Reading Order
Hercule Poirot Books in Order
Quick answer
Read Agatha Christie's Poirot books in publication order, starting with The Mysterious Affair at Styles (1920) and ending with Curtain (1975). There are 33 Poirot novels, plus short-story collections and the play Black Coffee. Every mystery stands alone, so you can also start with a favourite such as Murder on the Orient Express (1934). The one rule: save Curtain for last. Sophie Hannah has added six authorized continuation novels since 2014; the newest is The Last Death of the Year (2025).
Hercule Poirot appears in more of Christie's books than any other detective she created, and his career runs for 55 years of publishing. Below is the full Agatha Christie Poirot books in order list with years, alternate US titles and a one-line, spoiler-free hook for each, followed by the short stories, the continuation novels and the adaptations. As an Amazon Associate, we earn from qualifying purchases.
Agatha Christie's Poirot Books in Order (All 33 Novels)
Years are first UK publication. Where the American edition carried a different title, it is listed beneath. Three Act Tragedy is the one novel that appeared in the US a year before the UK.
| # | Title | Year | Hook (no spoilers) |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | The Mysterious Affair at Styles | 1920 | Poirot's debut: a Belgian refugee in an English village, a poisoned matriarch, Hastings narrating. |
| 2 | The Murder on the Links | 1923 | A millionaire summons Poirot to France and is dead before he arrives. |
| 3 | The Murder of Roger Ackroyd | 1926 | A village doctor narrates a case whose ending changed the genre. Read it before anyone spoils it. |
| 4 | The Big Four | 1927 | Poirot versus an international crime ring; pulpy, episodic and the weakest of the early books. |
| 5 | The Mystery of the Blue Train | 1928 | A wealthy heiress, a famous ruby and an overnight express to the Riviera. |
| 6 | Peril at End House | 1932 | On a Cornish holiday, Poirot meets a young woman who keeps narrowly surviving accidents. |
| 7 | Lord Edgware Dies US: Thirteen at Dinner | 1933 | An actress tells Poirot she wants her husband gone. That night, he is. |
| 8 | Murder on the Orient Express US: Murder in the Calais Coach | 1934 | A train stuck in a snowdrift, a stabbed passenger and a carriage full of alibis. |
| 9 | Three Act Tragedy US: Murder in Three Acts (1934) | 1935 | A clergyman drops dead at a cocktail party hosted by a retired actor. |
| 10 | Death in the Clouds US: Death in the Air | 1935 | A woman dies mid-flight over the Channel, and Poirot is asleep a few seats away. |
| 11 | The A.B.C. Murders | 1936 | A killer working through the alphabet writes to Poirot before each murder. |
| 12 | Murder in Mesopotamia | 1936 | A nurse on an archaeological dig in Iraq narrates a death inside a closed compound. |
| 13 | Cards on the Table | 1936 | A sinister host invites four detectives and four suspected murderers to a bridge party. |
| 14 | Dumb Witness US: Poirot Loses a Client | 1937 | A letter arrives months late from an elderly woman who has since died. |
| 15 | Death on the Nile | 1937 | A honeymoon cruise up the Nile with a jilted ex-fiancee on board. |
| 16 | Appointment with Death | 1938 | A domineering American matriarch and her cowed family touring Petra. |
| 17 | Hercule Poirot's Christmas US: Murder for Christmas | 1938 | A hated patriarch gathers his family for Christmas, with predictable results. |
| 18 | Sad Cypress | 1940 | A young woman on trial for murder, told partly from the dock. |
| 19 | One, Two, Buckle My Shoe US: The Patriotic Murders | 1940 | Poirot's dentist is found shot after a morning of appointments. |
| 20 | Evil Under the Sun | 1941 | A glamorous guest is killed at an island hotel off the Devon coast. |
| 21 | Five Little Pigs US: Murder in Retrospect | 1942 | A cold case: Poirot reconstructs a 16-year-old poisoning from five witnesses' accounts. |
| 22 | The Hollow | 1946 | A country-house weekend and a shooting staged, it seems, for Poirot's benefit. |
| 23 | Taken at the Flood US: There Is a Tide | 1948 | A young widow inherits a fortune her late husband's family expected to share. |
| 24 | Mrs McGinty's Dead | 1952 | A man is about to hang for killing his charwoman; Poirot thinks he did not. |
| 25 | After the Funeral US: Funerals Are Fatal | 1953 | At a reading of the will, one relative says the dead man was murdered. |
| 26 | Hickory Dickory Dock | 1955 | Petty thefts at a London student hostel turn into something worse. |
| 27 | Dead Man's Folly | 1956 | Ariadne Oliver's murder-hunt game at a Devon estate produces a real body. |
| 28 | Cat Among the Pigeons | 1959 | Jewels, revolution and a murder at an exclusive girls' school; Poirot arrives late. |
| 29 | The Clocks | 1963 | A typist walks into a room with a dead man and four clocks set to the wrong time. |
| 30 | Third Girl | 1966 | A young woman tells Poirot she may have committed a murder, then leaves. |
| 31 | Hallowe'en Party | 1969 | A girl boasts at a children's party that she once saw a murder. |
| 32 | Elephants Can Remember | 1972 | Mrs Oliver asks Poirot to settle an old double death for her goddaughter. |
| 33 | Curtain Written in the early 1940s | 1975 | Poirot and Hastings return to Styles for one last case. Read it last. |
Where Black Coffee Fits
Christie wrote Black Coffee in 1930 as a stage play, her first, with Poirot, Hastings and Japp investigating a stolen formula at a country house. It was never a Christie novel. In 1998 the critic Charles Osborne turned the script into a novel of the same name, which is why some lists show 34 books. Chronologically it sits between The Mystery of the Blue Train and Peril at End House. Read it if you are a completist; it is a pleasant period piece rather than essential Poirot.
