2027 Reading Challenges #1 - Agatha Christie et al

As I work through my reading challenges for this year, I've started thinking about what my challenges might be for 2027. I think I've pretty well sorted them out, although it's only October so the books I pick are subject to change. What I'm tentatively planning is 3 12 + 4 Reading Challenges and 5 Individual Challenges. Ove the next while, I'll periodically look at these challenges. Let's start with my first 12 + 4 Reading Challenge. (That means that I'll choose 16 books, 12 main ones and 4 alternates)

The Queens of Crime - Christie, Marsh, Sayers and Allingham

My first challenge features the 4 women crime writers, nicknamed the Queens of Crime during the Golden Age of Detective Fiction. They were Agatha Christie, Margery Allingham, Ngaio Marsh and Dorothy L. Sayers. I've been working through their works since I moved out to the West Coast in the early 2000's and at some point I hope to read all of their books. I've probably had more success with Agatha Christie and Ngaio Marsh, but this challenge will let me focus on the books I've got on my book shelf.

Agatha Christie is best known for her Hercule Poirot (39 books) & Miss Marple series (13 books) But she also wrote other series; Tommy and Tuppence, Colonel Race, etc., plus many standalones and short stories. Thus far, I've managed to read 23 of her books and I plan to read another ten in 2027. Margery Allingham is the creator of another sleuth, Albert Campion, and wrote 21 books in the series, mainly novels, some short story collections. Thus far, I've completed 12 of the series and plan to read two more in 2027. Ngaio Marsh is a New Zealander but set most of her Inspector Roderick Alleyn books in the UK. A few, set during the war years, were set in New Zealand. She wrote 33 books in the series and I've completed 20. I plan to read 2 more in 2027. The final member of the quartet is Dorothy L. Sayers who wrote the Lord Peter Wimsey mystery series. It consisted of 15 books and while I've acquired quite a few of the series, I've only completed 4 of the books. Once again I plan to read two of the books on my shelf.

As a matter of interest, each author's characters have been subject of movies and TV series and they are all worth checking out. Below are the books I currently plan to read from the 4 authors.

12 + 4 Reading Challenges - Agatha Christie and Other Golden Age Authors (Margery Allingham, Ngaio Marsh & Dorothy L. Sayers) (This will be all of the Agatha Christie books on my shelves and 2 of each of the others) 

1. The Mystery of the Blue Train by Agatha Christie (Hercule Poirot #6 / 1928).

"Bound for the Riviera, detective Hercule Poirot has boarded Le Train bleu, an elegant, leisurely means of travel, free of intrigue. The he meets Ruth Kettering. The lovely American heiress--bailing out of a doomed marriage--is en route to reconcile with her former lover. But by morning, the young bride's private affairs are made public when she's found murdered in her luxury compartment. The rumor of a strange man loitering in the victim's shadow is all Poirot has to go on. Until Mrs. Kettering's secret life begins to unfold . . ."

2. Hickory, Dickory Dock by Agatha Christie (Hercule Poirot #34 / 1955).

"A most unusual series of crimes at a student hostel intrigues Inspector Hercule Poirot in Agatha Christie’s Hickory Dickory Dock, especially when a simple case of kleptomania paves the way to murder.

Hercule Poirot doesn’t need all his detective skills to realize something is troubling his secretary, Miss Lemon—she has made three mistakes in a simple letter. It seems an outbreak of kleptomania at the student hostel in which her sister works is distracting his usually efficient assistant.

Deciding that desperate times call for desperate measures, the great detective agrees to investigate. Unknown to Poirot, however, desperation is a motive he shares with a killer. . . ."

3. Elephants Can Remember by Agatha Christie (Hercule Poirot #37 / 1972).

""The Ravenscrofts didn't seem that kind of person. They seemed well balanced and placid..." And yet, twelve years earlier, the husband had shot the wife, and then himself--or perhaps it was the other way around, since sets of both of their fingerprints were on the gun, and the gun had fallen between them. The case haunts Ariadne Oliver, who had been a friend of the couple. The famous mystery novelist desires this real-life mystery solved, and calls upon Hercule Poirot to help her do so. Poirot is now a very old man, but his mind is as nimble and as sharp as ever and can still penetrate deep into the shadows. But as Poirot and Mrs. Oliver and Superintendent Spence reopen the long-closed case, a startling discovery awaits them. And if memory serves Poirot (and it does!), crime--like history--has a tendency to repeat itself."

