5 Agatha Christie stories better than Netflix Seven | UK News

To anybody who is aware of me, I’m an absolute sucker for a thriller, ‘whodunnit’, crime e-book, movie, TV collection, you title it, I’ll watch it. For those who know what’s in my e-book assortment, they’ll discover it inundated with Agatha Christie novels. 

I’ve read practically three-quarters of her Poirot collection, as properly as a quantity of her standalone thriller novels. I feel that qualifies me as a licensed Christie-nut and novice sleuth. So when Netflix dropped Agatha Christie’s Seven Dials Mystery earlier this week, I knew my experience was being called to work out this whodunnit.

Spoiler: I figured it out. A benefit of studying and watching thrillers since childhood means you’ll be able to decide aside the evidence, plot holes and formulae adopted by writers. In essence, the bulk observe the same method, and once you realise this, you start to make use of your own “little grey cells”.

However, on the other hand, it means that those all-important climactic moments merely don’t hit the candy spot as they once had. Nothing surprises me anymore, sadly.

Seven Dials has all of the basic Christie parts: a plucky protagonist in search for justice, a group of characters who might be in the fold for homicide, and a collection of revelations made recognized proper at the end. However, translating Christie’s work from web page to screen is a different process, and Seven Dials fell short.

There’s a whiff of conspiracy working through the show, which Bundle (Mia McKenna-Bruce, a triumph) is set to pin down, of one thing a lot bigger than herself. It’s entertaining, there’s no doubt about that, however, for me, it lacked suspense and heightened tensions.

Perhaps that’s down to the muddying of the ending, which differs barely from the novel. There’s nothing improper with making tweaks and adapting them for screen, but I’ve watched and listened to better variations of Christie’s mysteries.

Here are 5 Christie’s stories that will make you suppose twice and then twice again.

This novel started my encounter with Christie when I listened to the BBC Radio 4 model at 14 years outdated. It was an ending you just couldn’t see coming.

When the mini collection dropped in 2015, I knew there have been expectations to be met. A gaggle of unassuming and unrelated strangers are invited by mysterious hosts to dinner on a desolate island off the coast of Devon. 

All from various backgrounds and professions, the air of grace is shattered at the first dinner, when a recording performed via a gramophone accuses them of varied crimes. One by one, each of the friends are picked off, leaving minimal evidence as to who or what was after them. 

The plot follows the rhyme of “Ten Little Soldier Boys”, where each of the friends and the island’s two caretakers are killed in a method relating to the rhyme. You don’t know who to trust or where to look. 

The BBC tv collection shortcuts the novel’s ending barely, by making the “big reveal” in the ultimate moments of the episode. It makes for a more satisfying ending for those unfamiliar with the novel. 

However, unfurling the killer’s plan in the audio model is so scintillatingly scrumptious for Christie followers. And Then There Were None has been ranked among the world’s best thriller novels, and it’s clear to see why.

David Suchet will endlessly be the one and only Hercule Poirot, and illegal killing on the Orient Express is arguably Poirot’s most well-known case. It’s actually the epitome of a whodunnit, and the reply is… Oh no, now that can be telling. 

You have a complete host of passengers on board the prepare who are all seemingly strangers. But as always, nothing is as it appears. 

When American businessman Samuel Ratchett asks Poirot for his help after receiving death threats, which the detective refuses. Ratchett is then discovered brutally murdered in his cabin, just as the prepare turns into caught in a snowdrift. There’s nowhere for the homicide to run or conceal. 

In lieu of any police on board, Poirot leads the charge of discovering the assassin. 

The homicide uncovers the tragic story of Daisy Armstrong, the sufferer of a kidnapping and homicide by American gangster, Casetti. The youngster’s death leads to tragedy upon tragedy, culminating in Casetti escaping justice… until he meets his demise on the Orient Express. 

The story always makes you ask who? What? When? How? Right until the very end. Christie’s ending might be among the largest literary plot twists of all time. There’s been nothing prefer it since. 

Although my coronary heart belongs to David Suchet, Peter Ustinov’s model of Death on the Nile creates an genuine picture of the time it portrays… particularly when in contrast to Kenneth Branagh’s remake. Sorry, Kenneth.

Ustinov’s model of Poirot is different from Suchet’s, priding himself on wit quite than refined deductions with his “little grey cells”, which makes for an fascinating watch. Its jam-packed forged is nothing to be sniffed at, with a younger Maggie Smith as the hoighty-toighty spinster-like nurse, Angela Lansbury as the final word caricature of an early twentieth century romance novelist, and that’s just the start of it. Jane Birkin, Bette Davis, David Niven, Mia Farrow, a great group of appearing expertise.

When a younger heiress (Lois Chiles) dies on the S.S Karnak, everybody seems to have a motive. It’s one of those stories where you don’t know where to look, and where you’re looking might be improper. 

Death on the Nile is one of Christie’s classics that retains you on your toes throughout. 

There are only a handful of Poirot stories that happen on different shores, and illegal killing in Mesopotamia brings a sense of journey to the quaint detective novels. In basic Poirot fashion, he appears to have occurred upon the homicide… either he has great detective instinct or extraordinarily ominous timing. 

Poirot is led to an archaeological dig in Iraq by an outdated relation, where Swedish-American archaeologist, Dr Eric Leidner, is main charge. His seemingly-neurotic spouse, Louise (Barbara Barnes) has been tormented by death threats from whom she believes to be her useless ex-husband. After years of quiet, the threatening letters start again, and she is in the end discovered useless under suspicious circumstances.

Poirot is tasked with discovering her killer, as there appeared to be no conceivable approach her homicide was carried out. Has the past come to rear its ugly head or is it a ruse?

Another one of Christie’s standalone mysteries. The BBC mini collection was my first introduction to this explicit Christie story, having finally read the novel in 2025 after resting on my bookshelf for years. 

A homicide, a potential miscarriage of justice, and a unusual man showing two years later out nowhere offering an alibi. Nothing is as it appears.

The picture-perfect Argyll – written in another way in the e-book – household are struck down by tragedy when matriarch Rachel (Anna Chancellor) is discovered useless in the household’s palatial mansion, where she lived with her husband, 5 adopted youngsters, and live-in maid. 

The case appears simple enough, with troubled son Jack (performed by Anthony Boyle) swiftly arrested for the crime. However, he’s discovered useless in prison before ever standing trial. 

Two years later, once the household finally appears at relaxation, geophysicist Arthur Calgary arrives to present an alibi for Jack for the homicide. The show unravels a complete web of points hidden behind closed doorways, with the assassin still among them. 

The novel and TV collection’ endings differ, but both are equally messy. True Christie followers might want the show to stay devoted to the novel, but sometimes an alternate ending works better for tv to up the ante.