Is Agatha Christie Cozy?
English author Agatha Christie is often known as the “Queen of Crime.” During her prolific career, she wrote sixty-six mystery novels, fourteen short story collections, and multiple theatrical plays including the world’s longest-running play The Mousetrap. Her books have sold over two billion copies and have been translated into more than one hundred languages.
There seems to be a debate amongst fans about whether Agatha Christie should be considered a cozy mystery writer, but the truth is that Agatha Christie was earning her mysterious moniker before many subgenres of mystery were defined.
She has also been known to break established conventions and toy with audience expectations to create more intricate puzzles and keep the tales even more mysterious. (See The Murder of Roger Ackroyd for a stunning example.) Because of this, her work transcends simple classification.
The cozy mystery genre is rooted in the traditional detective fiction of the early 20th century, particularly the "Golden Age of Detective Fiction," which spanned roughly from the 1920s to the 1940s. Agatha Christie, along with other authors like Dorothy L. Sayers, Margery Allingham, and Ngaio Marsh, created marvelous mysteries and their works helped define many of the conventions that would later characterize the cozy mystery genre.
The term "cozy mystery" wasn't commonly used during Christie's time but later gained popularity, particularly in the latter half of the 20th century, to describe a style of mystery fiction that felt less intense or violent than hard-boiled detective stories or crime thrillers that gained traction.
However, Christie's influence is undeniable in the cozy mystery genre’s development, as her many of her works embody elements that cozy mystery readers and writers continue to enjoy today. A "cozy mystery" typically features a small-town setting, amateur sleuths, and minimal violence or gore. They also feature intricate plots, clever clues, and a focus on the intellectual puzzle of solving a murder rather than the shock value of the crime.
Many of Christie’s novels, such as those featuring Miss Marple or Hercule Poirot, align with these characteristics. They often take place in quaint English villages, country houses, or other contained settings, and they focus heavily on the intellectual challenge of solving the mystery. Her detectives are often seen as endearing and approachable, especially the elderly and cunning Miss Marple, who fits the archetype of the cozy mystery sleuth: an amateur detective with a knack for solving crimes based on observation and intuition.
These elements became hallmarks of her writing and helped establish the conventions of the genre: a seemingly closed circle of suspects, a crime (usually a murder) that occurs offstage or is described with minimal graphic detail, and a detective — often an amateur or a retired professional — who solves the mystery through logical deduction and keen observation.
That being said, she has also written mysteries that would definitely not be considered “cozy” by today’s standards. She has written mysteries that explore darker themes, psychological elements, and more complex moral questions. Some stories feature children as the murder victims and others as the murderers! And Then There Were None is a terrifying thriller that laid the groundwork for slasher films that later came.
In summation, we’d say that Agatha Christie has written multiple types of mysteries. Though she was writing before “cozy mystery” was a common term, she wrote some stories that could be considered cozy today and provided inspiration for this subgenre to come into existence. She also wrote dark and edgy mysteries. Throughout all her work, she created interesting puzzles and curious crimes for sleuths to solve. There is truly something for all mystery fans to enjoy within her canon of work.
List of Agatha Christie Novels
· The Mysterious Affair at Syles (Hercule Poirot) in 1920
· The Secret Adversary (Tommy and Tuppence) in 1922
· Murder on the Links (Hercule Poirot) in 1923
· The Man in the Brown Suit in 1924
· The Secret of Chimneys in 1925
· The Murder of Roger Ackroyd (Hercule Poirot) in 1925
· The Big Four (Hercule Poirot) in 1927
· The Mystery of the Blue Train (Hercule Poirot) in 1928
· The Seven Dials Mystery in 1929
· The Murder at the Vicarage (Miss Marple) in 1930
· The Sittaford Mystery in 1931
· Peril at End House (Hercule Poirot) in 1932
· Lord Edgeware Dies (Hercule Poirot) in 1933
· Murder on the Orient Express (Hercule Poirot) in 1934
· Why Didn’t They Ask Evans? In 1935
· Three Act Tragedy (Hercule Poirot) in 1935
· Death in the Clouds (Hercule Poirot) in 1935
· The A.B.C. Murders (Hercule Poirot) in 1936
· Murder in Mesopotamia (Hercule Poirot) in 1936
· Cards on the Table (Hercule Poirot) in 1936
· Death on the Nile (Hercule Poirot) in 1937
· Dumb Witness (Hercule Poirot) in 1937
· Appointment with Death (Hercule Poirot) in 1938
· Hercule Poirot’s Christmas (Hercule Poirot) in 1938
· And Then There Were None in 1939
· Murder is Easy in 1939
· Sad Cypress (Hercule Poirot) in 1940
· One, Two, Buckle My Shoe (Hercule Poirot) in 1940
· Evil Under the Sun (Hercule Poirot) in 1941
· N or M? (Tommy and Tuppence) in 1941
· The Body in the Library (Miss Marple) in 1942
· Five Little Pigs (Hercule Poirot) in 1942
· The Moving Finger (Miss Marple) in 1942
· Towards Zero in 1944
· Death Comes as the End in 1944
· Sparkling Cyanide (Hercule Poirot) in 1945
· The Hollow (Hercule Poirot) in 1946
· Taken at the Flood (Hercule Poirot) in 1948
· Crooked House in 1949
· A Murder is Announced (Miss Marple) in 1950
· They Came to Baghdad in 1951
· Mrs. McGinty’s Dead (Hercule Poirot) in 1952
· They Do It with Mirrors (Miss Marple) in 1952
· A Pocket Full of Rye (Miss Marple) in 1953
· After the Funeral (Hercule Poirot) in 1953
· Destination Unknown in 1954
· Hickory Dickory Dock (Hercule Poirot) in 1955
· Dead Man’s Folly (Hercule Poirot) in 1956
· 4.50 from Paddington (Miss Marple) in 1957
· Ordeal by Innocence in 1958
· Cat Among the Pigeons (Hercule Poirot) in 1959
· The Pale Horse in 1961
· The Mirror Crack’d from Side to Side (Miss Marple) in 1961
· The Clocks (Hercule Poirot) in 1963
· A Caribbean Mystery (Miss Marple) in 1964
· At Bertram’s Hotel (Miss Marple) in 1965
· Third Girl (Hercule Poirot) in 1966
· Endless Night in 1967
· By the Pricking of My Thumbs (Tommy and Tuppence) in 1968
· Hallowe’en Party (Hercule Poirot) in 1969
· Passenger to Frankfurt in 1970
· Nemesis (Miss Marple) in 1971
· Elephants Can Remember (Hercule Poirot) in 1972
· Postern of Fate (Tommy and Tuppence) in 1973
· Curtain (Hercule Poirot) in 1975
· Sleeping Murder (Miss Marple) in 1976
Learn more about Agatha Christie’s Life and Career: