Agatha Christie is the Queen of Mysteries to me. She is the one all other mysteries are judged against in my world. And Then There Were None and At Bertram's Hotel are my favorites.

"Murder on the Orient Express" and "The Murder of Roger Ackroyd" for me, not least for their brilliant final twists; also "The ABC Murders" -- even though as a detective, I ever so slightly prefer Miss Marple to Hercule Poirot. Favorite Miss Marple novel: "Nemesis" (perhaps just because it's darker than most of the other MM fare), followed by "A Murder Is Announced." Favorite Christie novel for setting: "Death on the Nile" (dang, another Poirot :) ). I also really, really like Tommy & Tuppence -- the characters more than the mysteries, though "By the Pricking of My Thumbs" is great as a story, too ... and I like the fact that, for once, we actually see a pair of Christie detectives aging in near-real time.

I also love A Murder is Announced. I think it has some flat out funny lines in it.

Agreed! And some great observations about post-WWII England. Besides, the premise as such is sheer genius ...

I think my favorite Christies are the ones from the 20s and 30s. "Murder on the Orient Express" is a favorite, and I periodically re-read it, despite it being one of the few Christies where I can remember who the murderer is!

I just finished reading "Murder on the Orient Express" for the first time and think the ending was awesome...

"Murder on the Orient Express" is a classic and it would be difficult for anyone to reuse that kind of plotline. Have any other authors even tried?

Not that I've ever seen.

Can't think of any, either; not the exact same thing at least. Though Christie herself did something similar in "Appointment With Death."

Yes, I will agree that she wasn't against recycling her own plots a bit. Evil under the Sun and Death on the Nile have some similar plot points. Maybe that's also why she feels so comfortable to read. While I consider her work to be brilliant, it also feels familiar.

Reply to post #10 (show post):
Well, with the sheer amount of her output there would almost necessarily have to be some recycling at some point, it seems ... even a prolific writer like her can only come up with so many settings, scenarios and twists!

Her short stories especially to me read like "mini-laboratories" of sorts, where she tried out ideas that, if they worked for her, she later expanded into novels (or vice versa: where she put a new spin on something that had already worked well in a novel) -- and sometimes she also just reused the same material in a new short story. E.g., speaking of "Evil Under the Sun" (1941), the plot there is almost exactly the same in all material points as in the short story "The Triangle at Rhodes" (contained in "Murder in the Mews," 1937). Similarly, one of her earliest short stories, "The Plymouth Express" (first published as a stand-alone short story in 1923) is practically the same story as "The Mystery of the Blue Train" (1928) -- and core elements from another very early story, "The Cornish Mystery" (also from 1923) later resurfaced in "The Lernean Hydra" in "The Labours of Hercules" (1947).

I like the idea of her short stories being laboratories. I think that probably makes a lot of sense for a writer. I tend to read the novels more than the short stories so I probably wouldn't have spotted all those similarities.

I generally prefer novels as well, but there are times when I know I won't have much time to read at all (or only manage to squeeze in tiny scraps here and there), and during those times, I'm very happy to turn to short stories as well. At least they give me the feeling that I've actually "completed" a read in whatever time available to me ... even if it's just a single story and not an entire book (or substantial part thereof)! :)

I'm starting N or M? now. I actually love Tommy and Tuppence though I know there are many who don't care for them.

Enjoy! (I should reread that myself some time soon, I think ...) I like Tommy and Tuppence a lot as well.