Even more Agatha Christie-related crime fiction

Agatha Christie in crime novels is a topic I've mentioned a couple of times before but not for a while. You can read my posts here and here. At least three crime novels featuring Agatha are due to be published in the next few months.

In date order (blurbs from amazon):

Just released is Kelly Oliver's The Case of the Christie Conspiracy which is the first in a new Detection Club series.

Agatha Christie is about to embark on a new, gripping murder case. But this time, she’s not the author – she’s a suspect…

1926 – Christie is a darling of the literary circuit and the most desired guest in London’s glittering social scene. She can often be found at meetings of the Detection Club – where mystery writers come together to share ideas, swap secrets and drink copiously. But then a fellow author's initiation ceremony takes a gruesome turn, and one of the group ends up dead. Now, Agatha is no longer just the creator of great mystery plots – she’s a player in one.

And when Agatha disappears the day after the murder, she’s widely assumed to be guilty. Only Eliza Baker, assistant to the Club’s enigmatic secretary, Dorothy Sayers, is interested in investigating the case. But in a world where murder is the ultimate plot device, can Eliza piece together the evidence and find the killer before it’s too late?

The Queens of Crime by Marie Benedict (out 18 Mar) features not only Agatha but a whole host of Golden Age authors:

The New York Times bestselling author of The Mystery of Mrs. Christie returns with a thrilling story of Christie’s legendary rival Dorothy Sayers, the race to solve a murder, and the power of friendship among women. London, 1930. The five greatest women crime writers have banded together to form a secret society with a single goal: to show they are no longer willing to be treated as second class citizens by their male counterparts in the legendary Detection Club. Led by the formidable Dorothy L. Sayers, the group includes Agatha Christie, Ngaio Marsh, Margery Allingham and Baroness Emma Orczy. They call themselves the Queens of Crime. Their plan? Solve an actual murder, that of a young woman found strangled in a park in France who may have connections leading to the highest levels of the British establishment. May Daniels, a young English nurse on an excursion to France with her friend, seemed to vanish into thin air as they prepared to board a ferry home. Months later, her body is found in the nearby woods. The murder has all the hallmarks of a locked room mystery for which these authors are famous: how did her killer manage to sneak her body out of a crowded train station without anyone noticing? If, as the police believe, the cause of death is manual strangulation, why is there is an extraordinary amount of blood at the crime scene? What is the meaning of a heartbreaking secret letter seeming to implicate an unnamed paramour? Determined to solve the highly publicized murder, the Queens of Crime embark on their own investigation, discovering they’re stronger together. But soon the killer targets Dorothy Sayers herself, threatening to expose a dark secret in her past that she would do anything to keep hidden. Inspired by a true story in Sayers’ own life, New York Times bestselling author Marie Benedict brings to life the lengths to which five talented women writers will go to be taken seriously in the male-dominated world of letters as they unpuzzle a mystery torn from the pages of their own novels.

And in August, Amanda Chapman's Mrs. Christie at the Mystery Guild Library is released.

Book conservator Tory Van Dyne and a woman claiming to be Agatha Christie on holiday from the Great Beyond join forces to catch a killer in this spirited mystery from Amanda Chapman.

Tory Van Dyne is the most down-to-earth member of a decidedly eccentric old-money New York family. For one thing, as book conservator at Manhattan's Mystery Guild Library, she actually has a job. Plus, she's left up-town society behind for a quiet life downtown. So she's not thrilled when she discovers a woman in the library's Christie Room who calmly introduces herself as Agatha Christie, politely requests a cocktail, and announces she's there to help solve a murder-- that has not yet happened.

But as soon as Tory determines that this is just a fairly nutty Christie fangirl, her socialite/actress cousin Nicola gets caught up in the suspicious death of her less-than-lovable talent agent. Nic, as always, looks to Tory for help. Tory, in turn, looks to Mrs. Christie. The woman, whoever or whatever she is, clearly knows her stuff when it comes to crime.

Aided by a found family of unlikely sleuths--including a snarky librarian, an eleven-year-old computer whiz, and an NYPD detective with terrible taste in suits--Tory and the woman claiming to be her very much deceased literary idol begin to unravel the twists and turns of a murderer's devious mind. Because, in the immortal words of Miss Jane Marple, "murder is never simple."

