CROOKED HOUSE
UK publication: 1949 (Collins)
US publication: 1949 (Dodd, Mead)
Detective: Charles Hayward
Genre: Novel
Plot summary and comments: The investigator and narrator is Charles Hayward, the son of a Scotland Yard commissioner. Elderly Aristide Leonides is extremely wealthy, and lives in a crooked house, in which he is murdered by a member of his family. Hayward, in love with his grauddaughter, unofficially investigates the situation with his father Sir Arthur. The plot is not very lively, but the ending is startling.
DEATH COMES AS THE END
UK publication: 1945 (Collins)
US publication: 1944 (Dodd, Mead)
Detective: None
Genre: Novel
Plot summary and comments: A novel set in Ancient Egypt, told as though based on a recently discovered cache of letters dating from the pharaohs. The family murders which occur throughout the story have to be solved by the survivors, there being no detectives in that society. The plot is not very complicated, and perhaps may be guessed, although the picture of life in a vanished civilization is well researched and interesting.
DESTINATION UNKNOWN
US title: SO MANY STEPS TO DEATH
UK publication: 1954 (Collins)
US publication: 1955 (Dodd, Mead)
Detective: Hilary Craven
Genre: Novel
Plot summary and comments: A thriller, based like several others on the idea of a wealthy megalomaniac bent on world domination or anarchy. The heroine is Hilary Craven, who is saved from suicide by the intervention of a stranger. He happens to be a Secret Service agent who recruits her (since she evidently doesn't mind dying) to investigate a world conspiracy. She has an adventure involving disappearing scientists, and the scene moves from England to Casablanca to the Atlas Mountains of the Sahara, where a secret scientific complex exists. There is a domestic murder mystery embedded in the conspiracy story, as well.
ENDLESS NIGHT
UK publication: 1967 (Collins)
US publication: 1968 (Dodd, Mead)
Detective: Michael Rogers
Genre: Novel
Plot summary and comments: A very different Christie novel, narrated by the young man Michael Rogers, who falls in love and marries during the course of the book. There is no real investigator, and little actual detection; the suspense is sustained by an in-depth portrait of a psychotic killer. The plot is difficult to discuss without giving it away, but there is a powerful kick in the tail. One of Christie's finest and most respected novels of her later years. A film of the novel was made in England in 1972, but weak direction and the introduction of an ill-advised erotic scene diminished its success.
THE MAN IN THE BROWN SUIT
UK publication: 1924 (John Lane, The Bodley Head)
US publication: 1924 (Dodd, Mead)
Detective: Anne Beddingfeld
Genre: Novel
Plot summary and comments: A puzzle-thriller rather than a straight mystery. The heroine is Anne Beddingfeld, a spirited and romantic young woman who is seeking adventure (and money) after the death of her father. She witnesses a suspicious-looking "accidental" death, and persuades a newspaper to commission her to investigate. After a second death occurs in the house of Sir Eustace Pedlar, MP, she sails for Cape Town to follow the trail, travelling with Sir Eustace and his malicious-looking secretary Guy Pagett. Most of the story occurs on the boat, and then on a train in South Africa and Rhodesia, presented through the diaries of Sir Eustace and Anne. The villain is a master criminal, and Anne eventually unmasks him, while the reader is kept guessing as to which characters are friends and which are enemies. One of the characters, the silent Colonel Race, will reappear in three subsequent novels. The setting and characters were inspired by Christie's recently completed round-the-world trip with her husband.
MURDER IS EASY
US title: EASY TO KILL
UK publication: 1939 (Collins)
US publication: 1939 (Dodd, Mead)
Detective: Luke Fitzwilliam
Genre: Novel
Plot summary and comments: A series of murders is committed in a sleepy village near London; they are investigated by Luke Fitzwilliam, who happens to be a policeman but is detecting out of curiosity. A chance encounter with an old woman (Lavinia Pinkerton) in a train who is on her way to report a series of deaths to Scotland Yard, and her subsequent "accident", interest Fitzwilliam enough to send him to Wychwood-under-Ashe to investigate. Most of the characters are suspects, including Mr. Ellsworthy (one of Christie's few homosexuals), an antique shop keeper; and Honoria Wynflete, Miss Pinkerton's friend in the village, who is rather like Miss Marple. Superintendent Battle is called in near the end, but it is Fitzwilliam who solves the crime.
