Agatha Christie Books
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Prepare for excitement and intrigue with our vintage Agatha Christie book collection.
Classic and rare editions of her murder mystery novels still loved worldwide for their cosy murder mysteries, thrilling plots and gripping detective stories. Enjoy her famous characters such as "Inspector Hercule Poirot" and "Miss Marple" as they solve yet another puzzling murder.
Find our online bookshop's collection of her famous vintage detective fiction, in decorative old hardback and paperback books from the 20th century, alongside collectible facsimile first editions and sought after Crime Club first editions of the "Queen of Crime", Agatha Christie's, genre setting "whodunnit" masterpieces. -
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They Do it With Mirrors Agatha Christie Vintage Book Crime Club Facsimile Hardback
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Elephants Can Remember Agatha Christie Fontana First Time in Paperback 1st Edition
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Death on the Nile Agatha Christie Vintage Book Crime Club Facsimile Hardback 2011
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Halloween Party Agatha Christie Fontana First Edition in Paperback Vintage Crime Book
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Death in the Clouds Agatha Christie Pan Paperback Classic Vintage Crime Book 1980's
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Destination Unknown Agatha Christie Crime Club Facsimile Vintage book 2014
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The Secret Adversary Agatha Christie Vintage Book Facsimile First Edition 2012
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The Agatha Christie Hour First Edition Collins 1982 Vintage Book of Short Stories
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Poirot's Early Cases Agatha Christie First Edition Vintage Book Collins Crime Club 1974
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Murder on the Orient Express Agatha Christie Hardback Facsimile Vintage Book 2011
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The Hound of Death Agatha Christie And Other Stories Vintage Book Facsimile 2014
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The Clocks Agatha Christie Facsimile Hardback Vintage Book 2009 Crime Club Choice
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Crooked House Agatha Christie Vintage Crime Book Classic Old Pan Paperback 1980's
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Appointment with Death Agatha Christie Great Pan Paperback Vintage Crime Book 1950's
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Crooked House by Agatha Christie Vintage Book Hardback Facsimile Crime Club 2010
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Agatha Christie 4.50 from Paddington Vintage Hardback Book Classic Crime Fiction 1950's
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“It is clear that the books owned the shop rather than the other way about. Everywhere they had run wild and taken possession of their habitat, breeding and multiplying, and clearly lacking any strong hand to keep them down.”
“As life goes on it becomes tiring to keep up the character you invented for yourself, and so you relapse into individuality and become more like yourself everyday.”
“Tea! Bless ordinary everyday afternoon tea!”
Agatha Christie
In the realm of crime, mystery and detective fiction, Agatha Christie's name reigns supreme.
Agatha Mary Clarissa Miller - later known as Agatha Christie, is a name that is now completely synonymous with the genre of Crime Fiction. Throughout her life and career Dame Agatha Mary Clarissa Christie made remarkable contributions with her prolific output as an author and left behind an enduring legacy as the 'Queen of Crime'.
Agatha was born on September 15, 1890, in Torquay, Devon, England to a privileged upper middle-class family. She was educated at home but this did not hold her back, she was a bright, intelligent young girl fascinated by all things literary even from a very young age. Although throughout her life she faced various setbacks in her personal life, including the loss of her beloved father and the end of her first marriage, Christie's talent and resilience propelled her forward.
Despite her early passion for literature, Christie's path to success was not without hurdles...
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When she first tried her hand at writing she had six consecutive rejections, undaunted nevertheless her breakthrough came in 1920 with the publication of her first novel, "The Mysterious Affair at Styles," introducing the world to one of her most iconic characters, Hercule Poirot (Christie, 1977).
Hercule, was a brilliant Belgian detective with a penchant for solving intricate crimes.
The novel featuring Poirot, "The Mysterious Affair at Styles," marked the beginning of Christie's phenomenal career as a crime fiction writer. Poirot would go on to solve numerous puzzling cases in subsequent novels, captivating readers with his sharp intellect and rather eccentric personality.
At this time the whole genre of crime and mystery was still fresh and exciting. There had been distinctive, highly esteemed writers such as Arthur Conan Doyle and Wilkie Collins introducing the concept of detective fiction in the late 19th and early 20th century, so the world was ripe for Agatha Christie's fresh new take upon crime. Her writing career blossomed during what became known as the "Golden Age of Detective Fiction," a period marked by the popularity of crime novels and detective stories(Curran, 2011; Symons, 1972).