New Releases - January 2025

Thank you for your comments and messages regarding the New Releases list. It's inspired me to keep on with them. I'm still a tad behind but I feel I've picked up most of January's titles. As ever, do let me know the ones I've missed! 

Here's a snapshot of what I think was published for the first time in January 2025 (and is usually a UK date but occasionally will be a US or Australian date). 118 titles this month.

Please note that, unless specifically mentioned, when a book has differing print and ebook release date, I use the print release date. Translators' names are included where known.

Further to my post about writers of colour and the Theakston Crime Novel of the Year, I have identified the writers of colour (that I know of) with a *** .

Alexander, Magda - Murder in the Mistletoe Shoppe #11 Kitty Worthington
Arlidge, M J - Your Child Next (with Andy Maslen)
Barnett, Tam - How to Get Away with Murder
Baylis, Edie - The Last Promise #5 Scarred
Berry, Peter - Revenge of the Deadly Dozen #2 Deadly Dozen
Bhadreshwar, Nina - The Day of the Roaring ***
Blake, Sam - The Killing Sense
Boyd, Damien - Deceived By the Light #1 DI Bob Willis
Boydell, Natasha - The Doll's House
Brent, Katy - I Bet You'd Look Good in a Coffin #2 Kitty Collins
Burnell, Sam - A Queen's Rebel (ebook only) #9 Mercenary For Hire
Burrowes, Grace - A Gentleman of Sinister Schemes #8 The Lord Julian Mysteries
Butler, D S - In Plain Sight #10 DS Karen Hart, Lincolnshire
Cameron, Iain - Looking for Abigail #2 Sharma and Jackson, Norfolk
Carter, A J - The Mother-in-Law
Carter, A J - The Summer Cottage (ebook only)
Cartwright, Jack - The Harder They Fall #2 Deadly Wolds Murder Mystery
Cartwright, Jack - Until Death Do Us Part #3 Deadly Wolds Murder Mystery
Castillo, Javier - The Soul Game tr. Kevin Jerry Dunn #2 Miren Triggs
Chase, Clare - The Antique Store Detective and the May Day Murder #2 Bella Winter
Clarke, Karen - The Mother's Secret
Clements, Rory - A Cold Wind From Moscow #8 Thomas Wilde, 1930s
Comley, M A - Vanished #26 DI Sara Ramsey
Cookman, Lesley - The Singer in the Snow (with Miles Cookman) (ebook only) #1 Sheena and the Coldharbours
Cutler, Judith - In at the Death #6 Matthew Rowsley, Steward & Mrs Faulkner, Housekeeper, Victorian Era
Dawson, Mark - Pretty Face #6 Isabella Rose
Dean, John - The Meek Shall Inherit #12 Detective Chief Inspector John Blizzard
Delvey, Robyn - The Seven #1 Eve Wren
Devlin, Cara - Shadow at the Morgue #1 Spencer & Reid
Driscoll, Teresa - Close Your Eyes
Dunlap, A. Rae - The Resurrectionist
Dusse, Karsten - Murder Mindfully tr. Florian Duijsens
Dylan, Rhys - The Bowman #15 DCI Evan Warlow
Edwards, Mark - The Psychopath Next Door
Feeney, Alice - Beautiful Ugly
Field, David - Death By Gunpowder #6 Bailiff Mountsorrel Tudor Mysteries
Frankland, Maria - The Valentine
French, Nicci - The Last Days of Kira Mullan
George, Nicholas - A Lethal Walk in Lakeland #2 A Walk Through England Mystery
Giles, Stewart - The Workshop #31 DS Jason Smith
Gray, Philip - The House with Nine Locks
Grayson, C J - The Little Girl in the Wardrobe #4 Detectives Orion Tanzy and Max Byrd, Darlington
Greig, Andrew James - The Graveyard Bell #3 Private Investigator Tearlach Paterson, Scotland
Halsall, Rona - The Soulmate
Hay, Alex - The Queen of Fives
Healey, Emma - Sweat
Hindle, Tom - Death in the Arctic
Hodges, David - Shadows On the Levels #14 DC Kate Hamblin
Hurst, Daniel - The Husband
James, Evelyn - The Mystery of the Brewer's Suicide #13 Colonel Bainbridge and his niece, Victoria Bovington
Jecks, Michael - Death Comes in Threes #9 Jack Blackjack, Tudor Era
Jenkins, Victoria - The Mother's Phone Call