4. Nemesis by Agatha Christie (Miss Marple #12 / 1971).

"In utter disbelief, Jane Marple read the letter addressed to her from the recently deceased Mr. Rafiel - an acquaintance she had met briefly on her travels. He had left instructions for her to investigate a crime after his death. The only problem was, he had failed to tell her who was involved or where and when the crime had been committed. It was most intriguing. Soon she is faced with a new crime - the ultimate crime - murder. It seems someone is adamant that past evils remain buried..."

5. Third Girl by Agatha Christie (Hercule Poirot #35 / 1966).

"In this breathtaking Agatha Christie mystery, the Third Girl sharing a London flat with two others announces to Hercule Poirot that she’s a murderer and then disappears. The masterful investigator must figure out whether the missing girl is a criminal, a victim, or merely insane.

Three young women share a London flat. The first is a coolly efficient secretary. The second is an artist. The third interrupts Hercule Poirot’s breakfast confessing that she is a murderer—and then promptly disappears.

Slowly, Poirot learns of the rumors surrounding the mysterious third girl, her family, and her disappearance. Yet hard evidence is needed before the great detective can pronounce her guilty, innocent, or insane.…"

6. Mr. Parker Pyne, Detective by Agatha Christie (Parker Pyne 1 - 12 / 1934).

"Agatha Christie once again demonstrates her mastery of the short form mystery with Parker Pyne Investigates—short stories of crime and detection featuring Parker Pyne, certainly one of the most unconventional private investigators ever to pursue a hot lead.

Mrs. Packington felt alone, helpless and utterly forlorn. But her life changed when she stumbled upon an advertisement in the Times that read: "Are you happy? If not, consult Mr. Parker Pyne."

Equally adept at putting together the fragments of a murder mystery or the pieces of a broken marriage, Mr. Parker Pyne is possibly the world's most unconventional private investigator. Armed with just his intuitive knowledge of human nature, he is an Englishman abroad, traveling the globe to solve and undo crime and misdemeanor."

7. Remembered Death by Agatha Christie (Col. Race #4 / 1945).

"A beautiful heiress is fatally poisoned in a West End restaurant…

Six people sit down to dinner at a table laid for seven. In front of the empty place is a sprig of rosemary – in solemn memory of Rosemary Barton who died at the same table exactly one year previously.

No one present on that fateful night would ever forget the woman’s face, contorted beyond recognition – or what they remembered about her astonishing life."

8. They Came to Baghdad by Agatha Christie (Standalone / 1951).

"She fell head over heels for the charming young man one afternoon. And by nightfall, Victoria Jones had conspired to follow him to Baghdad.

But no daydream of love could match the real life adventure that unfolded: a stranger was stabbed in her bed, someone issued a hushed warning, and her rival for Edward's affections neatly arranged her kidnapping. From the steamy Arab marketplace to the vast and arid desert, Victoria was pursued by an unknown power that threatened not only her, but the fate of the entire world ..."

9. Appointment with Death by Agatha Christie (Hercule Poirot #19 / 1938).

"A repugnant American widow is killed during a trip to Petra! Among the towering red cliffs of Petra, like some monstrous swollen Buddha, sat the corpse of Mrs Boynton. A tiny puncture mark on her wrist was the only sign of the fatal injection that had killed her. With only 24 hours available to solve the mystery, Hercule Poirot recalled a chance remark he'd overheard back in 'You see, don't you, that she's got to be killed?' Mrs Boynton was, indeed, the most detestable woman he'd ever met!"

10. Death on the Nile by Agatha Christie (Hercule Poirot #18 / 1937).

"The tranquillity of a cruise along the Nile was shattered by the discovery that Linnet Ridgeway had been shot through the head. She was young, stylish, and beautiful. A girl who had everything...until she lost her life.

