Special Sub-Topic: The Mysteries of Christie Click Here To Play: The Mysteries of Christie

The heroine is Anne Beddingfeld, who is seeking adventure. She witnesses a suspicious-looking "accidentical" death and decides to investigate.

The Man In The Brown Suit. This book was published in 1924. The master criminal is unmasked by Anne. Colonel Race appears in this novel and will reappear in three subsequent novels.

An American millionaire's daughter is found strangled on a train.

The Mystery Of The Blue Train. This novel was published in 1928. The other titles also take place on a train, the most famous being "Murder On The Orient Express", which is also known as "Murder In The Calais Coach". Ruth Kettering (Ruth Van Aldin before her marriage) is found strangled on The Blue Train, and her rubies have disappeared. Her husband, who refuses to give her a divorce, is also travelling on The Blue Train, as well as his mistress. Poirot solves this mystery assisted by a young lady who is also travelling on the train, Katherine Grey.

Poirot is a member of a party of tourists on a excursion when one of their number is killed.

Appointment With Death. The novel was published in 1938. The tourist party, to Petra, include the Boynton family. This is a large American brood consisting of old Mrs Boynton, her stepchildren, her only child, and the wife of one of her stepsons. The Holy Land is well conveyed in this story.

The first Christie novel to be set in the Second World War.

N or M. This novel was published in 1941. It features Tommy and Tuppence Beresford, who now have a grown up son and daughter. They are informally asked by the Secret Service to assist in the rounding up of a group of Fifth Columnists. Tommy and Tuppence adopt one of the charcters who appears in this book, at the end.

Superintendent Battle investigates a sinister affair in which murder may or may not be predestined.

Towards Zero (Come And Be Killed). This novel was published in 1944. 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 later in the book.

An old woman has been killed, evidently for the sake of a little money in the village of Broadhinny.

Mrs McGinty's Dead (Blood Will Tell). Published in 1951. Poirot is visited by an old friend, Superintendent Spence. Mrs McGinty's lodger has been convicted of the crime, but Spence is not convinced that he did it.

Poirot is introduced to this mystery through his secretary, Miss Lemon.

Hickory Dickory Dock (Hickory Dickory Death). This novel was published in 1955. The story has no real connection with the nursery rhyme. Miss Lemon's sister runs a boarding house for students and there has been a outbreak of petty thefts. Poirot goes to investigate.

The only occasion in which Miss Marple ventured abroad.

A Caribbean Mystery. The novel was published in 1965. Miss Marple has been sent to St. Honore, in the West Indies by her nephew, Raymond West. She meets the wealthy Jason Rafiel, who will influence the plot of "Nemesis". Miss Marple also meets a pleasant but boring old Indian Army Major, who tells interminable stories of his experiences. But the Major mysteriously shuts up, just before he is about to show Miss Marple "a picture of a murderer". The Major is later found dead.

A very different Christie novel, narrated by a young man who falls in love and marries during the course of the book.

Endless Night. This novel was published in 1967. There is no famous investigator and little actual detection in this novel. The suspence is sustained by an in-depth potrait of a psychotic killer.

A girl's parents were killed, or committed suicide, twelve years in the past. The girl is now engaged to be married, but her future mother-in-law thinks it is important to know who killed whom.

Elephants Can Remember. This novel was published in 1972. Poirot and the novelist, Mrs Ariadne Oliver, who is scattier than ever, dig up the family history.