Jensen, Oskar - Helle's Hound #2 Helle and Death
Jesmond, Jane - Gone to Earth #3 Jen Shaw
Johnston, Anthony - The Dog Sitter Detective Plays Dead #3 Gwinny Tuffel, Dog sitter
Jordan, Amy - The Dark Hours
Jordan, G R - Wild Swimming #40 Highlands and Islands
Karlsson, Ørjan N - Into Thin Air tr. Ian Giles #1 Jakob Weber, Chief Investigator of Nordland Police
Kavanagh, Emma - The Time of the Fire
Kelleher, Casey - The Perfect Guest
Leadbeater, David - The Angel Deception #6 Joe Mason
Leigh, Judy - The Cream Tea Killer #3 Morwenna Mutton, Librarian, Cornwall
Linskey, Howard - A Serpent in the Garden #1 William Shakespeare
Lynes, S E - The Perfect Boyfriend
Lynn, H M - The Student
McAllister, Gillian - Famous Last Words
MacBird, Bonnie - The Serpent Under #6 Sherlock Holmes Adventure
MacKay, Asia - A Serial Killer's Guide to Marriage
McKenzie, Sophie - Anything For You
McLean, Rachel - The Lake (with Joel Hames) #5 Cumbria Crime
Malliet, G M - Bookworm: Revenge is Sweet (ebook only) - Short Story
Malliet, G M - Vanished (ebook only) - Novella
Marsh, Katie - Murder on the Menu #3 Bad Girls Detective Agency
Marston, Edward - Mystery at the Station Hotel #23 Det. Insp Colbeck, Scotland Yard, mid 19th Century
Martin, Faith - The Last Word Is Death #2 Val & Arbie
Mason, Simon - A Voice in the Night #4 DI Ray Wilkins, Oxford
Masters, Priscilla - Bloodline #16 Detective Inspector Joanna Piercy, Leek, Staffordshire
Mayo, Simon - The Grab List
Meyer, Nicholas - Sherlock Holmes and the Telegram from Hell - From the Memoirs of John H Watson
Morris, Jenny - An Ethical Guide to Murder
Morris, M S - The Foaming Deep #8 DCI Tom Raven
Mosse, Greg - Murder at Sunny View #5 Maisie Cooper
Murphy, Catie - Death of an Irish Druid #7 Megan Malone, Limo Driver, Dublin
Nadal, Jay - The Bones of Deceit #12 DI Karen Heath
New, Jacqueline - Sins of the Fathers (ebook only) #4 DCI McNeill, Edinburgh
North, Ely - Murder Mystery #9 DCI Finnegan, Yorkshire
Nurse, Angela C - A Killer Conversation #1 DI Ravenscroft & Professor Laing
Parker, Rob - The Troubled Deep #1 Cam Killick, Norfolk
Parsons, Tony - Murder for Busy People #7 Detective Max Wolfe of the Homicide and Serious Crime Command, London
Peck, Heather - Buried in the Past #7 DCI Greg Geldard, Norfolk
Penketh, Anne - The Baguette Murders #3 The Brittany Murders
Phifer, Helen - Their Dying Embrace #14 Detective Morgan Brookes
Probyn, Jack - Death's Breath #8 DS Tomek Bowen
Quinn, Cate - The Bridesmaid
Rees-Price, Cheryl - Buried Deep Within #10 DI Winter Meadows, Wales
Reeves, S A - A Murder at the Church #2 The Bookshop Mysteries
Richards, JJ - The Dunes #4 DCI Walker, Lancashire
Richards, S J - Beacon of Blight #7 Ex-DCI Luke Sackville
Rimington, Stella - The Hidden Hand #2 Manon Tyler
Rose, Jacqui - The Good Wife
Ryan, Sadie - The Witness
Sandler, Rosie - Murder in Bloom #3 The Gardener Mysteries
Shapiro, Irina - Murder of a Medium #15 Redmond and Haze
Sharpe, Anna - Notes on a Drowning
Simpson, Carla - Deadly Curse #11 Angus Brodie and Mikaela Forsythe, Victorian London
Steel, Stephanie - The Train from Platform 2
Sullivan, Tim - The Bookseller #7 DS Cross, Bristol
Tait, Victoria - Tartan, Treasures and Murder #12 Dotty Sayers Antique Mystery, Cotswolds
Thorogood, Robert - Murder on the Marlow Belle #4 The Marlow Murder Club
Todd, Marion - Dead Man's Shoes #9 DI Clare Mackay
Veste, Luca - The Stranger in the Room
Watson, Sue - Wife, Mother, Liar
Watt, Holly - The Last Truths We Told
Weatherley, Anna-Lou - What Kind of Mother
Wells, Kate - Death in the Hills #4 Jude Gray
Westerson, Jeri - Rebellious Grace #3 King's Fool
Woods, Karen - The Trade
Wright, Adam J - The Detective Game #1 Dark Peak Detectives

Names in Titles?

