Read-alikes
Books Like Agatha Christie
Readers come to Christie for four different things. Match the wrong one and the next book feels nothing like her.
Updated October 2026 · By Sawyer V.
The short version
Anthony Horowitz is the closest living heir for the puzzle, and Magpie Murders is where to start. The Appeal and Everyone in My Family Has Killed Someone match the fair-play contract most exactly. The Guest List matches the closed circle, and The Thursday Murder Club matches the tone.
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How we picked
Each pick names which element of Christie it matches, because the four things readers love about her lead to four different books. Where a title is cozier, bleaker or more explicit than she ever was, we say so rather than stretching the comparison. We have not read all eight.
What we do on every list: read the publisher’s own description rather than a summary of it, check print length and first publication year against library catalog data (last refreshed October 7, 2026), confirm the book is still sold in the format we suggest, and write the match line before the blurb. What we do not do is claim to have read every book here cover to cover. The full method is published, and it is written so anyone can check it.
The short answer
Who each book is for, at a glance. Select a row for the full write-up.
| # | Book | Give this if | Where to buy |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 |  Magpie MurdersAnthony Horowitz · 496 pagesMatches the puzzle | they want the nearest thing to a new Christie | |
| 2 | The AppealNo cover on file The AppealJanice Hallett · 448 pagesMatches the fair-play contract | they read Christie with a pencil | |
| 3 | Everyone in My Family Has Killed SomeoneNo cover on file Everyone in My Family Has Killed SomeoneBenjamin Stevenson · 384 pagesMatches the rules | they enjoy being told the game is fair | |
| 4 |  The Daughter of TimeJosephine Tey · 207 pagesMatches the armchair deduction | the pleasure was watching somebody think | |
| 5 |  The Guest ListLucy Foley · 336 pagesMatches the closed circle | And Then There Were None was the one | |
| 6 |  The Thursday Murder ClubRichard Osman · 382 pagesMatches the tone | they loved Miss Marple more than Poirot | |
| 7 |  Maisie DobbsJacqueline Winspear · 312 pagesMatches the period | the between-the-wars England was half the pleasure | |
| 8 |  The No. 1 Ladies' Detective AgencyAlexander McCall Smith · 240 pagesMatches the gentleness | they want a village, anywhere in the world |
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Eight, by which element they match
1. Matches the puzzle
Magpie Murders
Anthony Horowitz
Give this ifthey want the nearest thing to a new Christie
An editor sits down with the manuscript of a 1950s village mystery and finds the last chapter missing — so you read the pastiche and the modern investigation into its author together. The inner novel is a deliberate, affectionate Christie, and the outer one is a second fair-play puzzle.
- Print length
- 496 pages
- First published
- 2016
- Formats
- print, Kindle and audio where the publisher offers them
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2. Matches the fair-play contract
The Appeal
Janice Hallett
Give this ifthey read Christie with a pencil
Two junior lawyers are handed a box of emails, texts and letters from an amateur theater company and told only that somebody has been convicted and may be innocent. You get exactly the evidence they get, which is the purest version of the promise Christie made.
One caveat: No detective and no narrator. Some readers want a Poirot.
- Print length
- 448 pages
- First published
- 2021
- Formats
- print, Kindle and audio where the publisher offers them
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3. Matches the rules
Everyone in My Family Has Killed Someone
Benjamin Stevenson
Give this ifthey enjoy being told the game is fair
A family gathers at a snowbound Australian mountain resort, and the narrator — who writes guidebooks on how to write detective fiction — opens by listing the rules he will not break and the pages on which each death occurs. Playful about the form without sneering at it.
- Print length
- 384 pages
- First published
- 2022
- Formats
- print, Kindle and audio where the publisher offers them
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4. Matches the armchair deduction
The Daughter of Time
Josephine Tey
Give this ifthe pleasure was watching somebody think
A Scotland Yard inspector, flat on his back in hospital with a broken leg, decides to work out whether Richard III really killed his nephews, using nothing but books brought to his bed. No murder in the present, no chase, and one of the most purely enjoyable deductions in the genre.
One caveat: Its conclusions about Richard III are argued, not settled.
- Print length
- 207 pages
- First published
- 1951
- Formats
- print, Kindle and audio where the publisher offers them
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5. Matches the closed circle
The Guest List
Lucy Foley
Give this ifAnd Then There Were None was the one
A wedding on a small island off the coast of Ireland, a storm that cuts the boats, a guest list of people with reasons to hate each other, and a body. The modern closed-circle mystery done properly, with the suspects rotated chapter by chapter.
One caveat: A sharper, more sexually explicit register than Christie's.
- Print length
- 336 pages
- First published
- 2020
- Formats
- print, Kindle and audio where the publisher offers them
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6. Matches the tone
The Thursday Murder Club
Richard Osman
Give this ifthey loved Miss Marple more than Poirot
Four residents of a Kent retirement village who meet to review cold cases get a real one. The amateur who is underestimated because of her age is a direct descendant of Marple, and the comedy never comes at the characters' expense.
- Print length
- 382 pages
- First published
- 2020
- Formats
- print, Kindle and audio where the publisher offers them
#ad — how we’re funded · price as of October 7, 2026
7. Matches the period
Maisie Dobbs
Jacqueline Winspear
Give this ifthe between-the-wars England was half the pleasure
A former housemaid who nursed at the front opens a detective agency in 1929 London, and her first case runs straight back into the war. The same decade Christie was writing in, seen from the servants' side of the house.
One caveat: Quieter and sadder. The war is the real subject.
