Agatha Christie All Year Long

This year marks a half-century since the world lost Agatha Christie, so there are extensive commemorations and several new book publications. Perhaps the most anticipated is Lucy Foley’s reboot of the Miss Marple series with September’s publication of Murder at the Grand Alpine Hotel.

There’s also a new Poirot limited series for television in the works. According to a BBC article, “the series is an intimate study of Hercule the man and an epic portrait of Britain between the wars. The series takes a magnifying glass to three of Christie’s most celebrated stories, while also charting Hercule’s burgeoning friendship with Captain Arthur Hastings, his early encounters with Scotland Yard’s James Japp, and introducing him to one particular nemesis…”

They’re titling the series Hercule. Fans are speculating online about which novels are most likely to be adapted and what kinds of retconning will be required to the character’s biography.

I’m looking forward to several new books, including Tina Hodgkinson’s Agatha Christie’s London. While many of Christie’s novels are set in villages and at stately manor homes, Poirot lives in London and investigates a range of urban mysteries; even Miss Marple occasionally ventures to the capital by train to have tea at Bertram’s Hotel.

The author provides Christie-themed London tours; the book promises a detailed overview of sites associated with Christie’s fiction, including the Tommy and Tuppence novels. The Christie website has a fun introduction to the author’s London connections written by Hodgkinson that describes the homes that Christie lived in, or used as fictional crimes scenes, as well as the luxury hotel that hosted opening night parties for theatre and film adaptations of her work. I’m looking forward to seeking out the Agatha Christie Memorial in the Theatre District.

Photograph of Covent Garden Agatha Christie tribute, shared under a CC license.

Agatha Christie: A World of Mystery is due out from Rizzoli in October. It will include both family and scholarly contributions, and writers have fuller access to the Christie archives than previous efforts. The description is delicious: “Step into atmospheric spaces inspired by Christie’s world, from a grand country house and WWI dispensary to an Orient Express-style carriage, archaeological dig and West End theatre. Christie fans and aspiring sleuths can hunt for hidden clues and Easter eggs dotted throughout the exhibition.”

In the televisual world, a limited series adaptation of Seven Dials came out earlier this year. Branagh is apparently contemplating a fourth Christie film, and he provides a foreword for Agatha Christie: A World of Mystery.

And finally, a Torquay Christie Festival in September has scheduled some intriguing events focused on biography, history, and fashion, and it includes performances of Christie’s famously long-running play The Mousetrap, which is currently on tour as a 75th anniversary celebration. There’s a particular focus on The Murder of Roger Ackroyd, which is marking its 100th anniversary this year.

Offerings are more limited in Canada and the U.S., although Edmonton’s Citadel Theatre is doing a production of Murder on the Orient Express this fall.

And at a significantly higher price point, there are extensive Death on the Nile-inspired cruise options. Some follow the route especially closely or feature a dedicated Christie suite aboard the ship.

If you run out of Agatha Christie novels to read in 2026, you can always try the titles she published using the pseudonym Mary Westmacott–her daughter, Rosalind Hicks, has a thoughtful description of those works here.