Compiling the new releases and working in a library it feels like I keep tripping over titles with women's names in them. Maybe it's not so much British crime fiction as I've just had a look-over last year's releases (1000+) and found only 9, excluding those that included the protagonist's name eg Agatha Raisin and... 

This trend possibly started with Stuart Turton's The Seven Deaths of Evelyn Hardcastle. 

Matthew Blake - Anna O 

Rachael English - Whatever Happened to Birdy Troy? 

Nicci French - Has Anyone Seen Charlotte Salter? (and in 2025: The Last Days of Kira Mullan)

Ellery Lloyd - The Final Act of Juliette Willoughby 

Nick Louth - The Two Deaths of Ruth Lyle 

Dervla McTiernan - What Happened to Nina? 

Imran Mahmood - Finding Sophie 

M A Purcell - Finding Hannah 

C S Robertson - The Trials of Marjorie Crowe

I haven't spotted any titles with men's names in them.

New Releases - October-December 2024

I'm still behind so I've decided to draw a line under 2024 and list what I've got on my database for October to December, and start afresh with January 2025. 

Please note that, unless specifically mentioned, when a book has differing print and ebook release date, I use the print release date. Translators' names are included where known.

Further to my post about writers of colour and the Theakston Crime Novel of the Year, I have identified the writers of colour (that I know of) with a *** 

