The Murder at the Vicarage was published in 1930; till that time, the novels by Christie had stand alone characters, or she had Hercule Poirot. This was the first novel in which she introduced the character of the elderly lady, Miss Marple (Miss Marple was there in earlier published short stories, but never in a novel length book). Miss Marple was very different from Hercule Poirot, this was an unassuming lady who was elderly, living in a small village, and yet like Poirot, who could understand the human nature and figure out how and why crimes were committed.
Miss Marple lives in St. Mary Mead, and it is in the vicar’s study that the body of Colonel Protheroe was found, murdered by being shot in the head (he was despised by the villagers, and 2 people confessed to the crime). And this was where the start of Miss Marple’s detective abilities is showcased. However, this first introduction to Miss Marple was not taken so well, with the story of a quiet village, with gossip, and with this lady who seems to know everything not being so engrossing.

The book is narrated by the Rev. Clements, and keeps the tale of the book tight and interesting. When Col. Protheroe is writing a note in the Vicar’s study, he is shot from the back and in the head; but nobody seems to have seen or heard anything happening. Nobody liked him, and there were 2 quick confessions to killing him.
As things start to run in the story, you start to discover that almost everybody had a motive for killing him, and there were enough unknowns to suspect everybody. Some of the characters in the book are Mrs. Price Ridley, Colonel Melchett, Dr. Haydock, and others. Things otherwise move slowly in the village, with gossip occurring everywhere. But Miss Marple does eventually find out who did it (even though the village policeman really does not believe her initially).

The Murder on the Links was a book, written by detective write Agatha Christie, published in 1923, and starring Hercule Poirot and Hastings. The book was like many of Agatha Christie’s books, written with the current societal conditions of that time, and with a large number of characters in the book. With these characters and the complexity of the plot, it was hard to make a guess as to who the actual villains are; another notable part of this book was that Hastings sort of broke with Poirot midway during the book, when it started becoming clear that a woman that Hastings loved, Dulcie Duveen, could be a suspect. At one point Hastings physically held down Poirot and let Duveen flee; but Poirot does not get side-tracked, and at the end, Poirot brings them together again. The book was more French based than English, with the crime being committed in a French location, and the investigating magistrate and detective both being French. Interestingly, this book was dedicated upon its release to her husband Archibald Christie, who later acquired a lover and divorced her a few years later.

The book starts with Hastings falling in love with a bright vivacious girl (who seems to ignore him to some extent as an old fashioned person); he tells Poirot about this when they meet, and then Poirot gets a wire (among the many mundane pieces of mail that he gets including requests to find lost dogs) from the South of France asking for help from a Monsieur Paul Renauld. Poirot is interested and decides to go there along with Hastings; they reach the villa Villa Genevieve in Merlinville-sur-Mer on the French coast where they discover that they are too late; Monsieur Paul Renauld is already dead. He was killed just a few hours ago and left in a shallow grave.
He was killed after 2 masked invaders came into the home around 2 AM, tied up his wife, and took him away wanting to know a secret, and then they killed him. However, apparently the door was open and there was no sign of forced entry. Their son Jack had been sent away on business, and there were three female servants in the house. And there is a French investigating magistrate, as well as a egoist French detective.
The story involves ladies who used to visit Monsieur Paul Renauld at night, a decades old murder crime, a fight between father and son, an altered will, an apparent second murder, a missing weapon, and many twists in the story. Read the book, it is pretty interesting.

The Seven Dials Mystery was a piece of detective fiction written by Agatha Christie, and published in 1929. The book is set in the mansion of Chimneys, which featured in an earlier book by Agatha Christie, and as well as the characters from the earlier book, Lady Eileen (Bundle) Brent, Lord Caterham, Bill Eversleigh, George Lomax, Tredwell and Superintendent Battle. The book is a pure detective novel, and was converted for television in 1981 (displayed in March, 1981). However, the book did not earn the usual amount of critical acclaim, with some initial reviews criticizing the book for somewhat deserting the pure detective yarn, and presenting more information to the readers than required. The book starts with a murder in The Chimneys (but with nobody identified as the murderer), and moves onto a seedy nightclub in London called The Seven Dials where there appears to be a meeting of conspirators in a secret room.

As usual, like the other works by Agatha Christie, there are many surprises, with no one being whom they claim to be; who can you trust ? The first murder in the book is at The Chimneys where Gerald “Gerry” Wade, one of the guests, normally sleeps late; his friends want to have fun with him, and they set 8 clocks with 8 alarms (at a time gap of 30 minutes), starting from 6:30 PM. However, Wade apparently sleeps through all the alarms, to the surprise of all, and why not, since he is dead in his bed, through poison, and one of the clocks is missing. However, the inquiry cannot find out who was responsible. After Chimneys returns to its original owner, Lord Caterham, his daughter, Bundle, wants to investigate further. This intensifies when another man drops dead in front of her car, having been shot. This investigation takes her further into mystery, with a secret science plan that is very important, a secret society, and so on.

The Mystery of the Blue Train was a book by Agatha Christie (published in 1928); this was written at a time of great stress for Agatha Christie, since it was only recently that her husband had declared his intention of leaving her for another woman and had sought a divorce, her mother had died recently; she was also in need of money at this point of time. Writing this novel was not easy for her, since she did a word count regularly of what all she had written. At this time, she had also seen a number of her friends deserting her, and had come up with 2 lists:
Order of Rats – Friends who had not stood by her when required
Order of Faithful Dogs (O.F.D) – Charlotte Fisher, and her terrier Peter who provided her with a lot of affection.
This book was dedicated to the second group, those who supported her. The book was based on a short story by Agatha Christie herself, a short story of 1923 called The Plymouth Express (featuring Poirot).

The Blue Train is a murder mystery set on a train. Poirot is on the ‘Le Train Bleu’ train, bound for the French Riveria. On board are an assortment of people, such as Katherine Grey, who has inherited a huge sum and is enjoying herself with her first trip out of England. She meets an American heiress on board, Ruth Kettering, who is escaping from her marriage (although her estranged husband Derek Kettering with the dancer Mirelle); and then Ruth is found dead, having been strangulated to death. A famous diamond is also found missing, and the dead girl’s father commissions Poirot to investigate the crime.
At first glance, the husband would be the obvious suspect, but there could be more factors, since a famous diamond thief is also on board; is there more that meets the eye, and can Poirot be successful once again ?