The Queen of Crime, pt. 741
Stephen, desiring another blog entry, suggests that I rank the books of Agatha Christie from best to worst. What follows is a grading of the novels, the plot-linked story collections (asterisked), and The Big Four (in which four longish stories are glued together into one narrative).
GRADE: A
Cards on the Table
The Clocks
Partners in Crime*
The Moving Finger
The Seven Dials Mystery
Parker Pyne Investigates*
The Mysterious Mr. Quin*
At Bertram’s Hotel
Endless Night
The Mysterious Affair at Styles
And Then There Were None
GRADE: A-MINUS
The Pale Horse
Cat Among the Pigeons
Why Didn’t They Ask Evans?
Hickory Dickory Dock
The Body in the Library
Peril at End House
Appointment with Death
Ordeal By Innocence
Mrs. McGinty’s Dead
The Labours of Hercules*
Hallowe’en Party
The Secret Adversary
Lord Edgware Dies
The A.B.C. Murders
Poirot Investigates*
GRADE: B-PLUS
The Murder at the Vicarage
Murder in Mesopotamia
One, Two, Buckle My Shoe
Three Act Tragedy
The Hollow
Dead Man’s Folly
Sad Cypress
N or M?
GRADE: B
Crooked House
Sparkling Cyanide
Towards Zero
The Murder of Roger Ackroyd
The Thirteen Problems*
Third Girl
They Came to Baghdad
A Murder Is Announced
Murder Is Easy
GRADE: B-MINUS
By the Pricking of My Thumbs
Nemesis
The Mystery of the Blue Train
Destination Unknown
Taken at the Flood
Five Little Pigs
The Sittaford Mystery
The Secret of Chimneys
A Caribbean Mystery
GRADE: C
The Man in the Brown Suit
The Big Four
A Pocket Full of Rye
They Do It With Mirrors
Hercule Poirot’s Christmas
Murder on the Orient Express
The Murder on the Links
Death in the Clouds
GRADE: D
Passenger to Frankfurt
Elephants Can Remember
Postern of Fate
Curtain
I haven’t read all of 4.50 from Paddington, Death Comes as the End, Death on the Nile, Dumb Witness, Evil Under the Sun, The Mirror Crack’d from Side to Side, or Sleeping Murder. The best of these, I suspect, are Death on the Nile and Evil Under the Sun.
I haven’t read any of the “Mary Westmacott” romance novels, either. They’re supposed to be rather good. And I haven’t read the autobiography, Come, Tell Me How You Live.
GRADE: A
Cards on the Table
The Clocks
Partners in Crime*
The Moving Finger
The Seven Dials Mystery
Parker Pyne Investigates*
The Mysterious Mr. Quin*
At Bertram’s Hotel
Endless Night
The Mysterious Affair at Styles
And Then There Were None
GRADE: A-MINUS
The Pale Horse
Cat Among the Pigeons
Why Didn’t They Ask Evans?
Hickory Dickory Dock
The Body in the Library
Peril at End House
Appointment with Death
Ordeal By Innocence
Mrs. McGinty’s Dead
The Labours of Hercules*
Hallowe’en Party
The Secret Adversary
Lord Edgware Dies
The A.B.C. Murders
Poirot Investigates*
GRADE: B-PLUS
The Murder at the Vicarage
Murder in Mesopotamia
One, Two, Buckle My Shoe
Three Act Tragedy
The Hollow
Dead Man’s Folly
Sad Cypress
N or M?
GRADE: B
Crooked House
Sparkling Cyanide
Towards Zero
The Murder of Roger Ackroyd
The Thirteen Problems*
Third Girl
They Came to Baghdad
A Murder Is Announced
Murder Is Easy
GRADE: B-MINUS
By the Pricking of My Thumbs
Nemesis
The Mystery of the Blue Train
Destination Unknown
Taken at the Flood
Five Little Pigs
The Sittaford Mystery
The Secret of Chimneys
A Caribbean Mystery
GRADE: C
The Man in the Brown Suit
The Big Four
A Pocket Full of Rye
They Do It With Mirrors
Hercule Poirot’s Christmas
Murder on the Orient Express
The Murder on the Links
Death in the Clouds
GRADE: D
Passenger to Frankfurt
Elephants Can Remember
Postern of Fate
Curtain
I haven’t read all of 4.50 from Paddington, Death Comes as the End, Death on the Nile, Dumb Witness, Evil Under the Sun, The Mirror Crack’d from Side to Side, or Sleeping Murder. The best of these, I suspect, are Death on the Nile and Evil Under the Sun.
I haven’t read any of the “Mary Westmacott” romance novels, either. They’re supposed to be rather good. And I haven’t read the autobiography, Come, Tell Me How You Live.