Best Agatha Christie Books

On recently completing the 25th post of my blog, I thought of doing something special. Since Dame Christie is probably the most popular author in the Mystery Genre and the most popular on my blog, I decided to do a double treat a best of Agatha Christie from all her books and another Best of Hercule Poirot. later on I will do a best of Miss Marple because I'm still to go through a few Marple's. So lets start with the best Agatha Christie books.

Top 5 Agatha Christie Books:

Some buried Caesar by Rex Stout

Nero Wolfe, the famous New York Detective is travelling with his assistant Archie Goodwin to an Agricultural fair north of NY. In the way the meet with an accident and the Stout Wolfe somehow ends up in the path of Caesar, no not the man who created the Roman Empire from the Republic but a prized bull who is also the focal point of a great controversy in the region.

Caesar is owned by Mr. Pratt, who is a wealthy restaurateur and plans to BBQ the prized bull for publicity. This is vehemently opposed by the Guernsey League and Mr. Pratt's neighbor Osgood who thinks that this is a ploy by Pratt to humiliate the Osgood's. Clyde Osgood makes a 10 grand bet with Pratt that he won't be able to barbecue Caesar. A worried Pratt seeks the service of Wolfe to have Archie protect the bull from any malevolent machinations, which Wolfe agrees to.

Something goes wrong the same night Clyde Osgood is found dead in the Pasture and apparently he has been gored to death by Caesar. The case is simple enough Clyde went in to steal Caesar in order to win the bet but instead got Gored to death. Two people don't believe this Clyde's father and Nero Wofle. Osgood Senior hires  Wolfe to find out what really happened.

Review:

Mystery book sellers voted Some buried Caesar as one of the top 100 favorite mystery books of the 20th century. Why not? It has everything a gripping plot which is also comical. A hardboiled Detective and his eager and impetuous Assistant, beautiful women and a decent mystery. so did it work for me?

Last bus to Woodstock by Colin Dexter

A beautiful, young blonde is found raped and murdered outside a bar in Woodstock. It is discovered that the victim and a friend had earlier hitched hike to the bar in Woodstock in a red car. but neither her friend nor the
person who gave the ride are to be found, and with no witnesses to the crime The murder in Woodstock becomes an enigma.

The case is handled by the eccentric Inspector Morse and the scrupulous Sergeant Lewis. The two work meticulously to uncover modicum clues and secrets and found out that the murder could have been committed by a perverted voyeur, a cheating husband, a depressed house wife or even by one of the staff at the office where she worked.

Review:
After hearing a lot about Inspector Morse and the writing prowess of Colin Dexter, I decided to give this one a try and I chose the first book in the series. There are in total 13 books in the Inspector Morse series and a very popular and successful TV show which its acolytes swear by.

How did I find the book?

The Moving Finger by Agatha Christie

The Moving Finger by Agatha Christie

A pair of siblings move to a sleepy English Town to find peace and solace in the country side. but the city slickers dream turn sour very soon. The town's folk are the victims of malicious machinations by a crazed lunatic who sends anonymous hate letters to these people, very soon one of these letters proves to be fatal as the wife of a lawyer takes her own life after being accused of adultery in one of the letters. The police start a hunt for the person responsible but Miss Marple thinks that this might not have been a suicide after all.

With a truck load of suspects and with endless Red Herrings. We get a classic Agatha Christie.

Review:

This is one of the best Miss Marple's I have ever read. Without a doubt this one would feature among the best Agatha Christie novel's of all time. Like all Miss Marple's this is a light read, it's enjoyable and has an excellent red herring.

The Moonstone by Wilkie Collins

The moonstone is a beautiful yellow diamond the size of a tangerine. It is the symbol of the moon god. The Moonstone is protected by Hindu Brahmins who for generations have been guarding it from invaders and thieves. The Diamond is said to be cursed, whoever lands up with it gets involved in terrible predicaments.

It gets stolen from Tipu Sultan's Palace in India by a an officer of the invading British Army and then lands up in Yorkshire in the lap of the beautiful Miss Verinder who is celebrating her birthday. under curious and mysterious circumstances the diamond is stolen from Miss Verinder's room. Thus starts the hunt for the diamond.


Review:
The name of the blog is Classic Mystery Hunt, and this one is truly a classic. It was written in 1868 and since I'm writing this blog in 2012 that makes this book 144 years old. The Moonstone is generally regarded as the first Detective mystery novel. and folks like Dorothy Sayers call it as the "finest detective story ever written".

So is all the hype well deserved?