Is Chronological Order Different?
Barely. Christie aged Poirot loosely, and the books read cleanly in the order they appeared. There are only two things to know:
- Curtain is the end, whatever its date. Christie wrote it during the Second World War and locked it away so Poirot would have a proper farewell, then let it be published in 1975, the year before her death. It is set at the very end of his life and spoils nothing if you read it last.
- Some short stories are earlier than the novels around them. Poirot's Early Cases (1974) gathers stories from his early London years with Hastings. You can read them alongside the 1920s novels if you want a strict timeline, but nothing is lost reading them later.
Sophie Hannah's novels are set between 1929 and 1932, roughly between The Mystery of the Blue Train and Peril at End House. They were written to slot into that gap, not to be read before Christie's books.
Where to Start With Poirot
Our recommendation: start with Murder on the Orient Express. It is short, the setup is irresistible, and it shows exactly what Poirot does: listen, rearrange, and see what everyone else missed. If you already know how it ends from a film, start with The A.B.C. Murders instead, which is the best of the mid-1930s run and has an unusual cat-and-mouse structure.
Then pick one of three routes:
- The classic run. The Murder of Roger Ackroyd, Death on the Nile, Five Little Pigs, After the Funeral. Four very different books, all top tier. Read Ackroyd soon, before someone tells you about it.
- Publication order. Start at Styles and go straight through. The first five books are uneven (skip The Big Four if it drags), but from Peril at End House onwards the 1930s are Christie's richest decade.
- The Ariadne Oliver books. Cards on the Table, Mrs McGinty's Dead, Dead Man's Folly, Third Girl, Hallowe'en Party, Elephants Can Remember. Mrs Oliver is a crime novelist widely read as Christie poking fun at herself, and these are the funniest Poirots.
If you prefer an elderly lady in an English village to a Belgian with a moustache, our Miss Marple books in order guide covers Christie's other great detective, and our list of the best Agatha Christie books of all time ranks the standouts across both.
Poirot Short Story Collections in Order
Christie wrote more than 50 Poirot short stories. UK and US collections overlapped and reshuffled, so the list below includes the main UK books plus the two US-only collections. If you want them all in one place, the omnibus Hercule Poirot: The Complete Short Stories collects them.
| # | Collection | Year | What's in it |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Poirot Investigates | 1924 | Eleven early cases narrated by Hastings. |
| 2 | Murder in the Mews | 1937 | Four novellas; US edition titled Dead Man's Mirror. |
| 3 | The Regatta Mystery | 1939 | US-only mixed collection; includes Poirot stories. |
| 4 | The Labours of Hercules | 1947 | Twelve cases modelled on the labours of his namesake. The best collection. |
| 5 | The Under Dog and Other Stories | 1951 | US-only collection of earlier magazine stories. |
| 6 | The Adventure of the Christmas Pudding | 1960 | Mostly Poirot; the title story is a festive favourite. |
| 7 | Poirot's Early Cases | 1974 | Eighteen stories from his early career, collected late. |
| 8 | Problem at Pollensa Bay | 1991 | Mixed collection with two Poirot stories. |
| 9 | While the Light Lasts | 1997 | Mixed collection of rediscovered stories, some with Poirot. |
| 10 | Hercule Poirot and the Greenshore Folly | 2014 | A 1954 novella Christie later expanded into Dead Man's Folly. |
Start with The Labours of Hercules. It has a framing idea (Poirot plans to retire after twelve final cases), the stories are later and more polished, and it works as a sampler of his whole range.
