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If You Like Agatha Christie...

  • Writer: Alice Rickless
    Alice Rickless
  • Dec 31, 2021
  • 4 min read


During quarantine in 2020 I picked up my first Agatha Christie, The Murder of Roger Ackyroyd. I finished the book in one sitting, audibly gasping at the twist at the end. After that I devoured Agatha Christie books one after another, always thinking I knew whodunnit, and always getting it wrong. I started branching out from Agatha Christie into other mysteries, mostly off of recommendations from my dad after rooting through his bookshelves. I don’t know exactly why murder mystery was what I grasped onto during the pandemic, but I think it did have something to do with being able to spend my time inside an intricate story that wasn’t the one we were living.


Agatha Christie has her classic stories, she is outsold only by the Bible and Shakespeare, and one thing that is characteristic of her are the challenges she sets for herself with each story. Unlike the Scooby Doo cartoons I grew up watching that had the same formula for each episode, Christie uses a different formula for every one of her novels. None is exactly like the other, and she challenges herself to do this - whether it be by putting a whole story in a train or remote island, or making the murder impossible.


Murder mysteries can be airport-novel fodder, or they can be fun, intelligent, sometimes comedic books with brilliant endings. The books on this list all fall under the latter.



1. Magpie Murders by Anthony Horowitz



Magpie Murders is the first in a series by extremely talented author Anthony Horowitz. The book is set around a book editor, Susan Ryeland, who is given the manuscript of author Alan Conway’s latest mystery. Soon after receiving this book, someone ends up murdered, and Susan has a feeling that the answer to the mystery lies within the manuscript. Using a story within a story format, Magpie Murders has more twists and turns than you would ever expect.


Magpie Murders was one of the cleverest books I have ever read. The story within the story was so unbelievably smart and fun, bringing together old school mystery with modern life. The story within the story is something I had never read before, a definite challenge for the faint-of-heart writer, but Horowitz is not one of them. Horowitz’s way of writing is easy and non-pretentious which makes this the perfect read to get sucked into on a lazy Saturday.


*A shout out to the second book in the series, Moonflower Murders, as I gasped out loud when I found out all the clues to the murder I had missed.


*Another shout out to Horowitz’s Sherlock Holmes story, The House of Silk, which is much darker than his Susan Ryeland series, but an incredible story and deep read.



2. From Doon with Death by Ruth Rendell




From Doon with Death is the first in Rendell’s Inspector Wexford series. The book centers around an unassuming housewife in the sleepy town of Kingsmarkham who is suddenly found strangled in the nearby woods. Who would kill her? There are no clues except her dark secret, a collection of books inscribed by a lover named “Doon”. It’s up to Wexford to dig into the past of this housewife, discovering more surprising things about her life around every corner.


From Doon with Death was incredibly clever, especially for the time it was published in 1964. Rendell challenges herself by giving her a victim who by all means has no reason to be targeted by anyone. Wexford is a smart, intelligent detective, one who has the ability to remain interesting throughout multiple books and different mysteries. There are 24 books in the series, making it a continuous read a la Poirot or Miss Marple.


*Would highly recommend the 50th Anniversary edition of the book as it has a fantastic foreword by Ian Rankin and an afterword about the book from Rendell herself.



3. Cover Her Face by P.D. James



Cover Her Face is the first in James’ 14 book series of a ‘poetry-writing’ detective, Adam Dalgliesh. The book is centered around the death of a parlour maid who had just announced her shock engagement to the wealthy son of the family she worked for. It’s up to Dalgliesh to discover who, not necessarily the obvious, committed the murder.


Cover Her Face’s Dalgleish is an incredibly fun main character. Smart and elusive, he adds light and interest to a darker story. The character is like its own mystery to solve, at least in his first few appearances. Like Inspector Wexford in Rendell’s series, Dalgliesh is one to last through many stories and remain entertaining. James sets herself a challenge with giving us a victim who has made so many enemies it could really be anyone who committed the murder. The twists and turns in the story make it a book hard to put down, and you will be unsatisfied until you find out whodunnit.



4. The Thursday Murder Club by Richard Osman



The Thursday Murder Club is the first book in a series by British comedian Richard Osman. It centers around four senior citizens living in a retirement home who meet each Thursday to look at unsolved crimes. When a local developer ends up dead, the foursome find themselves investigating a murder in real time.


This book was unbelievably clever. It’s been a long time since I’ve found such rich characters. Every single person Osman writes about has a distinctive personality and story that is worth knowing. The four main characters, Elizabeth, Joyce, Ibrahim, and Ron make me not as worried about getting older. They show the brilliance that comes from age and the experience that has made them wise. They are not hindered by the fact that they live in a retirement home, but rather elevated by it. Its sad moments are balanced out by Osman’s humor and light, and I fell in love with the septuagenarian amateur detectives by the end of the first chapter.


*Shout out to the sequel, The Man Who Died Twice, as Osman achieved the practically impossible task of creating a follow-up as good as the original.



Links to purchase all books mentioned:










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