Agatha Christie Auction Record

At Swann Galleries' June 17 sale, this first edition of Agatha Christie's Murder in Mesopotamia (1936) set an auction record when it sold to a dealer for $7,250. And it's not even her first novel, The Mysterious Affair at Styles (1920), or her best known--of her 66 detective novels, either And Then There Were None (1940) or Murder on the Orient Express (1934) might best stake that claim. But Murder in Mesopotamia is a "Poirot" novel, referring to the character Hercule Poirot, who debuted in The Mysterious Affair at Styles and went on to appear in 33 novels, numerous short stories, and a long-running British television drama.

To read more about the Queen of Crime, check out antiquarian bookseller Vic Zoschak's recent blog post, "Agatha Christie: Unrivaled, Record-Breaking Crime Novelist."

Image: Courtesy of Swann Galleries.