ORDEAL BY INNOCENCE
UK publication: 1958 (Collins)
US publication: 1959 (Dodd, Mead)
Detective: Arthur Calgary
Genre: Novel
Plot summary and comments: None of Christie's usual characters appear. Arthur Calgary, a wellknown geophysicist, returns to England from the Antarctic to find that a young man convicted in the death of his mother has died in prison; Calgary knows he was innocent and can prove it. He visits the family in South Devon, hoping to cheer them, but Jacko Argyle's family are not relieved; the police investigation is now reopened, and another murder takes place before the truth is discovered. Calgary is present at the house at Viper's Point for the finale. Mediocre detection, but sharp social observation. A British film of the story, starring Donald Sutherland and Christopher Plummer and poorly done, was made in 1984.
THE PALE HORSE
UK publication: 1961 (Collins)
US publication: 1962 (Dodd, Mead)
Detective: Mark Easterbrook
Genre: Novel
Plot summary and comments: A crime novel which is essentially a study of evil---the Pale Horse of the title is an organization of professional murderers who utilize black magic, as well as the name of a house in the village of Much Deeping. Mrs. Ariadne Oliver, the matronly crime novelist, Christie self-parody, and friend of Poirot, is a leading character, but none of Christie's other regulars are present. She is a friend of Mark Easterbrook, the narrator; he puts in some good work to solving the Pale Horse murders, but the police detective LeJeune is the one to solve them. Other leading roles are played by previous minor characters, such as Rhoda Dawes, the wife of Colonel Shepard, from Cards on the Table, and the Rev. Caleb Dane Calthrop and his wife, from The Moving Finger.
PASSENGER TO FRANKFURT
UK publication: 1970 (Collins)
US publication: 1970 (Dodd, Mead)
Detective: Sir Stafford Nye
Genre: Novel
Plot summary and comments: The last of Christie's free-ranging thrillers, its plot so vague and disjointed that it hardly exists. (Her publishers had grave doubts about the book, but Christie was now 80 years old and could hardly be turned down.) Sir Stafford Nye, the main character, is a failed diplomat who is sitting in the transit lounge at Frankfurt airport when he is plunged into adventure after meeting a mysterious foreign woman. Soon he is pitting his wits against some sort of worldwide conspiracy once again. A few familiar figures appear: Col. Pikeaway and Mr. Robinson (from Cat Among the Pigeons), and Nye's aunt Matilda Cleckheaton helps keep an eye on things. The operas of Wagner turn out to be of great significance. The book is something of a tract against extremism and totalitarianism of all kinds, and very cynical in tone.
THE SECRET OF CHIMNEYS
UK publication: 1925 (John Lane, The Bodley Head)
US publication: 1925 (Dodd, Mead)
Detective: Superintendent Battle
Genre: Novel
Plot summary and comments: An early thriller, the plot concerned with events in the small Balkan country of Herzoslovakia. Except for the very beginning, the action takes place either in London (where Baron Lolopretjzyl, the Herzoslovakian representative, lives at Harridge's Hotel) or at Chimneys, the stately home of the Marquis of Caterham, the setting for many diplomatic events. Other characters who may or may not be heroic include Anthony Cade, an upperclass Englishman, and the young woman Virginia Revel. The intelligent and common-sensical policeman Superintendent Battle makes his first appearance here, although it is not he but Lady Eileen ("Bundle") Brent who uncovers the "secret" of the title. Battle will appear in four other novels--- and four characters, plus the house Chimneys itself, reappear in The Seven Dials Mystery.
THE SEVEN DIALS MYSTERY
UK publication: 1929 (Collins)
US publication: 1929 (Dodd, Mead)
Detective: Superintendent Battle
Genre: Novel
Plot summary and comments: A puzzle-thriller, which uses several of the characters and the house from The Secret of Chimneys (1924). A young man is found dead in his bed in Chimneys, with seven alarm clocks ranged around the mantelpiece. As in The Secret Adversary, the identities of the members of a secret society (headquartered in the Seven Dials Club, situated in that seedy corner of London) must be discovered, as well as two murders accounted for. Superintendent Battle has a hand in the solution, and a major part is played by Lady Eileen ("Bundle") Brent. Lord Caterham is still owner of Chimneys. The story was made into a TV film in 1981.
THE SITTAFORD MYSTERY
US title: MURDER AT HAZLEMOOR
UK publication: 1931 (Collins)
US publication: 1931 (Dodd, Mead)
Detective: Emily Trefusis
Genre: Novel
Plot summary and comments: A mystery without any of Christie's regular heroes, in which a young woman named Emily Trefusis is engaged to a young man who is arrested for the murder of his uncle, Capt. Trevelyan. She is convinced of his innocence and sets out to unmask the real culprit, which she does with the help of the police inspector in charge of the case. The answer is related to the mysterious arrival of Mrs. Willett and her daughter in the village of Sittaford (the Hazlemoor of the US title is the house in which Trevelyan dies), and the bleak setting on Dartmoor contributes to the plot. Emily is another of Christie's "adventurous young lady" heroines.
