Books to read if you love Agatha Christie

When the RMS Lusitania sets off from New York with a destination of war-torn Europe, its elite passengers hope for smooth sailing. But when a passenger is found dead in his cabin, shot with his own gun, the voyage becomes shrouded with mystery and suspicion. As word spreads around the ship of the tragedy, guests begin to question the verdict of suicide and search for a killer within their midst. With its historical maritime setting, cast of curious characters, and locked room mystery to solve, R. L. Graham’s Death on the Lusitania has all of the elements of a Christie-esque crime classic. 

When Freya Lockwood learns that her estranged mentor, antiques dealer Arthur Crockleford, has died in suspicious circumstances, she finds herself drawn back to the tiny chocolate-box English village in which she grew up. As she and her aunt Carole search for clues of Arthur’s death in the journals he kept hidden from view, the pair find themselves in a country manor full of curiosities, investigating antique dealers that are not all they seem. A celebration of the eccentricities of English country life, The Antique Hunter’s Guide to Murder is a cosy and charming hark back to the golden age of crime writing. 

In 1926, Agatha Christie vanished from her home in Berkshire and reappeared eleven days later in a hotel in Harrogate. Why, and what happened in between, remains unexplained to this day. Taking inspiration from Christie’s disappearance and her signature skill with a devilish plot, Nina de Gramont’s novel cleverly combines actual events with a parallel murder mystery to reimagine the circumstances around this real-life riddle.

Daisy Darker’s family haven’t been together in the same place for over a decade – and this may have been for the best. Finally reunited for an eightieth birthday celebration, they find themselves spending Halloween in a crumbling house on a private island, about to be cut off by the tide. Get ready for dark family dynamics, murder and a twist you definitely won’t see coming. 

Margery Allingham is one of the four Queens of Crime (alongside, of course, Agatha Christie) who ruled over the Golden Age of Crime Fiction in the 1920s and 30s. Set in a post-war London rendered almost impenetrable by fog, The Tiger in the Smoke follows a detective, Albert Campion, who finds himself dragged into a sinister criminal underworld while on the trail of a mysterious stranger posing as a dead soldier.

Not just whodunnits, but howdunnits, locked room mysteries – in which a crime is committed in circumstances that seem impossible – were incredibly popular when Agatha Christie was growing up. This collection brings together stories from such masters of the genre as Edgar Allan Poe, Wilkie Collins, Sir Arthur Conan Doyle and G. K. Chesterton.

Bombay, 1921. Armed with a law degree from Oxford and a passion for protecting women’s legal rights, Perveen Mistry is forced to turn detective when her suspicions over a dubious will are proved correct and bubbling tensions boil over into murder. Inspired in part by a real woman who made history by becoming India's first female lawyer, The Widows of Malabar Hill is the first of Sujata Massey’s Perveen Mistry novels, all set in India at the time Christie was writing.

If you love Miss Marple, you're sure to enjoy the adventures of this other famous amateur detective, Lord Peter Wimsey. The fifteen short stories in this lively and witty collection celebrate the breadth of Peter Wimsey’s career. From the foppish man about town of 'In the Teeth of the Evidence', to the happily married man in 'The Haunted Policeman', to the father of three in 'Talboys', Wimsey kept that twinkle in his eye and the brilliance of mind that helped him spot a clue a mile off.

Growing tired of his apparently literally insufferable wife and full of passion for another woman, Dr Edmund Bickleigh resolves to murder his spouse. Set in the epitome of stuffy 1920s England – a gossipy tennis party – this darkly amusing tale is one of the earliest and best examples of the inverted detective story. We know who committed the crime, the question is, will he get away with it?

New Year. The Scottish wilderness. A murder among friends. Lucy Foley’s bestseller is a Agatha Christie-style house-party whodunnit which slowly draws out the long-held grudges of a close-knit group to build a feeling of real menace. It’s full of tension, rivalry and secretly toxic friendships. 

'Marple meets Succession' says Sunday Times Style of this addictive thriller set amongst the celebrity elite on a private members' island. Beautiful people can have ugly secrets and, in a world where reputation is everything, they'll do anything to keep them. A story of ambition, excess and murder.

This collection of eleven stories from the Golden Age of British crime writing features festive whodunnits by Margery Allingham and Ngaio Marsh. There are unexplained deaths by all manner of suspect means from famous writers such as Arthur Conan Doyle and Marjorie Bowen, and dastardly Christmas crimes to be solved from esteemed crime writers such as Robert Barnard, Nicholas Olde and H. R. F. Keating. Each story is brilliantly plotted – some deliciously tense, others laced with humour – and each is bound to thoroughly entertain.