That's an interesting observation. I have read all of her books twice, once many years ago and another time about ten years ago. I don't remember any such pattern so perhaps it was the luck of the draw in those ten you read.

However, I'm sure you know that Agatha Christie was the center of a sensational disappearance case in the 1920s when her first marriage collapsed. I no longer remember all the details but I think she received medical treatment for her situation and perhaps she harbored a lifelong distaste for physicians from that experience.

But the simplest explanation, if the phenomenon actually exists in her books, is that doctors have easy access to poisons, misleading diagnoses and myriad other methods of murder.

I think it is partly luck of the draw, because not all her mysteries end up "the doctor did it" by any means-but she did work in a hospital and pharmacy during the war, so had a comprehensive knowledge of medicines and thus the way they could be used for good or ill! She always wrote what she knew when it came to setting...she loved to travel and spent many years on archeological digs with her second husband-so whe could have applied that same rule to method of death.

OK, I have a complete collection of Christie so will have to research this a bit......

(get ready to gasp)

I have never read an Agatha Christie book. I am being encouraged to do so by my group of high schoolers in our literary club. Is there a recent resurgence of interest in her? My memories of AG are that they were books my mother read voraciously. Which title would you all recommend as a first (and possibly only) taste of AG?

Captainbc, I too must admit to never having read a who-dunnit by Chrisie, but a couple of years ago I read and thoroughly enjoyed her Come Tell Me How You Live about her travels to the Middle East with archaeologist husband Max Mallowen. She writes about the people with genuine fondness and would be so distressed to see what has become of Persia/Iraq.

that is like asking which one chocolate should you eat!
Resurgence implies that there was a falling off-which I don't believe there ever has been.
Understand that Christie is not beloved for her wordcraft. Her descriptions will not make you stop reading and sigh for the beauty of them. Her secondary characters can be a little shallow. What Christie does better than so many others is plot. Her herrings are ruby red.

You need to sample her different detectives. I, being slightly nerdy, would read the first in each series. The Mysterious Affair at Styles would introduce you to Poirot, but my favorite Poirots are Murder on the Orient Express and Murder in Retrospect.

The Murder of Roger Ackroyd is one of the 10 best mysteries ever written. (imho...but I'm not alone!) It is from her Hercule Poirot mysteries.

Miss Marple first saw light of day in The Murder at the Vicarage. Tuppence and Tommy Beresford began making the world safe for democracy in 1922 in The Secret Adversary.
And then there are the books with Mrs. Oliver, Harley Quin, Parker Pyne, Superintendent Battle, Bundle Brent ...check the link.

Here is a link that might be useful: stop you're killing me christie page

I have to agree with cece about The Murder of Roger Ackroyd - I would say that is the one to read if you are really only going to read one.
But I also would include in the best of Agatha Christie The ABC Murders (Poirot), The Body in the Library (Marple), Murder on the Orient Express (Poirot) and finally, the book with no detective, originally titled Ten Little N*ggers, then Ten Little Indians and then And Then There Were None. This last one is quite astonishing.

I could never pick a favorite--there would be forty on the list--and some of my favorites have already been mentioned. I love Miss Marple, uncovering the truth of human nature in the little English village of St. Mary Mead.

I am also a major fan of her mysteries influenced by her travels with her archeologist husband. Murder in Mesopotamia and Death on the Nile--fantastic!

One of my great regrets is selling all my Agatha Christies at a garage sale back in the 80s. Now I have to get them from the library and a very surprising number are not readily available.

I know that The Murder of Roger Ackroyd is usually considered Christie's masterpiece. I recognize its cleverness, but, gah!, the dénouement so infuriated me that if it had been the first Christie I read, it would have been my last.

I'm fond of And Then There Were None and can read it over and over. My very first Christie was After the Funeral (titled cleverly Funerals Are Fatal in the US at the time), so, though I don't remember a thing about it, it must have had something going for it to turn me into a Christie fan. Actually, I don't remember anything much about any of AC's books except the aforementioned Roger Ackroyd...and I like it that way so I can read them again every few years with as much pleasure as when I originally read 'em.

I had a hard time coming up with just one to recommend-that is why I suggested the first in each series. I have them all in paperback-and they do get repeated readings. Nothing like a Christie, a cat, a cookie and a cup of cocoa on a snowy day....like today!

So, basically you all are telling me that I may think I am going to read just one, but will find myself pulled into reading more? Well, that sounds great! I love the prospect of being won over!

My early-on decision is leaning toward the first Miss Marple tale - Ginny12's note about "the little English village" sucked me right in! (Now, crossing my fingers that I'll find it available.)

Thanks, all!

I am with Martin in this one. I read a good number of her books years ago, and still remember how many doctors were guilty of the crime. In fact, I don't remember any other profession so well represented as murderers in her books. From what I remember of her autobiography--titled precisely An Autobiography--she did not seem to have a grudge against the medical profession. But then she did NOT mention in the book the scandal her disappearance caused. Other books say she was diagnosed as having amnesia during this distressful episode. If this diagnosis was correct, of course she wouldn't mention the whole affair in the book, since she would not remember it.

She was trained and worked as a pharmacist assistant, thus had knowledge of poisons. In the autobiography she mentions feeling particularly proud about the review a pharmacy journal did of the first Poirot book--The Mysterious Affair at Styles. The journal said she got the pharmacologic facts right.

She had unorthodox ideas about criminals. She thought they should be used for medical experiments as a way to pay their debt to society.

The Murder of Roger Ackroyd was controversial when published. Some people considered she had cheated. But it was this book that brought her fame.

Like Astrokath, I think The ABC Murders is one of her best books. Sleeping Murder with Miss Marple is very good too.

I'd love to read Come Tell Me How You Live, but haven't come across it.