SPARKLING CYANIDE
US title: REMEMBERED DEATH
UK publication: 1945 (Collins)
US publication: 1945 (Dodd, Mead)
Detective: Other
Genre: Novel
Plot summary and comments: Another novel in which a crime is investigated some time after it has been committed. Rosemary Barton had died in a dinner party at a fashionable restaurant when her drink was laced with cyanide. Her widower George does not believe the police verdict of suicide, and reassembles all the guests a year later at the same restaurant as an "experiment" which he clearly expects to lead to the apprehension of the real murderer. The scheme goes awry, and another death occurs in the anniversary party. Colonel Race makes his last appearance (he was invited to both occasions, but did not show) and helps another investigator to discover the murderer. There are a couple of weak plot devices near the end, but most of the story is very successful.
TEN LITTLE NIGGERS
US title: AND THEN THERE WERE NONE
Other titles: TEN LITTLE INDIANS (in US reprint, Pocket
Books, 1965, and all subsequent editions)
UK publication: 1939 (Collins)
US publication: 1939 (Dodd, Mead)
Detective: None
Genre: Novel
Plot summary and comments: A very famous novel, based on the old-fashioned nursery rhyme. Ten characters are marooned in a house built by an eccentric millionaire on a tiny island off the coast of Devon; they die, one at a time, in a way prescribed by the nursery rhyme, which hangs over each fireplace. [When the book was written, the word 'nigger' was much less offensive in Britain than in the U.S.; the title and rhyme have been changed in all modern edtions.] As the murderer intended, all ten people have died by the end of the story; one of them must be the murderer, but his identity is adroitly concealed even after the last death. An epilogue, found by the police upon their eventual arrival, lays out the secret. Christie adapted the story into a play, produced in 1943, from which at least four movies have been made.
THEY CAME TO BAGHDAD
UK publication: 1951 (Collins)
US publication: 1951 (Dodd, Mead)
Detective: Victoria Jones
Genre: Novel
Plot summary and comments: A thriller rather than a straight mystery, in which the heroine is another adventurous young woman named Victoria Jones. She is sacked from her London job, and falls in love on the spot with an attractive stranger she meets in a park, determining to follow him to Baghdad. Soon she is helping to foil the plans of an authoritarian group which intends to sabotage a world summit meeting and thus destroy world peace. The plot is preposterous, but highly readable, and the portrayal of Baghdad and the Middle East is quite authentic, Agatha by this time having spent some years in archaeological digs in Iraq.
TOWARDS ZERO
Other titles: COME AND BE HANGED (in one US reprint)
US publication: 1944 (Collins)
US publication: 1944 (Dodd, Mead)
Detective: Superintendent Battle
Genre: Novel
Plot summary and comments: Starring Superintendent Battle, last seen in Murder is Easy, who investigates a sinister affair in which murder may or may not be predestined. (Christie's assertion that destiny moves us towards a final zero hour gives the book its title.) Most of the action takes place at Gull's Point, a country house overlooking a coastal estuary and owned by Lady Tressilian. The murder does not take place until late in the book, leading to well-developed characterizations. Some of the residents (and suspects) include Nevile Strange, tennis-player and sportsman; Mr. Treves, an old lawyer; and the suicidal Angus MacWhirter, who plays an important plot role by preventing a second suicide. Christie adapted the story into a play, produced in 1956.
WHY DIDN'T THEY ASK EVANS?
US title: THE BOOMERANG CLUE
UK publication: 1934 (Collins)
US publication: 1935 (Dodd, Mead)
Detective: Bobby Jones and Frankie Derwent
Genre: Novel
Plot summary and comments: The cryptic question of the title is uttered by a man who has apparently fallen off a cliff on the west coast of Wales, just before he dies. The only one to hear him is the vicar's son, Bobby Jones, golfing nearby; together with his aristocratic friend, young Lady Frances ("Frankie") Derwent, he investigates the murder. The story is both thriller and mystery, as the team of Bobby and Frankie have a number of adventures before the meaning of the question is clear, including being bound and gagged by the villain and left in an attic to die, Bobby falling from a tree, and Frankie deliberately crashing her car. Filmed by London Weekend TV in 1980.