Agatha Christie

Agatha Christie is frequently mentioned first when discussing the best mystery authors. Dame Agatha Mary Clarissa Christie, Lady Mallowan, DBE (15 September 1890 – 12 January 1976) was an English mystery writer who wrote 66 novels and 14 short story collections, many of which featured fictional detectives Hercule Poirot and Miss Marple.

Under the pen name Mary Westmacott, she wrote six books, including The Mousetrap, the world's longest-running play, which has been performed in the West End since 1952. Christie received the Grand Master Award from the Mystery Writers of America for the first time in 1955. Witness for the Prosecution won an Edgar Award for best play later that year. In 2013, 600 professional novelists from the Crime Writers' Association named her the best mystery writer and The Murder of Roger Ackroyd the best crime book ever. According to Guinness World Records, Christie is the best-selling fiction author of all time, with more than two billion copies sold.

Famous Books: And Then There Were None, The Mysterious Affair at Styles, Murder on the Orient Express