Hercule Poirot recalled an earlier outburst by a fellow passenger: "I'd like to put my dear little pistol against her head and just press the trigger." Yet in this exotic setting nothing is ever quite what it seems."

11. Sweet Danger by Margery Allingham (Albert Campion #5 / 1933).

"Way back during the Crusades, Richard I presented the Huntingforest family with the tiny Balkan principality of Averna but since then the kingdom has been forgotten, until circumstances in Europe suddenly render it extremely strategically important to the British Government. They hire unconventional detective Albert Campion to recover the long-missing proofs of ownership - the deeds, a crown, and a receipt - which are apparently hidden in the village of Pontisbright. 

On arriving in Pontisbright, Campion and his friends meet the eccentric, young, flame-haired Amanda Fitton and her family who claim to be the rightful heirs to Averna and join in the hunt. Mr. Campion and his two young friends, Eager-Wright and Farquharson, posted as the Hereditary Paladin of Averna and his entourage! Unfortunately, criminal financier Brett Savanake is also interested in finding the evidence of the oil-rich state's ownership for his own ends. 

Things get rather rough in the village as Savanake's heavies up the pressure on Campion to solve the mystery before they do. In the course of the hunt, Campion dresses in drag, takes refuge in a tree, is nearly drowned in a mill race, and his friends find themselves bound and gagged in sacks, shot at, and witnesses to a satanic ceremony led by the local doctor. The rural calm of Pontisbright is well and truly shattered."

12. More Work for the Undertaker by Margery Allingham (Albert Campion #13 / 1948)

"In a masterpiece of storytelling, Margery Allingham sends her elegant and engaging detective Albert Campion into the eccentric Palinode household, where there have been two suspicious deaths.

And if poisoning were not enough, there are also anonymous letters, sudden violence and a vanishing coffin. Meanwhile, the Palinodes go about their nocturnal business and Campion dices with danger in his efforts to find the truth."

Alternates

Alt 1. Death and the Dancing Footman by Ngaio Marsh (Inspector Alleyn #11 / 1941).

"The party's over when murder makes an entrance...

With the notion of bringing together the most bitter of enemies for his own amusement, a bored, mischievous millionaire throws a house party. As a brutal snowstorm strands the unhappy guests, the party receives a most unwelcome visitor: death. Now the brilliant inspector Roderick Alleyn must step in to decipher who at the party is capable of cold-blooded murder"

Alt 2. Colour Scheme by Ngaio Marsh (Inspector Alleyn #12 / 1943).

"It was a horrible death – Maurice Questing was lured into a pool of boiling mud and left there to die.

Chief Inspector Roderick Alleyn, far from home on a wartime quest for German agents, knew that any number of people could have killed him: the English exiles he’d hated, the New Zealanders he’d despised or the Maoris he’d insulted. Even the spies he’d thwarted – if he wasn’t a spy himself…"

Alt 3. The Unpleasantness at the Bellona Club by Dorothy L. Sayers (Lord Peter Wimsey #5 / 1928).

"Ninety-year-old General Fentiman was definitely dead, but no one knew exactly when he had died—and the time of death was the determining factor in a half-million-pound inheritance. Lord Peter Wimsey would need every bit of his amazing skills to unravel the mysteries of why the General's lapel was without a red poppy on Armistice Day, how the club's telephone was fixed without a repairman, and, most puzzling of all, why the great man's knee swung freely when the rest of him was stiff with rigor mortis."

Alt 4. Strong Poison by Dorothy L. Sayers (Lord Peter Wimsey #6 / 1930).

"The elegant, intelligent amateur sleuth Lord Peter Wimsey is one of detective literature's most popular creations. Ian Carmichael is the personification of Dorothy L. Sayers' charming investigator in this BBC Radio 4 full-cast dramatisation.

When mystery writer Harriet Vane is accused of the murder of her lover, the evidence seems pretty damning. But Lord Peter Wimsey is not convinced and when, five hours later, no verdict has been returned, it seems the jury may not be either.

But if Harriet didn't murder Philip Boyes, who did?"

More to follow in the near future.