18 books like The Secret of Chimneys

What to read after The Secret of Chimneys — books similar to it, matched on shared themes.

The Clocks Agatha Christie · 1963 · ★ 4.4 · 248p · ≈ 8h · Moderate Sheila Webb, typist-for-hire, has arrived at 19 Wilbraham Crescent in the seaside town of Crowdean to accept a new job. What she finds is a well-dressed corpse surrounded by five clocks. Mrs Pebmarsh, the blind owner of No. 19, denies all knowledge of ringing Sheila’s secretarial agency and asking for her by name — yet someone did. Nor does she own that many clocks. And neither woman seems to… Shares: Poirot, English Detective and mystery stories, Investigation, English literature

Elephants Can Remember Agatha Christie · 1969 · ★ 3.7 · 224p · ≈ 7h · Moderate E-book exclusive extras:1) Christie biographer Charles Osborne's essay on Elephants Can Remember;2) "The Poirots": the complete guide to all the cases of the great Belgian detective."The Ravenscrofts didn’t seem that kind of person. They seemed well balanced and placid…" And yet, twelve years earlier, the husband had shot the wife, and then himself — or perhaps it was the other way around, since… Shares: Poirot, English Detective and mystery stories, Investigation, English literature

Peril at End House Agatha Christie · 1932 · ★ 4.0 · 279p · ≈ 9h · Challenging Hercule Poirot is vacationing on the Cornish coast when he meets Nick Buckley. Nick is the young and reckless mistress of End House, an imposing structure perched on the rocky cliffs of St. Loo. Poirot quickly takes a particular interest in the young woman. Recently, she has narrowly escaped a series of life-threatening accidents. Something tells the Belgian sleuth that these so-called accidents… Shares: Poirot, English Detective and mystery stories, London, English literature

The Adventure of the Christmas Pudding Agatha Christie · 1960 · ★ 3.8 · 264p · ≈ 8h · Moderate First came a sinister warning to Poirot not to eat any plum pudding...then the discovery of a corpse in a chest...next, an overheard quarrel that led to murder...the strange case of the dead man who altered his eating habits...and the puzzle of the victim who dreamt his own suicide. What links these five baffling cases? The little grey cells of Monsieur Hercule Poirot! Shares: Poirot, English Detective and mystery stories, Investigation, English literature

Murder on the Links Agatha Christie · 1923 · ★ 3.9 · 193p · ≈ 6h · Challenging Belgian detective Hercule Poirot is summoned to France after receiving a distressing letter with a urgent cry for help. Upon his arrival in Merlinville-sur-Mer, the investigator finds the man who penned the letter, the South American millionaire Monsieur Renauld, stabbed to death and his body flung into a freshly dug open grave on the golf course adjoining the property. Meanwhile the… Shares: Poirot, English Detective and mystery stories, Investigation, English literature

One, Two, Buckle My Shoe Agatha Christie · 1940 · ★ 3.8 · 201p · ≈ 6h · Challenging The dentist was found with a blackened hole below his right temple. A pistol lay on the floor near his outflung right hand. Later, one of his patients was found dead from a lethal dose of local anaesthetic. A clear case of murder and suicide. But why would a dentist commit a crime in the middle of a busy day of appointments? A shoe buckle holds the key to the mystery. Now – in the words of the… Shares: Poirot, English Detective and mystery stories, English literature, Murder

Poirot's Early Cases Agatha Christie · 1963 · ★ 3.9 · 304p · ≈ 10h · Moderate With his career still in its formative years, we learn many things about how Poirot came to exercise those famous "grey cells" so well. Fourteen of the eighteen stories collected herein are narrated by Captain Arthur Hastings—including what would appear to be the earliest Poirot short story, The Affair at the Victory Ball, which follows soon on the events of The Mysterious Affair at Styles. Two… Shares: Poirot, English Detective and mystery stories, English literature, Mystery

The Sittaford Mystery Agatha Christie · 1931 · ★ 3.8 · 224p · ≈ 7h · Challenging M-U-R-D-E-R. It began as an innocent parlor game intended to while away the hours on a bitter winter night. But the message that appeared before the amateur occultists at the snowbound Sittaford House was spelled out as loud and clear as a scream. Of course, the notion that they had foretold doom was pure bunk. Wasn't it? And the discovery of a corpse was pure coincidence. Wasn't it? If they're… Shares: English Detective and mystery stories, Investigation, English literature, Murder

Mrs. McGinty's Dead Agatha Christie · 1951 · ★ 3.9 · 254p · ≈ 8h · Moderate Poirot, disillusioned by the "senseless cruel brutality" of modern crime, pays no attention to the sad case of Mrs McGinty, an old woman apparently struck dead by her lodger for thirty pounds that she kept under a floorboard. When, however, he is asked by the investigating officer to take another look at the case to stop an innocent man going to the gallows, he realises that things may not be as… Shares: Poirot, English Detective and mystery stories, English literature, Mystery

