Agatha Christie's Favorite (and Least Favorite) Agatha Christie Books

There's a fair chance that one of Agatha Christie's many mystery novels has kept you up at night. There's also a good chance her own books kept the author from catching shuteye—though not because she was piecing together clues like a Hercule Poirot protégé. Instead, she was losing sleep over her least favorite Agatha Christie books—like The Mystery of the Blue Train—wishing she'd never published them in the first place. But for every book Christie loathed, there were at least five she considered absolute must-reads.

Over a career spanning more than five decades, the "Queen of Crime" rewrote mystery fiction forever, crafting 66 detective novels, 14 short story collections, and the longest-running play in history. She invited us into the meticulous mind of Monsieur Poirot, introduced us to the deceptively sharp Miss Marple, and challenged us to solve mysteries like And Then There Were None and The Murder of Roger Ackroyd.

With over two billion books sold worldwide, picking the ultimate Christie mystery seems like an impossible feat for fans. But in 1972, the author herself weighed in on the debate and ranked her own 10 favorite novels. Her autobiography later revealed the few titles she openly despised.

Here are Agatha Christie's favorite and least favorite Agatha Christie books.

Agatha Christie's Favorite Agatha Christie Books

Christie's favorite books cover quite a bit of ground, from famous classics to more niche mystery novels.

Writing to a Japanese fan in 1972 who had sent over their favorite titles, Christie responded with her official personal ranking. Leading her top 10 was And Then There Were None, a book she favored precisely because of the puzzle it presented: a complex, closed-island mystery in which ten people are killed one by one, leaving the survivors to figure out who's responsible. "I think I dealt with it satisfactorily," Christie added.

Her second-favorite book was The Murder of Roger Ackroyd, chosen simply because it was "a general favourite." But Christie was quick to admit that her top picks were never set in stone. As she explained in her letter: "My own ten would certainly vary from time to time because every now and then I re-read an early book for some particular reason, to answer a question that has been asked me perhaps, and then I alter my opinion – sometimes thinking it is much better than I thought it was – or not so good as I had thought."

Coming third on her list is A Murder Is Announced, largely because of the personal attachments Christie developed to its characters. From new faces like the clever Letitia "Letty" Blacklock and her sidekick Dora "Bunny" Bunner to old friends like Miss Marple, she noted that she "felt [she] knew them quite well by the time the book was finished."

Here's how Christie's full top 10 rounded out in her 1972 letter:

1. And Then There Were None
2. The Murder of Roger Ackroyd
3. A Murder is Announced
4. Murder on the Orient Express
5. The Thirteen Problems
6. Towards Zero
7. Endless Night
8. Crooked House
9. Ordeal By Innocence
10. The Moving Finger

Agatha Christie's Least Favorite Agatha Christie Books

For Christie, a book's place in her heart was often intertwined with the emotional season in which it was conceived. While top titles like And Then There Were None brought satisfaction, others like The Mystery of the Blue Train were born of sadness.

Written in 1927 during an extremely painful period in her life—dealing with the death of her mother and a separation from her first husband, Archie—Christie forced herself to complete the novel for income. If the context clues aren't enough to capture her disdain for The Blue Train, the words straight from her pen should be: in her 1977 posthumously published autobiography, she admitted she "always hated it."

That same difficult year yielded The Big Four. Published due to financial pressure, this 1927 novel was patched together from earlier short stories and had the plot holes to show for it. Naturally, Christie later referred to it as "that rotten book."

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