Quickly gaining a reputation for her ability to craft compelling mysteries filled with suspense and unexpected twists her readers were captivated. Amusing and unlikely characters, including the astute, elderly Miss Marple and the quirky little moustachioed Belgian detective 'Poirot', captured the interest of her readers and further solidified her status as the "Queen of Crime" (Curran, 2011).
Agatha Christie penned around 66 detective novels, 14 short story collections, and six lesser known novels under the pseudonym Mary Westmacott, Agatha writing as Mary Westmacott falls broadly into the genre of romance, something she had longed to try her hand at but the stories are bittersweet and poignant, for example studying complex mother daughter relations that never quite had the appeal of her detective fiction (Thompson, 2007).
Agatha Christie's crime fiction and mystery books however, continue to captivate readers with their ingenious plots and memorable characters.
Christie's mastery of suspense, intricate plotting, and clever misdirection became her trademarks. Her books were meticulously crafted, leaving readers guessing until the very end. She created complex characters, each with their own secrets and motives, making her stories gripping and unpredictable (Gill, 1990).
Some of her notable books featuring Poirot include "Murder on the Orient Express," "Death on the Nile," and "The Murder of Roger Ackroyd." The final chapter is invariably, cleverly played out to the captive protagonists, including the criminal, with a final denouement to "shock and awe" of all involved in the storyline.
Apart from Poirot, Christie also introduced another beloved detective, Miss Jane Marple. With her sharp wit and keen observation skills, Miss Marple solved crimes in the quaint village of St. Mary Mead. The character of Miss Marple brought a fresh perspective to Christie's books, showcasing her versatility as an author (Gill, 1990; Osborne, 1983).
As time goes by people increasingly relish the nostalgic settings of Agatha's stories which lends them perfectly to film and television adaptations, ever since the early days of black and white movies to contemporary cinema. By modern standards nowadays, some of her plots are very simplistic, almost cliched but there is almost an enjoyable comfort in knowing that everything will be revealed in the final scene. Her influence on the crime fiction genre is unparalleled, inspiring generations of writers and shaping the way mysteries are crafted (Norman, 2009).
Agatha Christie also wrote the world's longest-running play, "The Mousetrap," performed in London's West End since 1952 holding the world record for the longest initial run, with over 27,500 performances by September 2018 (Osborne, 1983).
Her contributions to literature were further recognized when she was made a Dame (DBE) by Queen Elizabeth II in 1971. Her impact on the literary world was immense. With over two billion copies of her novels sold, she holds the Guinness World Record for being the best-selling fiction writer of all time. Her most popular work, "And Then There Were None," has sold approximately 100 million books, making it one of the top-selling novels in history.
Christie's contributions to crime fiction have been recognized with prestigious awards, including the Grand Master Award from the Mystery Writers of America. Her book "The Murder of Roger Ackroyd" was voted the best crime novel ever by 600 professional novelists of the Crime Writers' Association.
Agatha Christie's enduring popularity continues to extend far beyond her lifetime. First Editions and vintage copies of her books are highly collectable and her books have been translated into numerous languages, making her the most-translated individual author according to UNESCO's Index Translationum.
In addition to her literary achievements, Christie's own life had an air of mystery. Her unexplained disappearance in 1926 sparked a nationwide manhunt and still remains somewhat of an intriguingly unsolved episode even though there have been various speculations as to what actually happened - the truth can never be entirely understood. She reappeared eleven days later with no apparent memory of what transpired, this peculiar incident added another layer of mystique to her already enigmatic persona (Thompson, 2007).
Throughout her life Agatha Christie certainly earned her crown as the 'Queen of Crime', still today, her books vintage and new alike, continue to be cherished by readers of all ages, keeping her stories alive and ensuring her place as one of our best loved authors of all time.
