When it comes to sales of fiction, only Shakespeare comes close to crime expert Agatha Christie - both are estimated to have shifted at least billion copies of their novels and plays respectively.
The Queen of Crime wrote 66 detective novels - including those featuring her two best-known characters, Miss Marple and Hercule Poirot - along with 14 short story collection.
She also wrote the play The Mousetrap, which became the world’s longest-running play after first being staged in London’s West End in 1952 (February 20124 saw its 29,500th performance).
With so many Agatha Chistie books to choose from, it’s hard for a beginner to know where to start.
To help out, we’ve had a look at how the millions of readers of book website Goodreads have rated her books.
Here are the top 10.
She also wrote the play The Mousetrap, which became the world’s longest-running play after first being staged in London’s West End in 1952 (February 20124 saw its 29,500th performance).
![The final book in the Poirot series - Curtain - takes fifth spot. Published in 1975, it scores an average rating of 4.10 from 44,704 reviews. "A wheelchair-bound Poirot returns to Styles, the venue of his first investigation, where he knows another murder is going to take place… The house guests at Styles seemed perfectly pleasant to Captain Hastings; there was his own daughter Judith, an inoffensive ornithologist called Norton, dashing Mr Allerton, brittle Miss Cole, Doctor Franklin and his fragile wife Barbara , Nurse Craven, Colonel Luttrell and his charming wife, Daisy, and the charismatic Boyd-Carrington. So Hastings was shocked to learn from Hercule Poirot’s declaration that one of them was a five-times murderer. True, the ageing detective was crippled with arthritis, but had his deductive instincts finally deserted him?…"](https://www.thestar.co.uk/jpim-static/image/2024/06/17/13/37/Untitled%20design%20-%202024-06-17T141008.726.jpg.jpg?crop=3:2&trim=&width=800)
5. Curtain
The final book in the Poirot series - Curtain - takes fifth spot. Published in 1975, it scores an average rating of 4.10 from 44,704 reviews. "A wheelchair-bound Poirot returns to Styles, the venue of his first investigation, where he knows another murder is going to take place… The house guests at Styles seemed perfectly pleasant to Captain Hastings; there was his own daughter Judith, an inoffensive ornithologist called Norton, dashing Mr Allerton, brittle Miss Cole, Doctor Franklin and his fragile wife Barbara , Nurse Craven, Colonel Luttrell and his charming wife, Daisy, and the charismatic Boyd-Carrington. So Hastings was shocked to learn from Hercule Poirot’s declaration that one of them was a five-times murderer. True, the ageing detective was crippled with arthritis, but had his deductive instincts finally deserted him?…" | Contributed
![Standalone 1949 novel Crooked House is readers' sixth favourite Agatha Christie Book, with an average rating of 4.08 from 77,076 reviews. "A wealthy Greek businessman is found dead at his London home… The Leonides were one big happy family living in a sprawling, ramshackle mansion. That was until the head of the household, Aristide, was murdered with a fatal barbiturate injection. Suspicion naturally falls on the old man’s young widow, fifty years his junior. But the murderer has reckoned without the tenacity of Charles Hayward, fiance of the late millionare’s granddaughter…"](https://www.thestar.co.uk/jpim-static/image/2024/06/17/13/28/Untitled%20design%20-%202024-06-17T141439.490.jpg.jpg?crop=3:2&trim=&width=800)
6. Crooked House
Standalone 1949 novel Crooked House is readers' sixth favourite Agatha Christie Book, with an average rating of 4.08 from 77,076 reviews. "A wealthy Greek businessman is found dead at his London home… The Leonides were one big happy family living in a sprawling, ramshackle mansion. That was until the head of the household, Aristide, was murdered with a fatal barbiturate injection. Suspicion naturally falls on the old man’s young widow, fifty years his junior. But the murderer has reckoned without the tenacity of Charles Hayward, fiance of the late millionare’s granddaughter…" | Contributed
![The first Miss Marple book comes in seventh, with 1930's Murder at the Vicarage scoring an average rating of 4.05 from 190,814 reviews. "Nobody liked Colonel Protheroe. So when he’s found dead in the vicarage study, there’s no absence of suspects in the seemingly peaceful village of St Mary Mead. In fact, Jane Marple can think of at least seven. As gossip abounds in the parlours and kitchens of the parish, everyone becomes an amateur detective. The police dismiss her as a prying busybody, but only the ingenious Miss Marple can uncover the truth..."](https://www.thestar.co.uk/jpim-static/image/2024/06/17/13/58/Untitled%20design%20-%202024-06-17T141901.038.jpg.jpg?crop=3:2&trim=&width=800)
7. The Murder at the Vicarage
The first Miss Marple book comes in seventh, with 1930's Murder at the Vicarage scoring an average rating of 4.05 from 190,814 reviews. "Nobody liked Colonel Protheroe. So when he’s found dead in the vicarage study, there’s no absence of suspects in the seemingly peaceful village of St Mary Mead. In fact, Jane Marple can think of at least seven. As gossip abounds in the parlours and kitchens of the parish, everyone becomes an amateur detective. The police dismiss her as a prying busybody, but only the ingenious Miss Marple can uncover the truth..." | Contributed
![It's back to Poirot for the eighth favourite Agatha Christie book with readers. The A.B.C. Murders is the 13th book in the series, was first published in 1936, and scores an average rating of 4.03 avg rating from169,900 reviews. "When Alice Asher is murdered in Andover, Hercule Poirot is already looking into the clues. Alphabetically speaking, it's one letter down, twenty-five to go. There's a serial killer on the loose. His macabre calling card is to leave the ABC Railway Guide beside each victim's body."](https://www.thestar.co.uk/jpim-static/image/2024/06/17/13/10/Untitled%20design%20-%202024-06-17T142534.152.jpg.jpg?crop=3:2&trim=&width=800)
8. The ABC Murders
It's back to Poirot for the eighth favourite Agatha Christie book with readers. The A.B.C. Murders is the 13th book in the series, was first published in 1936, and scores an average rating of 4.03 avg rating from169,900 reviews. "When Alice Asher is murdered in Andover, Hercule Poirot is already looking into the clues. Alphabetically speaking, it's one letter down, twenty-five to go. There's a serial killer on the loose. His macabre calling card is to leave the ABC Railway Guide beside each victim's body." | Contributed