Sophie Hannah's Poirot Continuation Novels
In 2014 the Christie estate authorized the crime writer Sophie Hannah to write new Poirot mysteries. Hastings does not appear; the narrator is Edward Catchpool, a young Scotland Yard inspector. Read them in publication order, as Catchpool's life moves forward from book to book.
| # | Title | Year | Hook (no spoilers) |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | The Monogram Murders | 2014 | Three bodies in a London hotel, each with a cufflink in its mouth. |
| 2 | Closed Casket | 2016 | A famous children's author changes her will at an Irish country house. |
| 3 | The Mystery of Three Quarters | 2018 | Four strangers receive letters, signed by Poirot, accusing them of murder. |
| 4 | The Killings at Kingfisher Hill | 2020 | A murder confession made on a coach, and a family estate in Surrey. |
| 5 | Hercule Poirot's Silent Night | 2023 | A December case at a Norfolk hospital ward. |
| 6 | The Last Death of the Year | 2025 | New Year's Eve 1932 on a Greek island, and a murder to solve before midnight. |
Confirmed Six Hannah novels are out; The Last Death of the Year (2025) is the latest, listed on the official Agatha Christie and Sophie Hannah sites (checked October 2026).
Not confirmed No seventh Hannah Poirot novel has been announced as of October 2026. We will add it here when the publisher names a title and date.
Poirot Adaptations
Poirot has been on screen since 1931, but two productions matter most for readers deciding where to go next.
- Agatha Christie's Poirot (ITV, 1989–2013). David Suchet played Poirot across 13 series and 70 episodes and, by the finale Curtain: Poirot's Last Case in November 2013, had adapted every Christie novel and story featuring the detective. It is the closest thing to a filmed version of this reading list.
- Kenneth Branagh's films. Murder on the Orient Express (2017), Death on the Nile (2022) and A Haunting in Venice (2023), the last loosely based on Hallowe'en Party with the setting moved to Venice. Expect changes to plots and characters.
- Others worth knowing. Albert Finney in Murder on the Orient Express (1974), Peter Ustinov's films beginning with Death on the Nile (1978), and the BBC's The ABC Murders (2018) with John Malkovich.
Confirmed Three Branagh films have been released (2017, 2022, 2023).
Not confirmed A fourth Branagh Poirot film. Producers have said they are open to more, but no film has been officially announced as of October 2026.
For more book-to-screen guides, see our book adaptations hub.
Printable Checklist
Hercule Poirot FAQ
How many Hercule Poirot books are there?
Agatha Christie wrote 33 Poirot novels, more than 50 short stories (gathered in several collections) and the play Black Coffee. Sophie Hannah has added six authorized continuation novels, the newest being The Last Death of the Year (2025).
What is the first Hercule Poirot book?
The Mysterious Affair at Styles, published in 1920. It was Christie's first novel and introduces Poirot, Captain Hastings and Inspector Japp.
Do you need to read the Poirot books in order?
No. Every novel is a self-contained mystery, and only a few, chiefly Curtain, depend on knowing the earlier books. Reading in order does let you watch Hastings come and go and Ariadne Oliver join the cast.
What is the last Poirot book Agatha Christie wrote?
Elephants Can Remember (1972) was the last Poirot novel she wrote. Curtain (1975) was published later but was written in the early 1940s and held back as Poirot's final case.
What is the best Poirot book to start with?
Murder on the Orient Express or The A.B.C. Murders. Both are short, fast and show Poirot at his best without relying on earlier books.
Are Sophie Hannah's Poirot books canon?
They are authorized by the Christie estate and set between 1929 and 1932, between Christie's own cases. Narrated by Scotland Yard's Edward Catchpool rather than Hastings, they read as a separate strand you can pick up any time.
Is Black Coffee a Poirot novel?
Christie wrote Black Coffee as a stage play in 1930. The novel version was written by Charles Osborne and published in 1998, so most lists count it apart from the 33 novels.
Thirty-three novels, one moustache, and no shortage of little grey cells. Start on the Orient Express, save Curtain for last, and when you run out, the best mystery books and thrillers and Louise Penny's Three Pines series are good next stops. More series guides live on our reading order guides page.
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