Mostly Murders

September 15 marks the birthday of the Queen of Crime, Agatha Christie. The #readchristie2026 pick for September is Endless Night, a book Agatha Christie herself considered one of her best works, and it seems quite appropriate to post about it today.

Endless Night is a difficult book to review without spoilers, because a lot of what makes it good really shouldn’t be revealed in a review. It’s the kind of book you put down and think, “Dang, this was so clever.” The clues are there, but they’re so easy to overlook while you’re reading. Then, after you finish the book, you realise just how many hints Agatha Christie scattered throughout the story, and just how easy it is for the brain to overlook and dismiss them because it’s in human nature to assume and ignore things we think are unimportant.

On the surface Endless Night is a rather mundane story about a young man with big dreams. This is not your traditional Agatha Christie mystery. There is no Hercule Poirot or Miss Marple, and none of the focus on elaborate alibis, motives, and red herrings that Agatha Christie is known for. Instead you get a novel that is part love story, part gothic tragedy, and part slow burn, introspective thriller. 

Inspired by William Blake’s poem Auguries of Innocence, Endless Night is a story of good and evil, and innocense and guilt. It is much darker and slower than most of Agatha Christie’s stories, and it requires more patience as its impact isn’t felt until the very end. If you’re looking for a read that is immediately clever and funny, this isn’t it. But if you’re willing to sit it out for the extra shock effect of that last, fiendishly clever twist right at the end, and if you want to see just how devious Agatha Christie’s writing could be, do give this one a go.

Agatha Christie – Crime classics