- Print length
- 312 pages
- Formats
- print, Kindle and audio where the publisher offers them
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8. Matches the gentleness
The No. 1 Ladies' Detective Agency
Alexander McCall Smith
Give this ifthey want a village, anywhere in the world
Precious Ramotswe sells her late father's cattle and sets up as Botswana's only female private detective, mostly solving the quiet problems of her neighbors. Small cases, enormous warmth, and the village logic Christie built Marple on.
One caveat: Barely a crime novel. Almost nobody dies.
- Print length
- 240 pages
- Formats
- print, Kindle and audio where the publisher offers them
#ad — how we’re funded · price as of October 7, 2026
Four readers, one author
Christie wrote sixty-six detective novels over fifty years, and readers rarely love all of her equally. Ask which book they bring up first and the next author chooses itself.
- The puzzle reader names The Murder of Roger Ackroyd. They want the trick and the fairness. Give Magpie Murders or The Appeal.
- The closed-circle reader names And Then There Were None. They want the island and the dwindling cast. Give The Guest List.
- The Marple reader names a village and a nosy woman. They want tone and company. Give The Thursday Murder Club or The No. 1 Ladies' Detective Agency.
- The period reader names the trains, the country houses and the 1930s. Give Maisie Dobbs.
If they have not actually read all of Christie — most people who say so have read five — the honest answer is that the best book like Agatha Christie is a Christie they have missed. Start at the best fair-play mysteries, which lists the four of hers that still hold up best.
Which element to match
| If they loved | The element | Read next |
|---|---|---|
| The Murder of Roger Ackroyd | The trick, played fair | Magpie Murders |
| Sitting with the clue list | The evidence, handed over | The Appeal |
| And Then There Were None | The closed circle | The Guest List |
| A Miss Marple | The underestimated amateur | The Thursday Murder Club |
| Murder on the Orient Express | The confined cast | Everyone in My Family Has Killed Someone |
| The 1930s setting | The period | Maisie Dobbs |
| The village | The gentleness | The No. 1 Ladies' Detective Agency |
| Watching a detective think | Pure deduction | The Daughter of Time |
In audio, this is one of the strongest shelves there is — the amateur-detective voice suits a narrator, and several of these were written to be heard. Mystery audiobooks has the recordings.
Where this fits
Fair-play mysteries is the tradition Christie defined and the first page to read after this one. Cozy mysteries is the Marple descendant line, historical mystery covers the period side, and the best mysteries of all time places her among the rest. For somebody starting from nothing, mystery books for beginners.
Two ways to read this list for less
If several books here appeal, a subscription usually beats buying them one at a time — but only for the right kind of reader. Here is who each one actually suits.
Audible Premium Plus
For anyone whose hands are busy
Driving, walking, cooking, cleaning. It converts hours that were never available for reading, which is a bigger effect than any discount. Books bought with a credit stay yours after you cancel — titles from the included catalog do not, and confusing the two is the most common complaint about the service.
See Audible plans and current pricingHow Audible actually works — credits, gifting and what happens when you cancel.
Kindle Unlimited
For fast readers who browse
It pays off from about three ebooks a month, in the genres the catalog covers well — romance, romantasy, cozy mystery, thriller, progression fantasy. It does not pay off if you are waiting on a specific new hardcover, because those are usually not included. Everything is borrowed, not owned.
See Kindle Unlimited terms and pricingIs Kindle Unlimited worth it? — the arithmetic, done on your own reading.
#ad — how we are funded. We print no subscription prices anywhere on this site, because they change and a stale figure sends you to a checkout expecting something that is not there. And if you read in silence in a chair, neither of these is for you — buy the book, or borrow it from your library.
What we would skip
Anything whose cover says "in the tradition of Agatha Christie"
The sticker goes on domestic thrillers now, and it means almost nothing. A Christie reader who buys one usually gets an unreliable narrator, a twist withheld rather than clued, and a marriage rather than a puzzle — which is a perfectly good book and the opposite of what they came for. The Christie promise is that the answer was findable. Judge a comparison by whether the clues are on the page, not by the quote on the cover.
Questions people ask
Who writes like Agatha Christie?
Anthony Horowitz, most closely, and Magpie Murders is the place to start. Janice Hallett and Benjamin Stevenson match the fair-play promise, and Richard Osman matches the tone.
What should I read after Agatha Christie?
Magpie Murders if they loved the puzzle, The Guest List if they loved And Then There Were None, and The Thursday Murder Club if they loved Miss Marple.
Which Agatha Christie should I read first?
And Then There Were None or The Murder of Roger Ackroyd. One is the best closed circle ever written and the other is the most famous trick in the genre.
Are the modern Poirot continuation novels worth reading?
They are competent and they are not her. A Christie reader is usually happier moving outward to Horowitz or Hallett than reading a new Poirot written by somebody else.
What does "fair play" mean in a mystery?
That every clue needed to solve the case is given to the reader before the detective explains it. It is the promise Christie is famous for keeping, and the test to apply to any book sold as being like hers.
Sources
- Open Library Search API — First publication year, median print length and cover art for every book on this page. Queried 8 September 2026.
- Audible Premium Plus membership page — The only authoritative source for current Audible plans, prices and terms.
Read next
- What to Read Next
Read-alike lists that name the element they match, plus the how-to-choose framework.
- Best Fair-Play Mysteries
Eight mysteries where every clue is on the page, from Christie's best to the modern nested puzzle.
- Best Cozy Mystery Books
Six genuinely cozy mysteries, plus two that are recommended as cozy and are not.
- Best Historical Mystery Novels
Eight historical mysteries where the period shapes the crime, from the Tudors to 1920s Calcutta.
- Best Mystery Audiobooks
Eight mystery audiobooks, all series openers or standalones, sorted from cozy to dark.