5 Agatha Christie Mysteries to Read on a COLD Day

I hate the cold so I'd certainly rather be curled up inside with a good book, and for me, that's a mystery novel most of the time. But on top of that, I don't want to read about the cold, or about a chilling damp, when the weather is miserable. Given the number of novels I read set in England, that can be a bit of a challenge.

But never fear! Agatha Christie enjoyed travelling and spent a good bit of time in the middle east, in particular. She used a number of settings she was familiar with for her books, providing a nice escape from the typical damp English mystery.

Here are five Agatha Christie novels featuring settings to help you escape that cold day. These feature a varied selection of sleuths, different reasons for the settings, as well as covering forty years of the author's career. (affiliate links are in use).

1. A Caribbean Mystery

   Featuring Miss Marble on a warm-weather vacation in, yes, the Caribbean. This is the most recent novel in this list. The tropical location will let you escape the chill for a few hours, at least in your imagination.

2. Death on the Nile

   This is the requisite Hercule Poirot novel for this list but also provides a fun (and warm) setting. An enjoyable mystery that gives the feel of golden-age travel along the Nile, without making you face actual sand and crocodiles.

3. Murder in Mesopotamia

   Also featuring Hercule Poirot but on an archaeological dig. The Belgian detective appears later in the story giving this novel a bit of a feel of a stand alone story. For me, this is a very Christie-esque mystery with locked rooms, many suspects, questionable identities, and minimal clues. At the same time, this can seem very convoluted. Whether that's good or bad depends on if you like that in your mystery or not. It might just distract your from the cold, though.

4. They Came to Baghdad

   This is a stand-alone mystery, post-World War II, featuring a spy/thriller/adventure plot. The story is similar to Passenger to Frankfurt but not quite as ominous and with a more satisfying wrap-up. For a "warm" read, this might be my favorite.

5. The Man in the Brown Suit
   This final novel is one of my favorites, hands-down, partly because it is one of the earlier novels (the earliest on this list). Similar to They Came to Baghdad, but with that 1920s flare, it features a young woman seeking adventure and finding murder and intrigue as well. I particularly enjoy the travelogue feel of it which can really be enjoyable on a cold day.

So there you have it, a tropical vacation, a cruise down the Nile, a visit to an archaeological dig, a thriller in Irag, and an adventure to South Africa and back. Not a bad set of options if the weather outside is frightful.