If you're an Agatha Christie fan, you'll love these crime novels
Every year, crime fiction tops the bestseller charts. It’s consistently popular with readers, probably because crime novels are designed to be absorbing, exciting stories with unpredictable endings. Reading them is a way to escape the real world for a while, to pit your wits against the author and try to solve the crime first, and to meet unforgettable characters – what’s not to love?
For a lot of readers, the first crime writer we ever encounter is the all-time bestselling genius, Agatha Christie. Many modern-day crime writers are obsessive fans of her work. Despite the perception amongst some readers that she wrote old-fashioned, fusty novels full of vicars and village fetes, Christie was in fact startlingly modern. She was quick to adapt to new forensic techniques, she created characters with great psychological complexity, she mastered the concept of unreliable narrators, and she was capable of truly demonic twists that have never been bettered.
As a result, she was a bestseller - then and now. The superlatives pile up: in addition to selling over two billion copies of her 66 books – only outsold by the Bible and Shakespeare! – she wrote a play, The Mousetrap, which holds the record for the world's longest-running theatrical performance. One of her most disturbing and inventive novels, And Then There Were None, is the bestselling crime novel of all time.
If you love Agatha Christie but don’t know where to find her modern equivalents (or if you love crime fiction but you’ve somehow overlooked Agatha Christie!), here's a list of books for you. And if you’ve never read crime fiction at all, this is a good place to start.
Even though these books have a lot in common, if you’ve already read one it won’t spoil the other. Think of them as partners in crime . . .
If you loved... And Then There Were None, try The Hunting Party by Lucy Foley
Bringing a group of people together, letting the tensions simmer, make it impossible for them to leave and then – a murder. It’s a brilliant set-up for a novel and both Christie and Foley make the most of it. Christie’s group are strangers on an island, whereas the characters in The Hunting Party know each other all too well, but you’ll be gripped by both.
If you loved... Evil Under The Sun, try The It Girl by Ruth Ware
A beautiful, attention-seeking woman, jealousy, obsession, lust and ultimately death . . . Christie sets her novel in an island resort visited by a beautiful, spoiled actress, whereas Ware’s takes place in an Oxford college, where a glamorous student is found dead. Both books are by writers at the top of their misleading game: I gasped at the twists!
If you loved... The Body in the Library, try The Thursday Murder Club by Richard Osman
A dead body, a mystery and a collection of amateur sleuths who weigh in to unpick the complicated circumstances that led to murder: matching set-ups for two very enjoyable cosy crime novels. In Christie’s book, Miss Marple heads up the team, whereas Osman shares the glory between Joyce, Elizabeth, Ron and Ibrahim. Both funny and insightful as well as clever, these novels celebrate the most underestimated members of society and both have cracking plots.
If you loved... 4.50 from Paddington, try The Girl On The Train by Paula Hawkins
Two of the all-time great train-related crime novels: a woman sees something from a train but no one will believe her. In Christie’s novel, Miss Marple has to find the body of a strangled woman to prove she was really murdered. In Hawkins’ massive hit, the main character has a drinking problem and therefore no clear memory of what happened to a missing woman she used to watch from the train – but she knows she is involved somehow. The revelations are expertly timed and totally believable.
If you loved... Third Girl, try Strange Sally Diamond by Liz Nugent
Two vulnerable young women feature in this pair of novels. In Third Girl, Norma, a confused and immature girl, suffers from amnesia. She thinks she has committed murder and wants Poirot to find out what happened, but she is scared and confused and not the most helpful witness. Nugent’s Sally is eccentric and literal-minded and when she discovers her tragic past after her father dies, her reaction to it is not what you might expect. Both novels really explore what makes us who we are.
If you loved... Death On The Nile, try Gone Girl by Gillian Flynn
Without wishing to reveal too much about the superb plots of this pair of novels, if you like twisted, manipulative characters, you’ll find a lot to enjoy here. Both of them contain moments where, if you had pearls, you’d clutch them. Death on the Nile is a classic for a reason – the way the tension rises as the cruise heads towards murder is exquisite – and Gone Girl has the same nail-biting quality.
If you loved... After the Funeral, try What a Way to Go by Bella Mackie
There’s nothing like disputed inheritance to bring out the worst in a family and both Christie and Mackie play around with the disruption a death can bring. Old secrets and resentments are dragged into the light, and while the two novels head off in very different directions from this starting point, they are both brilliantly plotted and hugely entertaining.
If you loved... Peril at End House, try The Trap by Catherine Ryan Howard
A young woman is being stalked by a murderer in Peril at End House; a young woman is stalking a murderer in The Trap. In Christie’s novel Nick dodges death while Poirot tries to work out who would want to kill her, and why. Howard’s Lucy is putting herself in harm’s way to find the person who kidnapped her missing sister. The stakes couldn’t be higher for either of them, and in both cases, the twists are simply jaw-dropping. Both of these novels successfully baffled me, and I’ve read a lot of crime novels!
If you loved... Crooked House, try A Stranger in the Family by Jane Casey
Crooked House is one of Christie’s best crime novels, centring on the three generations of the wealthy Leonides family. After the head of the family is found dead, suspicion falls on everyone who lives in the big crooked house of the title, and twelve-year-old Josephine boasts that she knows who killed her grandfather – something that places her at great risk. In my own novel A Stranger in the Family, it’s nine-year-old Rosalie who has family secrets to keep, and her disappearance leads, eventually, to murder. Family homes can be dangerous places in crime novels!
If you loved... The Moving Finger, try None of This is True by Lisa Jewell
Nothing is what it seems in this pairing of novels. Christie’s book features a mean-spirited writer of anonymous letters accusing the residents of a small town of various scandalous crimes, which leads, ultimately, to a death. Jewell’s brilliant bestseller is about a podcaster interviewing a woman about her sad life story – but she comes to suspect all is not as it seems. The truth and why people manipulate it are the common themes, but these are both gripping, pacy thrillers where your sympathies will shift again and again.
The Outsider by Jane Casey is out 7 November
And Then There Were None: The Ultimate Mystery Edition by Agatha Christie
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