       
29. Cat Among the Pigeons (1959) 
30. The Clocks (1963)       
31. Third Girl (1966) 
32. Hallowe’en Party (1969)       
33. Elephants Can Remember (1972)  
34. Curtain (1975)      

New Hercule Poirot Mysteries by Sophie Hannah

Agatha Christie gave Hercule Poirot a true ending in Curtain, a novel she wrote during the Second World War and held back for decades before its publication in 1975, just months before her death.

That could have been the end of Poirot for good. Instead, with the approval of Agatha Christie’s estate, Sophie Hannah later brought the detective back for a new run of mysteries. These books aren’t part of Christie’s original Poirot series, but they are official continuation novels for readers who want more cases after finishing the classic books.

Each one works as its own mystery, but they’re still best read in publication order.

1. The Monogram Murders (2014)
2. Closed Casket (2016)
3. The Mystery of Three Quarters (2018)
4. The Killings at Kingfisher Hill (2020)
5. Hercule Poirot’s Silent Night (2023)
6. The Last Death of the Year (2025)

The Hercule Poirot Collections

The Hercule Poirot Collections are all short fiction written by Agatha Christie about her most famous detective, Hercule Poirot. These books are best read in the order of publication.

1. Poirot Investigates (1924)
2. Murder in the Mews: Four Cases of Hercule Poirot (1937)
3. The Labours of Hercules (1947)
4. The Under Dog and Other Stories (1951)
5. The Adventure of the Christmas Pudding (1960)
6. Double Sin and Other Stories (1961)      
7. The Early Cases of Hercule Poirot (1974)
8. The Casebook of Hercule Poirot (1984)
9. The Harlequin Tea Set and Other Stories (1997)
10. While the Light Lasts and Other Stories (1997)
11. Hercule Poirot: The Complete Short Stories (2013)
12. The Grey Cells of Mr. Poirot (2020)

The Miss Marple Books

Miss Marple is Agatha Christie’s famously observant amateur detective, a quiet elderly woman from the village of St. Mary Mead who has a sharp eye for human nature and a habit of noticing what other people miss.

Like Poirot, her books are best read in publication order. Most still work as standalones, but reading them this way gives you the clearest sense of how Christie developed Miss Marple and her world over time.

1. The Murder at the Vicarage (1930)
2. The Body in the Library (1942)      
3. The Moving Finger (1942)    
4. A Murder is Announced (1950)      
5. They Do It with Mirrors (1952)      
6. A Pocket Full of Rye (1953)  
7. 4:50 From Paddington (1957)       
8. The Mirror Crack’d from Side to Side (1962)    
9. A Caribbean Mystery (1964) 
10. At Bertram’s Hotel (1965)    
11. Nemesis (1971)  
12. Sleeping Murder (1976)

New Miss Marple Mysteries

Agatha Christie’s original Miss Marple books may be finished, but the character is still returning in new official continuation stories. Following earlier estate-approved projects like Marple: Twelve New Mysteries, Miss Marple is now being brought back in novel form by Lucy Foley, the bestselling author of The Guest List and The Midnight Feast.

Like the Sophie Hannah Poirot books, this is not part of Christie’s original Marple series, but it is an authorized continuation for readers who want another mystery featuring one of her most famous detectives.

1. Murder at the Grand Alpine Hotel (2026)

Miss Marple Collections and Later Compilations

There are also several Miss Marple short story collections, and they’re best read in publication order alongside the novels. Some older editions can be harder to track down, especially depending on the market, but the core collections are still an important part of Marple’s bibliography.

Miss Marple has also returned in newer continuation projects beyond Christie’s original books. Marple: Twelve New Mysteries was published in 2022 and features twelve new stories by authors including Leigh Bardugo, Val McDermid, Ruth Ware, and Lucy Foley.

1. The Thirteen Problems (1932)
2. Miss Marple’s Final Cases (1979)
3. Miss Marple: The Complete Short Stories (1985)
4. Marple: Twelve New Mysteries (2022)

Other Agatha Christie Books

Tommy and Tuppence Books

Agatha Christie reportedly considered Tommy and Tuppence among her favorite characters to write, and their series feels different from her other detective fiction for a reason. Tommy Beresford and Prudence “Tuppence” Cowley grow older across the course of these stories, so publication order gives you the clearest sense of their relationship, their lives, and the way the series develops over time.

Two titles sometimes seen on their own, The Affair of the Pink Pearl and The House of Lurking Death, are short stories, and both can be found in Partners in Crime.

1. The Secret Adversary (1922)
2. Partners in Crime (1929) (Short Story Collection)
3. N or M? (1941)
4. By the Pricking of My Thumbs (1968)
5. Postern of Fate (1973)

Superintendent Battle Books

Superintendent Battle is one of Agatha Christie’s recurring police detectives, known for his calm, practical approach and his reputation as a steady, intelligent investigator. Unlike Poirot or Miss Marple, Battle appears in only a small number of Christie’s books, but he still plays an important role in her larger body of detective fiction.

His novels are also notable for their connections to other Christie characters and storylines. Along the way, Battle crosses paths with figures like Hercule Poirot, Ariadne Oliver, and Colonel Race, which gives this corner of Christie’s bibliography a slightly more interconnected feel than readers might expect.

