Novelist · 1890 – 1976
Agatha Christie
Key Takeaways
- Christie is the best-selling novelist of all time.
- She created the detectives Hercule Poirot and Miss Marple.
- Her novels include Murder on the Orient Express and And Then There Were None.
- Her play The Mousetrap is the longest-running play in history.
No novelist has ever sold more books than Agatha Christie. The “Queen of Crime” turned the murder mystery into an art of pure ingenuity, and her detectives became household names across the world.
The perfect puzzle
Christie’s genius was the plot. In Murder on the Orient Express, And Then There Were None and The Murder of Roger Ackroyd, she laid clues in plain sight and still astonished readers with her solutions. Her Belgian detective Hercule Poirot and the sharp-eyed village spinster Miss Marple became two of the most beloved sleuths in fiction.
The best-seller of all time
Inheriting the detective tradition of Edgar Allan Poe and Arthur Conan Doyle, Christie came to rule the genre entirely. Her British drawing-room mysteries have sold billions of copies — outsold, it is said, only by the Bible and Shakespeare. This novelist of the modern era also wrote The Mousetrap, the longest-running play in history.
Influence
Christie perfected the puzzle-mystery, her ingenious plots and twist endings setting the standard for detective fiction and selling more copies than any other novelist.
Legacy
With billions of books sold and endless adaptations, she remains the best-selling novelist in history and the model of the classic whodunit.
Major Works
- Murder on the Orient Express
- And Then There Were None
- The Murder of Roger Ackroyd
Connections
Frequently Asked Questions
Who was Agatha Christie?
Agatha Christie (1890–1976) was an English writer and the best-selling novelist of all time, creator of detectives Hercule Poirot and Miss Marple.
What is Murder on the Orient Express about?
It is a Hercule Poirot mystery in which a passenger is murdered aboard a snowbound train, and the detective must unmask the killer among the travellers — famous for its surprising solution.
Citations & Sources
People Like Agatha
Arthur Conan Doyle
81Arthur Conan Doyle was a British writer and physician who created Sherlock Holmes, the most famous detective in fiction, whose stories of brilliant deduction defined the detective genre and remain among the best-loved in the world.
Why Creator of Sherlock Holmes, whose detective tradition Christie inherited and perfected.
Edgar Allan Poe
81Edgar Allan Poe was an American writer and poet, a master of the macabre, who invented the detective story, helped shape the modern short story and science fiction, and gave the world haunting tales and poems such as "The Raven".
Why The inventor of detective fiction, the genre Christie came to dominate.
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Why An earlier master of the witty, plot-perfect English drawing-room scene.
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Why Also a novelist & writer · Active in the same era
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Why Also a novelist & writer · Active in the same era
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