Items30The creator’s order
  1. 1The Murder of Roger Ackroyd (1926)The Murder of Roger Ackroyd (1926) 8.5/10 on Open LibraryPublished 1 Jan 1926Christie's village murder remains a demanding test of how closely a reader attends to an account of events. Poirot investigates Roger Ackroyd's death while apparently ordinary details accumulate around him. Read it before looking at introductions or reviews: even descriptions of its famous…0
  2. 2Five Little Pigs (1942)Five Little Pigs (1942) 8.0/10 on Open LibraryPublished 1 Jan 1942A woman asks Poirot to reconsider her mother's conviction sixteen years after a poisoning. Five witnesses reconstruct the same past, giving you accounts to compare instead of a fresh crime scene to inspect. Keep a short record of what each person notices and assumes. The pleasure is discovering how…0
  3. 3Cards on the Table (1936)Cards on the Table (1936) 7.8/10 on Open LibraryPublished 1 Jan 1936Four bridge players had the opportunity to kill their host, and Poirot treats their behaviour as evidence. Cards on the Table offers a compact suspect field that rewards comparing what people remember with how they play and act. Familiarity with bridge makes some passages easier, though the…0
  4. 4The A.B.C. Murders (1936)The A.B.C. Murders (1936) 8.1/10 on Open LibraryPublished 1 Jan 1936An alphabetical series of killings invites the reader to look for a pattern alongside Poirot. Christie makes that invitation a reason to examine the assumptions built into an investigation, not simply to predict the next letter. Its wider geography and changes of viewpoint give it more momentum…0
  5. 5Whose Body? (1923)Whose Body? (1923) 8.6/10 on Open LibraryPublished 1 Jan 1923A naked stranger in a bath and a missing financier give Lord Peter Wimsey an identity problem with a very definite physical centre. Sayers's first Wimsey novel is relatively compact, so it suits readers wanting to test observations without committing to one of her longer investigations. The manner…0
  6. 6Have his carcase (1932)Have his carcase (1932) 6.7/10 on Open LibraryPublished 1 Jan 1932Harriet Vane finds a body on a beach and works with Wimsey through a case full of timing problems, journeys and competing accounts. This is a substantial notebook mystery, with a cipher and stretches of detailed reasoning that ask for sustained attention. The developing relationship provides relief…0
  7. 7The Greek coffin mystery (1932)The Greek coffin mystery (1932)Published 1 Jan 1932A missing will leads Ellery Queen to a coffin containing something unexpected, then to a sequence of explanations that must be tested and revised. This is a long, argumentative puzzle for readers willing to distinguish a persuasive story from a conclusion that survives every fact. Its explicit…0
  8. 8The Chinese Orange Mystery (1934)The Chinese Orange Mystery (1934)Published 1 Jan 1934An unidentified visitor is killed in a publisher's waiting room, where the arrangement of objects has become bizarrely wrong. Ellery Queen's investigation rewards an inventory of what the room contains and what witnesses can establish. The solution is elaborately constructed, so choose this for the…0
  9. 9The hollow man (1935)The hollow man (1935) 9.3/10 on Open LibraryPublished 1 Jan 1935Dr Gideon Fell faces a vanished visitor and a murder whose apparent physical limits refuse to add up. Carr gives the reader substantial material for testing boundaries, witness statements and alternative explanations. The discussion of impossible crimes is part of the book's attraction, but also a…0
  10. 10The Judas window (1938)The Judas window (1938)Published 1 Jan 1938A defendant seems trapped by the evidence after waking in a locked study beside a man killed with an arrow. Sir Henry Merrivale's courtroom defence turns the facts into propositions that can be challenged in public. Follow what each witness can actually establish and keep the room's layout in mind.…0