Listed by Guinness World Records as the best-selling fiction writer of all time, the “Queen of Crime” Agatha Christie published sixty-six detective novels and fourteen short story collections throughout the course of her lifetime which sold more than two billion copies. A master of suspense, plotting, and characterization, in her prime, Christie was rarely out of the bestseller list.

Rare signed photograph of the “Queen of Crime” Agatha Christie

Christie served in hospital dispensaries during both World Wars, where she acquired thorough knowledge of the poisons which featured in many of her novels. Following her marriage to archaeologist Max Mallowan in 1930, she spent several months each year on annual digs in Syria and Iraq at excavation sites at Ur, Nineveh, Tell Arpachiyah, Chagar Bazar, Tell Brak, and Nimrud,  experiences that would also inform her fiction.

First editions of Christie’s books in the original dust jacket are rare. Signed and presentation copies, exceptionally so.

First edition of Agatha Christie’s Death on the Nile; in the scarce original dust jacket

One of Christie’s best-known novels, Death on the Nile, was first published in 1937 and is now one of the scarcest Christie titles to find in the original dust jacket. Featuring perhaps her most interesting and endearing character, Belgian detective Hercule Poirot, the story unfolds aboard the steamer Karnak, set to tour along the Nile from Shellal to Wadi Halfa where an attempted murder reveals the true intentions of three passengers involved in a dramatic love triangle.

Exceptionally rare, only a handful of copies in the original dust jacket have appeared at auction in the last 80 years.

First edition of Agatha Christie’s One, Two, Buckle My Shoe; in the rare original dust jacket which is completely unrestored

Initially published in 1940 and commencing with the death of Poirot’s dentist, the plot of Christie’s One, Two, Buckle My Shoe develops into a tale of blackmail, dual identity, and murder. It was the first of the Poirot novels to reflect the pervasive gloom of the Second World War, and one of Christie’s most overtly political novels.

“It’s a real Agatha Christie thriller: exceedingly complicated in plot, briskly and compactly simple in narrative, with a swift course of unflagging suspense that leads to complete surprise” (Kay Irvin, New York Times Book Review). This classic murder mystery is exceedingly rare in the original dust jacket which is usually seen with restoration.

First British edition of Crooked House; signed by Agatha Christie

First published by in the U.S. by Dodd, Mead and Company in March of 1949 and in the U.K. by the Collins Crime Club on May 23rd of the same year, Christie’s Crooked House tells the tale of the Leonides family, three generations living together in the same house dominated by wealthy and overbearing patriarch, Aristide Leonides. After Aristide is poisoned by his own eye medicine, his daughter’s suitor, Charles Hayward, calls on his father, the Assistant Commissioner of Scotland Yard, to apprehend his killer.

“‘Pure pleasure’ was how the author described the writing of this, which was long planned, and remained one of her favourites. As the title implies, this is a family murder – and a very odd family indeed” (Robert Barnard).

First edition of Agatha Christie’s They Came to Baghdad; inscribed by her to close friend Dorothy North and in the rare original dust jacket

First published in the United Kingdom by the Collins Crime Club on March 5th 1951 and inspired by Christie’s own trips to Baghdad, They Came To Baghdad opens with enthusiastic young adventurer Victoria Jones discovering a dying secret British agent in her hotel room. His last words – “Lucifer…Basrah…Lefarge” – propel her into investigation. The novel was adapted into an episode of American radio anthology drama series Westinghouse Studio One in 1952.

The present example was inscribed by Christie to Dorothy North, a close friend and integral member of Christie’s London social circle in the 1930s. She was the dedicatee of Christie’s 1940 novel One Two, Buckle My Shoe. North’s daughter, Susan, and Christie’s daughter, Rosalind, were also close friends and the joint dedicatees of Christie’s 1939 novel Murder is Easy.

First edition of Agatha Christie’s A Pocket Full of Rye; inscribed by her to close friend Dorothy North and in the rare original dust jacket

First published in the United Kingdom by the Collins Crime Club on November 9th 1953, and in the U.S. by Dodd, Mead & Co. the following year, Christie’s A Pocket Full of Rye features one of Christie’s best-known characters, Miss Marple, and elderly spinster and consulting detective.

Here, she assists in the investigation of the murder of Rex Fortescue, whose autopsy has revealed that the cause of death was poisoning by taxine. “A beautiful precision-tooled job. False clues are laid with effortless skill up to the final revelation” (Julian Symons, Manchester Evening News).

The work is particularly rare in the original dust jacket, which often shows significant fading.

Rare first edition of Hickory Dickory Dock; inscribed by Agatha Christie to close friend Dorothy North and in the rare original dust jacket

First published in the United Kingdom by the Collins Crime Club in 1955, Hickory Dickory Dock follows Hercule Poirot’s investigation into a case of petty theft, and subsequent murder, at a student hostel. “Exciting, entirely credible, and often highly ingenious. This is Agatha Christie in an unaccustomed mood, but as sure in her handling of character and situation – and our attention – as she ever was” (Queen).

First edition of Agatha Christie’s Dead Man’s Folly; inscribed by Agatha Christie to close friend Dorothy North and in the rare original dust jacket

First published in the U.S. by Dodd, Mead and Company in October 1956 and in the U.K. by the Collins Crime Club on November 5th of the same year, Christie’s Dead Man’s Folly commences with Poirot being summoned to Nasse House in Devon by Ariadne Oliver, who is staging a Murder Hunt as part of a summer fête the next day. When Oliver and Poiroit discover a local girl’s body in the estate’s boathouse, Poroit begins to assemble several stray clues to apprehend the murderer.

The novel was adapted into the 1986 film of the same name starring Peter Ustinov as Poroit and Jean Stapleton as Oliver.

View all of the rare Agatha Christie first editions currently in our collection here and browse our broad collection of Science Fiction and Mystery titles.