The unique achievement of Agatha Christie

Each week we will review and score a different one of Agatha Christie’s 66 crime novels, taking them in chronological order of  publication.

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100 years ago, in 1920, Agatha Christie published her first novel: The Mysterious Affair at Styles. In 1976, after her death, Sleeping Murder was the 66th, and last, of her crime novels to be published.

Agatha Christie is the biggest selling novelist in the history of the world. Over 2,000,000,000 – two billion – copies sold, perhaps over 3 billion, and they are still flying off the shelves.

Agatha Christie’s novels have been translated into more languages – over 103 – than those of any other writer.

And Then There Were None is the best selling mystery novel ever: over 100,000,000 copies sold.

The Murder of Roger Ackroyd was recently voted, by the Crime Writers’ Association, the best crime novel ever written.

Agatha Christie holds the world record for the longest running play, The Mousetrap, which has been on in London continuously (except for a short Coronavirus interlude) since 1952 – 68 years.

The TV Poirot series, starring David Suchet, has been seen by almost one billion viewers.

For some of her daughter’s childhood Agatha Christie was a single mother.

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This blog is a tribute to the unique achievement of Agatha Christie.

We read Agatha Christie not because of the astonishing records but because we enjoy her novels: brilliant whodunnits, enjoyable characters and often very funny.

The Home Page photo is of the dining room at the Art Deco Burgh Island Hotel  where Christie wrote and set two of her novels