I read 20 Hercule Poirot crime novels and fell in love with Agatha Christie

For years I’ve been enjoying individual crime novels that friends have recommended to me, but the genre hasn’t really captivated me yet. I’ve just never been the type of reader who actively tries to solve the case. My friends who champion these books make a point of identifying red herrings and trying to outsmart the author. I’m just as happy with knowing the crime novel from the start, as long as the novel itself has a pleasant pace and writing style.

All of this means that I haven’t read anything by the “Queen of Mystery” Agatha Christie for three decades, even though she is one of the best-selling authors of all time. But after burning through a ton of romance novels this year and looking for other books with a fast pace and consistent ending, I gave up. In the end, I was so captivated that I started a passion project where I read every single Christie’s Hercule Poirot crime novel in order of publication. It helped me find commonalities in some of my favorite books, shows, and movies, and ultimately led me down a wormhole of so many others. I love collecting hobbies. In 2023, crime novels became my newest book.

I started with the books that friends recommended to me the most: And then there were no more And Murder on the Orient Express. They both thrilled me – the former with its macabre and perfectly timed deaths, thematically tailored to each of the invitees, building and breaking tension. I immediately understood why And then there were no more is considered one of their best. But Murder on the Orient Express The film stayed with me even longer, particularly because of the bombshell murder reveal at the end – and also because of the detective at the center of the story, whose illustrious mustache stole the show. This is, of course, the popular Belgian mastermind Hercule Poirot.

In Orient express, I immediately got a sense of his unforgettably strange habits: his need for order, his taste in clothing, and his sense of ostentation (which he never admits). But I was particularly impressed by Poirot’s morals; his decision not to hand these people over to the police after solving the crime because the victim himself was a heinous murderer. Here was a train full of murderers confronted by a master detective, and yet they all escaped unscathed. I immediately understood that Poirot was involved for the joy of using his little gray cells to solve the case. Does he appear in more of her books? I wondered how a spring chicken. I was immediately rewarded.

Since July, my Libby app has consisted of a long series of Poirot mysteries. I made a list of books so I could cross them off with my handy highlighter. 20 books later, my hunger for it has only grown greater. I really like Poirot’s eccentricities: his constant attempts to retire and grow vegetable pumpkins, his tendency to interfere when he can help two people find love, and his insistence that his lovably goofy friend Hastings (the narrator) never do so to explain what he does in the early books in the series). Even though the murder isn’t always solved in my favorite way, I value my time with Poirot so much that it hardly matters anymore. Luckily, Christie was masterful at unraveling her mysteries and never seems to be lacking for imaginative productions and solutions.

For me, reading through Hercule Poirot’s flaws was like opening a skylight. Very early on, Poirot made me realize that I loved a locked room mystery, so I spent a month exploring other reading lists. Some of my favorite Edgar Allan Poe books are part of this legacy – it gave color to my memories of the strange child who carried around his father’s battered Poe omnibus covered in sticky notes. From there, I added reams of Dorothy L. Sayers to my blocked list at the library before moving on to a bag full of Japanese honkaku mysteries (Shimada Soji, Seishi Yokomizo). Impulsively, I looked for contemporary American authors writing crime novels outside of the Instagram era and landed on Lucy Foley The guest list. I don’t know if I would have found these authors otherwise and enjoyed each of their unique takes on my new favorite topics.

I also distracted myself by watching contemporary films and series based on some of Christie’s most famous productions. Like a detective with red thread and thumbtacks, I took notes while rewatching many of Rian Johns on’s recent works: Knife out

And Poker face. I have developed a special love for a pair of working con artists like the couple in Death on the Nile, in which a man marries a woman for her wealth and then colludes with his true lover to murder that woman and divide the newly inherited money. In poker face, I was happy about the fifth episode, which also featured a scheming couple – albeit in the form of two former activists in a retirement home who commit murder together.

Ironically, it’s the direct adaptations that I haven’t delved into deeply. I have never seen any of Kenneth Branagh’s films, including the popular series Agatha Christie’s Poirot. Since Orient express took me to Poirot. The only adaptation I’ve seen is the 1974 Sidney Lumet film with an incredible cast that includes Sean Connery, Anthony Perkins, Ingrid Bergman and Lauren Bacall. As a historical object it is wonderful, and as a film it has its own perspective with its memorable climactic trade fair scene, well-delivered monologues and beautiful shots of the chugging train. It clearly feels like something that couldn’t exist in the streaming age, where intellectual property is increasingly recycled and adapted so faithfully that it seems to blight a director’s attempts at interpretation.

As I delved deeper into Christie, I continually found that modern stories that honor her work are more enjoyable than those that treat it as pure adaptation. Why reproduce a facsimile of Christie’s work when her style and inventiveness leave so much room for maneuver? She wrote in the 1920s to 1970s – the world is so different today and full of opportunities for light-hearted detective work. I’m excited to see the new stories her work will lead me to as I continue reading in the new year. For now, though, I can be grateful for all the newly beloved stories that my journey with Poirot has brought me – from Christie or those she directly inspired.