It’s also the 10th appearance in a novel for the author’s iconic Belgian detective Poirot. Murder on the Orient Express has been adapted for the screen no fewer than four times and for good reason: it’s the classic Christie whodunnit in structure, pace, character and mood. Kenneth Branagh as Poirot in the 2017 film adaptation of Murder on the Orient Express. As your guests check their glasses, be sure to tell them cyanide is not necessarily detectable by its odour.

A lesser-known Christie, it’s adapted from a Poirot short story called Yellow Iris. What better dinner party fare than Sparkling Cyanide? A group of high-society friends gather for a meal at the same table where exactly a year earlier an heiress died dramatically, apparently in a suicide by poisoning. The one to drop into dinner party conversation One by one, they meet their various gruesome deaths according to chillingly accurate predictions … The final denouement is as satisfying as it is shocking. Ten strangers come together on a windswept island, all with apparently nothing in common. Otherwise, this dark and menacing story of attrition is as brilliant a Christie as you’ll ever hope to read. The only thing off about And Then There Were None is its original title. I’ve seen it dismissed as having dated poorly, but for me this is a funny, witty and sharply observed Christie classic. Surrounded by villagers who all have an axe to grind with Colonel P, Miss M uses her famous nous to eliminate seven suspects. BBC Radio 4 dramatised the story in 2003 with June Whitfield and the graphic novel adaptation was first published in France in 2005 under the title L'Affaire Protheroe.Famous largely for being Miss Marple’s first appearance in a novel, The Murder at the Vicarage sees thoroughly disagreeable chap Colonel Protheroe murdered, Cluedo-style, in his library, with a gun. The novel was adapted for the screen, first with Joan Hickson in 1986 and again in 2004 with Geraldine McEwan in the starring role.

I think this is the best you have done - almost'. 'Dear old Tabbies' she wrote to Christie, 'are the only possible right kind of female detective and Miss M is lovely. Dorothy L Sayers was particularly complimentary of this novel. Not only are we formally introduced to the village of St Mary Mead and the 'Parish cats' otherwise known as Miss Marple and her friends, but several other recurring characters including the vicar and his wife, Leonard and Griselda Clement, who also appeared in The Body in the Library (1942) and 4.50 from Paddington (1957). Not a book club exactly, The Crime Club was a series of mystery titles published and promoted under the name. It was the first of her mysteries to be published as part of her publisher Collins’ new Crime Club series and the first novel to feature Miss Marple. The Murder at the Vicarage is one of Agatha Christie’s most popular books.

Agatha christie murder at the vicarage