Agatha Christie books in order

Agatha Christie (Dame Agatha Mary Clarissa Christie, née Miller, 1890-1976) was an English writer of detective fiction, the creator of Hercule Poirot and Miss Marple and the best-selling novelist of all time. She was born in Torquay, Devon, on 15 September 1890 and died at Wallingford, Oxfordshire, on 12 January 1976.

Her first novel, The Mysterious Affair at Styles, introduced Poirot. It ran as a serial in The Times Weekly Edition in 1920, then appeared as a book from John Lane in New York in October 1920 and from The Bodley Head in London on 21 January 1921. The Murder of Roger Ackroyd followed from Collins in June 1926, and The Murder at the Vicarage appeared in 1930. Murder on the Orient Express was published by the Collins Crime Club on 1 January 1934. And Then There Were None (1939) has sold about 100 million copies. Her play The Mousetrap opened in 1952 and is the world's longest-running play. She also wrote six novels as Mary Westmacott and was made a Dame in 1971.

Her output ran to 66 detective novels and 14 story collections, with sales put at over two billion copies.

For collectors

The earliest Christie firsts are the American John Lane issue of The Mysterious Affair at Styles (October 1920) and the British Bodley Head edition of January 1921, priced at 7s 6d. Collins first editions of the 1920s and 1930s, such as Roger Ackroyd (1926) and the Crime Club Orient Express (1934), are the other core titles. In the United States both came from Dodd, Mead: Roger Ackroyd on 19 June 1926 and Orient Express on 28 February 1934, retitled Murder in the Calais Coach.