A Stranger in Mayfair Charles Finch · 2010 · 336p · ≈ 11h · Moderate In Charles Finch's A Stranger in Mayfair, the next enthralling installment in the Charles Lenox Mysteries, detective Lenox tries to resist the lure of a case and focus on his new career in Parliament. Returning from a continental honeymoon with his new wife, Lady Jane, Lenox is asked by a colleague in Parliament to consult in the murder of a footman, bludgeoned to death with a brick. His… Shares: London, Investigation, Murder, Mystery

The mysterious Mr Quin Agatha Christie · 1930 · ★ 3.7 · 256p · ≈ 8h · Challenging A conjurer of skill with an instinct for detection, Mr. Harley Quin has an almost magical flair for appearing at the scene of the most remarkable crimes. But is it just a trick of light that haunts his shadow with a ghostly apparition? Is it fate that invites him to a New Year's murder? And what forces are at work when his car breaks down outside Royalston Hall, an isolated estate with a deadly… Shares: English Detective and mystery stories, Investigation, English literature, Murder

Murder in Three Acts Agatha Christie · 1934 · ★ 3.8 · 224p · ≈ 7h · Challenging Sir Charles Cartwright should have known better than to allow thirteen guests to sit down for dinner. For at the end of the evening one of them is dead—choked by a cocktail that contained no trace of poison. Predictable, says Hercule Poirot, the great detective. But entirely unpredictable is that he can find absolutely no motive for murder.… Shares: Poirot, English Detective and mystery stories, Investigation, English literature

Murder in the Mews Agatha Christie · 1955 · ★ 3.8 · 222p · ≈ 7h · Moderate When a young woman is found in a locked room having been shot, the police assume it’s suicide. However, when Poirot looks further he begins to suspect murder – would a right-handed woman shoot herself from the left? A story of novella length, it was first published in Woman’s Journal in December 1936, and later formed one of four stories the collection, Murder in the Mews, published in 1937 by… Shares: Poirot, English Detective and mystery stories, Murder, Mystery

A Rare Interest In Corpses Ann Granger · 2006 · 408p · ≈ 13h · Moderate A classic mystery from "an accomplished veteran . . . [ who] knows her history and relates it with charm in this peek at Victorian morals and foibles" (Kirkus Reviews).   It is 1864 when Lizzie Martin takes up the post of lady's companion to a wealthy widow who is also a slum landlord. Lizzie is intrigued to learn that her predecessor as companion had disappeared, supposedly… Shares: London, Investigation, Murder

The Labours of Hercules Agatha Christie · 1947 · ★ 3.8 · 258p · ≈ 8h · Challenging The Labours of Hercules is a short story collection written by Agatha Christie and first published in the US by Dodd, Mead and Company in 1947. It features Belgian detective Hercule Poirot, and gives an account of twelve cases with which he intends to close his career as a private detective. His regular sidekicks (his secretary, Miss Lemon, and valet, George/Georges) make cameo appearances, as… Shares: Poirot, English Detective and mystery stories, English literature, Mystery

Five Little Pigs Agatha Christie · 1942 · ★ 4.0 · 272p · ≈ 9h · Challenging Sixteen years after Caroline Crale has been convicted of the murder of her husband, Amyas Crale, her daughter, Carla Lemarchant, approaches Poirot to investigate the case. Poirot embarks optimistically upon an unprecedented challenge, but soon fears that the case may be as cut and dried as it had first appeared. Shares: Poirot, Investigation, English literature, Murder

Third Girl Agatha Christie · 1966 · ★ 4.1 · 262p · ≈ 8h · Moderate Three young women share a London flat. The first is a coolly efficient personal secretary; the second an artist. The third interrupts Hercule Poirot's breakfast of 'Brioche' and 'Chocolat' insisting she is a murderer – and then promptly disappears. Slowly, Poirot learns of the rumours surrounding the mysterious third girl, her family – and her disappearance. Yet hard evidence is needed before… Shares: Poirot, English Detective and mystery stories, London, English literature

Patrick Butler for the defense John Dickson Carr · 1956 · 208p · ≈ 6h · Moderate Patrick Butler for the Defence, first published in 1956, is a detective story by American writer John Dickson Carr, which features Carr's series detective Patrick Butler (who previously appeared in Below Suspicion).[1]: 5  This novel is a mystery of the type known as a whodunnit. Plot summary James Vaughan and Hugh Prentice are the two junior partners of the law practice of Prentice, Prentice &… Shares: English Detective and mystery stories, Murder

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