1. The Secret of Chimneys (1925)      
2. The Seven Dials Mystery (1929)   
3. Cards on the Table (1936)     
4. Murder is Easy / Easy to Kill (1939) 
5. Towards Zero (1944)

Colonel Race Books

Colonel Race is one of Agatha Christie’s more polished and understated recurring investigators. A former army officer and intelligence agent, he tends to bring a steadier, more official presence than some of her other detectives.

His books also overlap with other familiar Christie characters. He appears with Hercule Poirot in Death on the Nile, and Cards on the Table brings together Race, Poirot, Superintendent Battle, and Ariadne Oliver in one of Christie’s most notable crossover mysteries.

1. The Man in the Brown Suit (1924)
2. Cards on the Table (1936)
3. Death on the Nile (1937)
4. Sparkling Cyanide (1944)

Harley Quin Stories  

Not to be confused with the DC Comics character, Agatha Christie created her own Harley Quin, a mysterious figure inspired by the Harlequin of the Commedia dell’arte. Quin is one of Christie’s strangest and most unconventional recurring characters, often appearing less like a traditional detective and more like a catalyst who helps Mr. Satterthwaite see the truth behind love, death, and human behavior.

The core Harley Quin entry is The Mysterious Mr Quin, a short story collection published in 1930. Titles like The Love Detectives and The Coming of Mr Quin are short stories connected to the character, not separate Harley Quin books.

1. The Mysterious Mr. Quin: A Short Story Collection (1930)

Standalone Books

Agatha Christie also wrote nearly a dozen standalone novels that don’t contain any of her iconic detective characters. Despite not featuring the likes of Poirot or Miss Marple, these books are quintessential Christie mysteries and must-reads for any fan.

1. The Sittaford Mystery / The Murder at Hazelmoor (1931)
2. Why Didn’t They Ask Evans? (1934)
3. And Then There Were None (1939)
4. Death Comes as the End (1944)
5. Crooked House (1949)
6. They Came to Baghdad (1951)
7. Destination Unknown (1954)
8. Ordeal by Innocence (1958)
9. The Pale Horse (1961)
10. Endless Night (1967)
11. Passenger to Frankfurt (1970)

Short Stories & Non-Fiction Books

Short Story Collections

Agatha Christie loved to write short stories and she wrote more than just the collections listed above for Hercule Poirot, Miss Marple, and others. Here are the rest of her short story collections in order of publication.

1. The Regatta Mystery and Other Stories (1932)
2. The Hound of Death (1933)
3. The Listerdale Mystery (1934)
4. Parker Pyne Investigates (1934)
5. The Witness for the Prosecution and Other Stories (1948)
6. Three Blind Mice and Other Stories (1952)
7. Star Over Bethlehem and Other Stories (1965)
8. The Golden Ball and Other Stories (1971)

Later themed and repackaged collections have also been published, but the list above focuses on Agatha Christie’s original short story collections rather than later recompiled editions.

Non-Fiction Books

If you are looking to learn more about Agatha Christie and her life, then her non-fiction books will be the perfect reading material for you.

1. Come, Tell Me How You Live (1946)       
2. Agatha Christie: An Autobiography (1977)
3. The Grand Tour: Around the World With The Queen of Mystery (2012)

Agatha Christie Writing as Mary Westmacott

Agatha Christie also published six novels under the pseudonym Mary Westmacott. These books are very different from her detective fiction, focusing more on relationships, emotion, and psychology than on mystery or crime.

For years, Christie kept her connection to the Mary Westmacott name secret, which helped the books stand apart from her better-known detective work. If you’re looking for Christie beyond Poirot, Miss Marple, and her other mystery novels, this is the part of her bibliography that shows a very different side of her writing.

1. Giant’s Bread (1930)
2. Unfinished Portrait (1934)       
3. Absent in the Spring (1944)
4. The Rose and the Yew Tree (1947)
5. A Daughter’s a Daughter (1952)
6. The Burden (1956)

Who is Agatha Christie?

Agatha Christie is one of the most famous mystery writers ever published. Best known for creating Hercule Poirot and Miss Marple, she helped define detective fiction for generations of readers and remains one of the central names in the genre.

Born in Torquay, England, in 1890, Christie taught herself to read as a child and later wrote her first novel after a challenge from her sister. During the First World War, she worked in a hospital dispensary, where she gained firsthand knowledge of medicines and poisons that would later become one of the most convincing details in her fiction.

Christie drew heavily from observation, travel, and the people around her, which gave her books a sense of realism even at their most intricate. That blend of memorable characters, clever plotting, and sharp understanding of human nature helped make her the bestselling fiction writer of all time, with more than two billion books sold worldwide.

Agatha Christie Books FAQ

What was Agatha Christie’s first book?

Agatha Christie’s first published novel was The Mysterious Affair at Styles in 1920. According to the official Christie site, she wrote it after a dare from her sister Madge.

Did Agatha Christie only write detective novels?

No. Although Christie is most famous for her mysteries, her bibliography also includes romantic novels as Mary Westmacott, short story collections, stage plays, and autobiographical works. That range is part of why her bibliography can feel much bigger than many readers expect.

Does Agatha Christie have standalone novels?

Yes. Not every Agatha Christie book belongs to a recurring detective series. The official Christie site has a dedicated reading list for her standalone novels, including titles that do not star one of her major recurring detectives.

Looking for similar books in order?

If you want more mystery authors and reading-order guides like this one, start with my Mystery Books in Order index.

• Books in Order (Full Index)
• Louise Penny Books in Order
• Sherlock Holmes Books in Order
• Richard Osman Books in Order