Before I start actually reading all the mystery works of Agatha Christie I thought I should come up with a plan of action. Do I read the books in the order they were written, or in the order they were published? Or should I just dive in with the first novel I happen to pickup?
I am not new to Agatha Christie. In my teens I read several of her novels and books of short stories, I was Christopher Wren in a production of The Mouse Trap, I've listened to podcasts and radio dramas and I've watched nearly all of the television adaptations of her books. For a creative writing class I even wrote an Agatha Christie style play. So really I've already read some of the books at random, and that wasn't exactly sustainable.
My original intention was to simply read all the books in order of publication: beginning with The Mysterious Affair at Styles and ending with Curtain: Poirot's Last Case. After a bit of research I learned that several Poirot and Miss Marple short stories weren't published until after Curtain. Reading the Poirot stories according to the publishing dates would take me backwards into his storyline; after Curtain you can't just go back to Poirot and Hastings happily solving cases at the Whitehaven Mansions.
I visited www.agathachristie.com and discovered their recommended reading order lists. That resolved my Poirot issues, but created a few problems with Miss Marple. For some reason if you're reading just Miss Marple they suggest one reading order but, if you decide to read ALL of Christie's works they suggest a different reading the Miss Marple stories in another order entirely. And, while I understand their reasoning for putting Sleeping Murder as the fifth Marple story to read, Christie did intended it as Miss Marple's last case.
Ultimately I'll probably decide on a hybrid of the recommended lists and publication order, but for now I'm eager to get started. Tomorrow I'll get The Mysterious Affair at Styles and go from there.
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