This shelf
- Books in the series
- 5
- Total words
- 320,354
- Reading time
- 17.8 h
Hercule Poirot first appeared in The Mysterious Affair at Styles (1920), a novel Christie wrote while working in a hospital dispensary in Torquay, and he changed shape across the five books collected here: the fussy Belgian of the first book becomes, by The Murder of Roger Ackroyd, a detective whose method is as much psychological as physical.
The five books below are the Poirot novels on editions.ink, in order of first publication. Each stands alone, so the order is for watching the method develop rather than for following a continuous story.
Hercule Poirot in reading order
Numbered by first publication. Word counts are estimates from the text.
| Year | Title | Words | Reading time |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1920 | The Mysterious Affair at Styles | 59,580 | ~3 h |
| 1923 | The Murder on the Links | 64,793 | ~4 h |
| 1926 | The Murder of Roger Ackroyd | 70,248 | ~4 h |
| 1927 | The Big Four | 55,601 | ~3 h |
| 1928 | The Mystery of the Blue Train | 70,132 | ~4 h |
Where to begin
The Mysterious Affair at Styles is the right place to start: it is the first book, it introduces Hastings and Japp, and it is the shortest of the five. Readers who want the famous one should go straight to The Murder of Roger Ackroyd, which is longer but is the book that made Christie’s reputation.
Questions readers ask
How many Poirot books are on editions.ink?
Five: The Mysterious Affair at Styles (1920), The Murder on the Links (1923), The Murder of Roger Ackroyd (1926), The Big Four (1927) and The Mystery of the Blue Train (1928), with about 320,354 words and roughly 17.8 hours of reading between them.
Do I need to read them in order?
No. Each novel is self-contained and the case is solved within it; the order above is the order of first publication, which is the easiest way to watch Christie’s technique change.
Where are the Poirot short stories?
Two collections from the same decade, Poirot Investigates (1924) and The Under Dog (1926), are still in copyright in some jurisdictions and are not on the site yet. The page lists novels only.
Are these complete texts?
Yes. Each edition contains the complete novel, with the chapter guide and historical note on the book page, in EPUB, AZW3 and KEPUB.
Part of the Agatha Christie page and the detective and mystery shelf. Every book page carries the full text plus EPUB, AZW3 and KEPUB downloads.