Preface
‘The Murder of Roger Ackroyd (1926)’, is the third of Agatha Christie’s thirty-three full length Hercule Poirot novels, her famously eccentric Belgian detective, was first serialised as ‘Who Killed Ackroyd?’ between July and September 1925 in the London Evening News.
The peaceful English village of King’s Abbot is stunned. The widow Ferrars dies from an overdose of Veronal. Not twenty-four hours later, Roger Ackroyd, the man she had planned to marry, is murdered. It is a baffling case involving blackmail and death which taxes Hercule Poirot’s ‘little grey cells’ before he reaches one of the most startling conclusions of his career.
In 2013, the British Crime Writers’ Association voted it the best crime novel ever. It is one of Christie’s best known and most controversial novels due to its innovative twist at the end of the novel and is the book which really started off Agatha Christie’s career.
Agatha Christie is still the most widely published author of all time, and in any language.
Series Preface
Hercule Poirot Series Preface
Hercule Poirot is a fictional Belgian detective created by British writer Agatha Christie. Poirot is one of Christie’s most famous and long-running characters, appearing in 33 novels, two plays (Black Coffee and Alibi), and 51 short stories published between 1920 and 1975.
Poirot has been portrayed on radio, in film and on television by various actors, including Austin Trevor, John Moffatt, Albert Finney, Peter Ustinov, Ian Holm, Tony Randall, Alfred Molina, Orson Welles, David Suchet, Kenneth Branagh, and John Malkovich.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hercule_Poirot
The chronological order of the Hercule Poirot books, as far as we can work out, is below:
- The Mysterious Affair at Styles (1920)
- The Murder on the Links (1923)
- Poirot Investigates (1924) (Short Story)
- The Murder of Roger Ackroyd (1926)
- The Big Four (1927)
- The Mystery of the Blue Train (1928)
- Black Coffee (1930) (Originally a play)
- Peril at End House (1932)
- Lord Edgware Dies / Thirteen at Dinner (1933)
- Murder on the Orient Express / Murder in the Calais Coach (1934)
- Three Act Tragedy / Murder in Three Acts (1934)
- Death in the Clouds / Death in the Air (1935)
- The A.B.C. Murders (1936)
- Murder in Mesopotamia (1936)
- Cards on the Table (1936)
- Dumb Witness / Poirot Loses A Client (1937)
- Death on the Nile (1937)
- Appointment with Death (1938)
- Hercule Poirot’s Christmas / Holiday for Murder / Murder for Christmas (1938)
- One, Two, Buckle My Shoe / Overdose of Death (1940)
- Sad Cypress (1940)
- Evil Under the Sun (1941)
- Five Little Pigs / Murder in Retrospect (1942)
- The Hollow / Murder After Hours (1946)
- Taken at the Flood (1948)
- McGinty’s Dead / Blood Will Tell (1952)
- After the Funeral / Funerals Are Fatal (1953)
- Hickory Dickory Dock (1955)
- Dead Man’s Folly (1956)
- Cat Among the Pigeons (1959)
- The Clocks (1963)
- Third Girl (1966)
- Hallowe’en Party (1969)
- Elephants Can Remember (1972)
- Curtain (1975)
<https://www.tlbranson.com/agatha-christie-books-in-order/>
About the Author
Agatha Christie is the most widely published author of all time, and in any language.
Agatha Christie’s full name was Dame Agatha Mary Clarissa Christie-Miller. Agatha was born on 15 September 1890 in Torquay, Devon, which is in the south-west of England. She is considered by many, as the greatest writer of her time and is still famous for her detective novels.
Agatha was home-schooled, mainly from her mother, however her father also assisted to a lesser extent.
Prior to commencing writing, Agatha Christie worked in a hospital as a nurse. Agatha’s father was American and her mother was British.
In WWI, she was working as a nurse, and she contributed to WWII by working in a hospital as an assistant in the medical college in London. She was very close to her father and used to say that her father was an agreeable man and a genuine gentleman of all time.
Agatha belonged to a middle-class family and had access to many books in her home. It was shortly after her fifth birthday, that she became an avid reader and started developing her reading and writing skills.
Marriage life of Agatha Christie
Agatha Christie met Archibald Christie in 1914 and after a couple of months, they married, at the beginning of WWI and they had one daughter. Archibald was a soldier and spent a lot of time away fighting in WWI (known at the time, as ‘The Great War’, the war to end all wars.). The marriage did not go well, and eventually they separated meanwhile, Agatha’s mother passed away and for Agatha, it was the most difficult time for her in life.
After the death of her mother and her divorce, she became depressed and very emotional and disappeared for more than 10 days. Where Agatha went is another mystery which has never been satisfactorily solved. She and Sir Max Mallowan married in 1930.
Agatha Christie Books in Order & Novels
Agatha Christie’s first novel, “The Mysterious Affair at Styles”, was the result of a dare from her sister Madge who challenged her to write a story.
“The Mysterious Affair at Styles” was launched in 1920 where she introduced a couple of her favourite detectives in the novel. The novel helped her gain popularity as an author.
In 1922, she launched her next book “The Secret Adversary” where Beresford was first introduced in that book.
The next series of Agatha Christie Book in Chronological Order was “The Man in the Brown Suit” which was launched in the year 1924 in which yet another detective, Colonel Race had been introduced.
In the year 1925, “The Secret of Chimneys” and in the year 1926 The “Murder of Roger Ackroyd” was launched successfully. After the launch of these novels, she became quite famous as an author of mystery novels.
In 1929 “The Seven Dials Mystery” was introduced and in late 1930 “Murder at The Vicarage” and in 1934 “Murder in Calais” was launched where more than a dozen people were involved in that murder. “And Then There Were None” was introduced in 1939 and in the same year “Easy to Kill” was launched as well.
In 1973, the final book of Agatha Christie Books in Order was “Postern of Fate“ which was highly applauded by the readers. Soon afterwards, in 1976, Agatha Christie died.
Agatha Christie’s death was a huge setback for the literature world and for her many readers. She had amazing writing skills and dreamed up many brilliant plots.
https://www.thebooksinorder.com/agatha-christie-books-in-order/
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