References & Further Recommended Reading:
Agatha Christie. (1977) An Autobiography. Collins. ISBN 978 0002160124
Cade, J. (Nov.,1998). Agatha Christie and the Eleven Missing Days. Peter Owen Publishers. ISBN 978-0720610550
Curran, J. (2011). Agatha Christie: Murder in the Making. William Morrow and Company. ISBN 9780062065421
Gill, G. (1990). Agatha Christie: The Woman and Her Mysteries.The Free Press. ISBN 002911702X
Osborne, C. (1983). The Life and Crimes of Agatha Christie: A Biographical Companion to the Works of Agatha Christie. Harper Collins. ISBN 978-0002164627
Symons, J. (1972). Bloody Murder: From the Detective Story to the Crime Novel: A History. Faber and Faber. ISBN 9780571094653
Thompson, L. (2007). Agatha Christie: A Mysterious Life. Headline Review. ISBN 978-0755314874
Books by this Author
An approximate timeline of Agatha Christie's most important novels:
● 1920: The Mysterious Affair at Styles
● 1922: The Secret Adversary
● 1923: Murder on the Links
● 1924: The Man in the Brown Suit
● 1925: The Secret of Chimneys
● 1926: The Murder of Roger Ackroyd
● 1927: The Big Four
● 1928: The Mystery of the Blue Train
● 1929: The Seven Dials Mystery
● 1930: The Murder at the Vicarage
● 1931: The Sittaford Mystery
● 1932: Peril at End House
● 1933: Lord Edgward Dies
● 1934: Murder on the Orient Express
● 1935: Three Act Tragedy
● 1935: Death in the Clouds
● 1936: The ABC Murders
● 1936: Murder in Mesopotamia
● 1937: Dumb Witness
● 1937: Death on the Nile
● 1938: Appointment with Death
● 1938: Hercule Poirot’s Christmas
● 1939: Murder is Easy
● 1939: And Then There Were None
● 1940: Sad Cypress
● 1940: One, Two, Buckle My Shoe
● 1941: Evil Under the Sun
● 1941: ‘N’ or ‘M’?
● 1942: The Body in the Library
● 1942: Five Little Pigs
● 1943: The Moving Finger
● 1944: Towards Zero
● 1945: Death Comes as the End
● 1945: Sparkling Cyanide
● 1946: The Hollow
● 1948: Taken at the Flood
● 1949: Crooked House
● 1950: A Murder is Announced
● 1952: They Do It with Mirrors
● 1953: After the Funeral
● 1953: A Pocket Full of Rye
● 1954: Destination Unknown
● 1955: Hickory Dickory Dock
● 1956: Dead Man’s Folly
● 1957: 4.50 from Paddington
● 1958: Ordeal by Innocence
● 1959: Cat Among the Pigeons
● 1961: The Pale Horse
● 1962: The Mirror Crack’d from Side to Side
● 1963: The Clocks
● 1964: A Caribbean Mystery
● 1965: At Bertram’s Hotel
● 1966: Third Girl
● 1967: Endless Night
● 1968: By the Pricking of My Thumbs
● 1969: Hallowe’en Party
● 1970: Passenger to Frankfurt
● 1971: Nemesis
● 1972: Elephants Can Remember
● 1973: Postern of Fate
● 1975: Curtain: Poirot’s Last Case
● 1976: Sleeping Murder
Under Pseudonyms:
● 1930: The Mysterious Mr Quin – Harley Quin
● 1930: The Love Detectives – Christopher Challis
● 1930: Giant’s Bread – Mary Westmacott
● 1934: The Listerdale Mystery – Mary Westmacott
● 1934: Unfinished Portrait – Mary Westmacott
● 1944: Absent in the Spring – Mary Westmacott
● 1945: Death Comes as the End – Mary Westmacott
● 1948: The Rose and the Yew Tree – Mary Westmacott
*Please note publication dates may vary depending upon whether first published in the UK or US.
Shop more of our Best Loved Vintage Books:
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The Exploits of Sherlock Holmes First Edition 1954 Conan Doyle Dickson Carr Vintage Book
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First Edition Agatha Christie Black Coffee Vintage Crime Book Poirot Play Adapted by Charles Osborne
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Destination Unknown Agatha Christie Crime Club Facsimile Vintage book 2014
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Sherlock Holmes Long Stories Arthur Conan Doyle Vintage Book Hound of Baskervilles Scarce Jacket
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