 
Adler-Olsen, Jussi - Locked In tr. Caroline Waight #10 Carl Morck and his assistant Assad, Department Q, Copenhagen
Alexander, Magda - The Stolen Sparkler - Lady Rosalynd and Wynterbourne
Alexander, Tasha - Death by Misadventure #18 Lady Emily
Atkinson, Heather - Guardian (ebook only) #4 Raven
Bartlett, James Y - The Organ Job #1 Johann Sebastian Bach
Bartlett, James Y - The Coffee Garden #2 Johann Sebastian Bach
Beaton, M C - Agatha Raisin: Killing Time (with R W Green) #35 Agatha Raisin, Retired PR person, Cotswolds
Beevis, Keri - The Cottage by the Sea
Belshaw, T A - Ten Years After #5 Amy Rowlings, 1939
Bickford, David - Arctic Betrayal #3 Katya
Bjork, Samuel - Dead Island tr. Charlotte Barslund # 5 Holger Munch & Mia Kruger, Oslo Police
Boland, Peter - The Vanilla Killer #4 Charity Shop Detective Agency
Briggs, J C - The Inheritors of Moonlyght Tower #2 Gothic House Mystery
Burke, Darcy - A Whisper at Midnight #2 Raven & Wren
Cambridge, Colleen - Murder Takes the Stage #4 Phyllida Bright, housekeeper to Agatha Christie.
Cartwright, Jack - When the Storm Dies #1 Deadly Wolds Murder Mystery
Child, Lee - In Too Deep (with Andrew Child) #29 Jack Reacher, ex MP, USA
Clare, Alys - The Chrysanthemum Tiger #6 Gabriel Taverner, Former ship's surgeon, C17 Devon
Cole, Martina - Guilty (with Jacqui Rose)
Coles, Richard - Murder Under the Mistletoe #1 Canon Daniel Clement Novella
Connelly, Lucy - Death by the Book #2 Mercy McCarthy, Ireland
Connelly, Lucy - Death at a Scottish Christmas #3 Dr Emilia McRoy
Craven, M W - Nobody's Hero #2 Ben Koenig
Croft, Adam - No Way Out #6 Rutland crime series
Curtis, Emma - The Commuter
Dalgliesh, J M - Family Doctor
Dawson, Mark - The Mystery of the Missing Pages (ebook only) #1 The Casebook of Atticus Priest
Dawson, Mark - The Case of the Bolted Door (ebook only) #2 The Casebook of Atticus Priest
Dawson, Mark - Code Blue (ebook only) #5 Charlie Cooper
Dawson, Mark - North Star (ebook only) #6 Charlie Cooper
Denzil, Sarah A - The Woman in Coach D
Dylan, Rhys - Dragon's Breath #14 DCI Evan Warlow
Ellis, Emmy - Rebury #35 Cardigan Estate
Ellis, Joy - Echoes on the Fens #15 DI Nikki Galena & DS Joe Easter, Greenborough
Finch, Paul - Killer Instinct #2 Detective Mark 'Heck' Heckenberg Novella
Finch, Paul - Rogue 8 - Detective Mark 'Heck' Heckenberg
Flood, Helene - The Widow tr. Alison McCullough
Frankland, Maria - Last One Standing
Gardner, Ashley - A Matter at New Year's (ebook only) - Robert Archer
Gatward, David J - Hatchet Hill #2 DI Gordy Haig
Gatward, David J - Blood Fountain #19 DCI Harry Grimm
Giuliani, C P - A Matter of Blood #6 Tom Walsingham
Granger, Ann - Death on the Prowl #8 Inspector Jess Campbell & Superintendent Ian Carter, Cotswolds
Hawkins, Paula - The Blue Hour
Hollow, Mike - The Soho Murder #9 Blitz Detective
Horst, Jorn Lier - The Traitor tr. Anne Bruce #17 Chief Inspector William Wisting, Larvik
Horst & Enger - Victim tr. Megan E Turney #5 Alexander Blix
Hunt, Rosie - Murder at a Flower Show #7 Lady Felicity Quick, 1920s
Hurst, Mark - Your Secret
Johnsen, Kjersti Herland - Christmas at Glitter Peak Lodge tr. Olivia Lasky
Jordan, G R - Cinderella's Carriage #39 Highlands and Islands
Kashiwai, Hisashi - The Restaurant of Lost Recipes Jesse Kirkwood #2 The Kamogawa Food Detectives
Lee, M J - Death on the Dee #2 DI Emma Christie
Lemaitre, Pierre - Going to the Dogs tr. Frank Wynne
Lindsay, Douglas - The Vikstrom Papers: Shadow Tide #3 Sam Vikström, PI, New England
Marsons, Angela - 36 Hours #21 DI Kim Stone
McCleave, Simon - Marshal of Snowdonia #1 Frank Marshal
McLean, Rachel - The Barn (with Joel Hames) #4 Cumbria Crime
Menuhin, Karen Baugh - Saint Valentine's Day Murder #13 Heathcliff Lennox Investigates
Middleton, Jo - Happy Bloody Christmas
Miller, Fenella-Jane - Danger at Pemberley #4 At Pemberley
Morgan, Anna-Marie - Murder in an Edinburgh Park #4 DI Grant McKenzie
Murray, Jack - A Time for Peace #5 Nick Jellicoe
Nattrass, Leonora - The Bells of Westminster
Rämö, Satu - The Clues in the Fjord tr. Kristian London #1 Detective Hildur Rúnarsdottir, West Coast of Iceland
Rankin, Ian -Midnight and Blue #25 Inspector Rebus, Edinburgh
Ross, L J - Amnesia #6 Alexander Gregory
Ross, L J - Poison Garden #22 DCI Ryan
Scarrow, Alex - The Vanishing #11 DCI Boyd
Scarrow, Simon - Revenge of Rome #22 Macro and Cato, Roman soldiers
Seeck, Max - Ghost Island tr. Kristian London #4 Jessica Niemi
Sigurdardottir, Lilja - Dark as Night tr. Lorenza Garcia #4 Arora
Sigurdardottir, Yrsa - Can't Run, Can't Hide tr. Victoria Cribb #1 Policeman Týr and forensic pathologist Iðunn
Sinclair, Doug - A Deadly Flame #3 DS Malkie McCulloch
Smith, Alex - Red Line #17 DCI Robert Kett, Norfolk
Solana, Teresa - Black Storms tr. Peter Bush
Stevenson, Charlotte - The Family Next Door
Tuomainen, Antti - The Burning Stones tr. David Hackston
Ward, Sarah - Death Rites #1 Professor Carla James, New England
Wilkinson, Diana - The Girl in the Window
Wood, Michael - Last One Left Alive #12 DCI Matilda Darke
Wood, Tom - Firefight #12 Victor, Assassin