Today we present you 8 books by Agatha Christie in PDF format that you can read and download for free. But first, a little history of this fabulous English writer.
Agatha Mary Clarissa Miller was born on September 15, 1890 in Torquay, Devon, in the southwest of England. The youngest of three siblings, she was home-schooled by her mother, who encouraged her daughter to write.
As a child, Christie enjoyed fantasy play and character creation and, when she was 16, she moved to Paris for a time to study singing and piano.
In 1914 she married Colonel Archibald Christie, a pilot in the Royal Flying Corps, and became a nurse during the World War I. She published her first book, «The Mysterious Case of Styles», in 1920; the story centered on the murder of a wealthy heiress and introduced readers to one of Christie’s most famous characters: the Belgian detective Hercule Poirot.
In 1926, Christie published «The Murder of Roger Ackroyd», a hit that later became marked as a classic of the genre and an all-time favorite.
That same year, however, she had to deal with upheaval when her mother died and her husband revealed that he was having an affair with another woman.
Traumatized by the revelation, Christie disappeared only to be discovered by authorities several days later in a Harrogate hotel, registered under the name of her husband’s mistress.
Christie recovered and divorced Archibald in 1928. In 1930 she married archaeology professor Max Mallowan, with whom she traveled on several expeditions, and later recounted her travels in the 1946 memoir «Come, Tell Me How You Live».
The year of his remarriage also saw the release of «The Murder at the Vicarage», which became another classic and introduced readers to Miss Jane Marple, a curious village lady.
Poirot and Marple are Christie’s best-known detectives, and both appear in dozens of novels and short stories. Poirot appears most often in Christie’s work in such titles as Ackroyd, The Mystery of the Blue Train (1928) and Death in the Clouds (1935).
Miss Marple has appeared in books such as «The Moving Finger» (1942) and «A Pocket Full of Rye» (1953), and has been played on screen by actresses such as Angela Lansbury, Helen Hayes and Geraldine McEwan. Other notable Christie characters include Tuppence and Tommy Beresford, Colonel Race, Parker Pyne and Ariadne Oliver.
Christie wrote more than 70 detective novels, as well as short fiction novels, well into her old age. Although she also wrote romance novels such as «Unfinished Portrait» (1934) and «A Daughter’s a Daughter» (1952) under the name Mary Westmacott, Christie’s success as an author of detective stories has earned her titles such as «The Queen of Crime» and the «Queen of Mystery».
Christie can also be considered a queen of all publishing genres, as she is one of the best-selling authors in history, with her combined works selling more than 2 billion copies worldwide.
Christie was also a renowned playwright, with works such as «The Hollow» (1951) and Verdict (1958). Her play «The Mousetrap» premiered in 1952 at the Ambassador Theatre and, with more than 8,800 performances over 21 years, holds the record for the longest unbroken run in a London theater.
In addition, several of Christie’s plays have been made into movies, including Murder on the Orient Express (1974) and Death on the Nile (1978).
Christie became a dame in 1971. In 1974, she made her last public appearance for the premiere of the play version of «Murder on the Orient Express». Christie died on January 12, 1976.
1) The Mysterious Affair at Styles
The Mysterious Affair at Styles is a detective novel written at the height of World War I, in 1916, and first published by John Lane in the United States in October 1920 and in the United Kingdom by The Bodley Head on January 21, 1921.
Styles was Christie’s first published novel. It featured Hercule Poirot, Inspector Japp and Arthur Hastings. Poirot, a Belgian refugee from the Great War, settles in England near the home of Emily Inglethorp, who helped him in his new life. His friend Hastings arrives as a guest at her house. When the woman is murdered, Poirot uses his detective skills to solve the mystery.
2) The Secret Adversary
The Secret Adversary is a detective fiction novel originally published in the United Kingdom in 1922 by The Bodley Head publishing house, in which the characters of Tommy and Tuppence Beresford appear for the first time.
The search for secret documents, written during World War I, which were lost in the wreck of the Lusitania, triggers a struggle between the British secret services and an international gang that wants to use the documents as an instrument of Bolshevik propaganda.
But into the maelstrom of spy warfare enter two young men, Tommy and Tuppence, who are determined to risk their lives to reveal the identity of the gang’s leader: the mysterious Mr. Brown.
3) The Murder on the Links
The Murder on the Links was first published in both the United Kingdom and the United States in 1923. In this complex novel full of surprises, one of the most recognized characters of the famous writer Agatha Christie, the detective Hercule Poirot, is present. In addition to him, there is also Hastings, his faithful friend, who is the narrator of the story.
The story unfolds when Poirot receives a letter in which Mr. Renauld, fearing that his life is in danger, asks the Belgian detective to visit him in France and thus lend him his help. What Poirot does not expect is that one night before his arrival Renauld is murdered.
Thanks to its ingenious plot and numerous twists and turns, this work is ideal for fans of the detective and crime genre. In which the reader will have to be very astute to discover who the criminal is before the final part of the novel has been unraveled.
4) The Man in the Brown Suit
The Man in the Brown Suit is a mystery novel first published in the United Kingdom on August 22, 1924. This novel set in South Africa narrates the adventures of Anne Beddingfeld, daughter of a famous archaeologist (Professor Beddingfeld), who also witnesses the death of a man in a subway station.
She also becomes embroiled in a plot involving criminals, assassins and political affairs. Anna herself sets out to discover the identity of the head of a group of diamond thieves.
In this novel makes his first appearance Colonel Race, who is a character that later appears in other works by the author, such as Death on the Nile and Cards on the Table. Race is a wealthy man who works for the British government as a spy or detective.
5) The Secret of Chimneys
The Secret of Chimneys is a work of detective fiction, first published in the United Kingdom by The Bodley Head in June 1925, and in the United States by Dodd, Mead and Company that same year.
The book features the characters of Superintendent Battle and Lady Eileen Bundle Brent.
At the request of George Lomax, Lord Caterham reluctantly agrees to host a weekend party at his house, Chimneys. A murder takes place at the house, setting off a week of fast-paced events with the police among the guests.
6) The Big Four
The Big Four is a detective fiction novel first published in the United Kingdom by the publisher William Collins & Sons on January 27, 1927, and in the second half of the same year in the United States by the publisher Dodd, Mead and Company.
In this book by the English author, Poirot, the greatest detective of all times (according to his own words), wants to think of nothing else but destroying the secret organization of The Big Four.
7) The Mystery of the Blue Train
The Mystery of the Blue Train is a work of detective fiction, first published in the United Kingdom by William Collins & Sons on March 29, 1928, and in the United States by Dodd, Mead and Company the same year.
Poirot boards Le Train Bleu, bound for the French Riviera. As does Katherine Gray, who travels after receiving a relatively large inheritance. On board the train, Gray meets Ruth Kettering, an American heiress who leaves her unhappy marriage to join her lover.
The next morning, Ruth turns up dead in her compartment, the victim of a strangulation. It is discovered that the famous Heart of Fire ruby, which her father had recently given Ruth, is missing. Ruth’s father, American millionaire Rufus Van Aldin, and his secretary, Major Knighton, convince Poirot to take on the case.
8) Poirot Investigates
Poirot Investigates is a collection of short stories first published in the United Kingdom by The Bodley Head in March 1924. In the eleven stories, the famous and eccentric detective Hercule Poirot solves a series of mysteries involving greed, jealousy and revenge.
The American version of this book, published by Dodd, Mead and Company in 1925, included three other stories. The first British edition included an illustration of Poirot on the dust jacket by W. Smithson Broadhead, reprinted from the March 21, 1923 issue of The Sketch magazine.
