Agatha Christie

Agatha Mary Clarissa, Lady Mallowan, DBE (15 September 1890-12 January 1976), also known as Dame Agatha Christie, was an English crime fiction writer. She also wrote romances under the name Mary Westmacott, but is remembered for her 66 mystery novels. Her work with mystery novels, particularly featuring detectives Hercule Poirot or Miss Marple, have given her the title the 'Queen of Crime' and made her one of the most important and innovative writers in the development of the mystery novel.

Christie has been called - by the Guinness Book of World Records, among others - the best-selling writer of books of all time, and the best-selling writer of any kind second to William Shakespeare. An estimated one billion copies of her novels have been sold in English, and another billion in 103 other languages[1]. As an example of her broad appeal, she is the all-time best-selling author in France, with over 40 million copies sold in French (as of 2003) versus 22 million for Emile Zola, the nearest contender.

Her stage play The Mousetrap holds the record for the longest run ever in London, opening at the Ambassadors Theatre on November 25, 1952, and as of 2007 is still running after more than 20,000 performances. In 1955, Christie was the first recipient of the Mystery Writers of America's highest honor, the Grand Master Award, and in the same year, Witness for the Prosecution was given an Edgar Award by the MWA, for Best Play. Most of her books and short stories have been filmed, some many times over (Murder on the Orient Express, Death on the Nile, 4.50 From Paddington), and many have been adapted for television and radio.

Series
Hercule Poirot
1. The Mysterious Affair at Styles (1920)
2. The Murder on the Links (1923)
3. Poirot Investigates (1924)
4. The Murder of Roger Ackroyd (1926)
5. The Big Four (1927)
6. The Mystery of the Blue Train (1928)
7. Peril at End House (1932)
8. Lord Edgware Dies (1933)
aka Thirteen at Dinner
9. Murder on the Orient Express (1934)
aka Murder in the Calais Coach
10. Three Act Tragedy (1934)
aka Murder in Three Acts
11. Death in the Clouds (1935)
aka Death in the Air
12. The ABC Murders (1936)
13. Cards on the Table (1936)
14. Murder in Mesopotamia (1936)
15. Death on the Nile (1937)
16. Dumb Witness (1937)
aka Poirot Loses a Client
17. Murder in the Mews (1937)
aka Dead Man's Mirror
18. Appointment with Death (1938)
19. Hercule Poirot's Christmas (1938)
aka A Holiday for Murder / Murder for Christmas
20. Sad Cypress (1940)
22. One, Two, Buckle My Shoe (1940)
aka An Overdose of Death / The Patriotic Murders
23. Evil Under the Sun (1941)
24. Five Little Pigs (1942)
aka Murder in Retrospect
25. The Hollow (1946)
aka Murder after Hours
26. The Labours of Hercules (1947)
27. Taken at the Flood (1948)
aka There Is a Tide
28. Mrs McGinty's Dead (1952)
aka Blood Will Tell
30. After the Funeral (1953)
aka Funerals Are Fatal
31. Hickory Dickory Dock (1955)
32. Dead Man's Folly (1956)
33. Cat Among the Pigeons (1959)
34. The Clocks (1963)
35. Third Girl (1966)
36. Hallowe'en Party (1969)
37. Elephants Can Remember (1972)
38. Poirot's Early Cases (1974)
aka Hercule Poirot's Early Cases
39. Curtain: Poirot's Last Case (1975)

Tommy and Tuppence
1. The Secret Adversary (1922)
2. Partners in Crime (1929)
3. N or M? (1941)
4. By the Pricking of My Thumbs (1968)
5. Postern of Fate (1973)

Superintendent Battle
The Secret of Chimneys (1925)
The Seven Dials Mystery (1929)
Towards Zero (1944)
The Complete Superintendent Battle (omnibus) (2002)

Miss Marple
1. The Murder at the Vicarage (1930)
2. The Thirteen Problems (1932)
aka The Tuesday Club Murders
3. The Body in the Library (1942)
4. The Moving Finger (1943)
5. A Murder Is Announced (1950)
7. They Do It with Mirrors (1952)
aka Murder with Mirrors
8. A Pocket Full of Rye (1953)
9. 4.50 from Paddington (1957)
aka What Mrs McGillicuddy Saw
11. The Mirror Crack'd: from Side to Side (1962)
12. A Caribbean Mystery (1964)
13. At Bertram's Hotel (1965)
14. Nemesis (1971)
15. Sleeping Murder (1976)

Quin and Satterthwaite
The Mysterious Mr Quin (1930)

Parker Pyne
Parker Pyne Investigates (1934)
aka Mr. Parker Pyne: Detective

Novels
The Man in the Brown Suit (1924)
Giant's Bread (1930) (writing as Mary Westmacott)
The Sittaford Mystery (1931)
aka Murder at Hazelmoor
Unfinished Portrait (1934) (writing as Mary Westmacott)
Why Didn't They Ask Evans? (1935)
aka The Boomerang Clue
And then there were None (1939)
aka Ten Little Niggers / Ten Little Indians
Murder Is Easy (1939)
aka Easy to Kill
Death Comes as the End (1944)
Sparkling Cyanide (1944)
aka Remembered Death
Absent in the Spring (1944) (writing as Mary Westmacott)
The Rose and the Yew Tree (1948) (writing as Mary Westmacott)
Crooked House (1949)
They Came to Baghdad (1951)
A Daughter's a Daughter (1952) (writing as Mary Westmacott)
Destination Unknown (1954)
aka So Many Steps to Death
The Burden (1956) (writing as Mary Westmacott)
Ordeal by Innocence (1958)
The Pale Horse (1961)
Endless Night (1967)
Passenger to Frankfurt (1970)

James Patterson

James B. Patterson (born March 22, 1947) is an award-winning American author. Formerly the chairman of advertising company J. W. Thompson in the early 1990s, Patterson came up with the slogan "Toys R Us Kid". Shortly after his success with Along Came A Spider he retired from the firm and devoted his time to writing. The novels featuring his character, Alex Cross, a black forensic psychologist formerly of the Washington, D.C. Police Department and Federal Bureau of Investigation, now working as a private psychologist and government consultant, are the most popular books among Patterson readers.

Alex Cross
1. Along Came a Spider (1992)
2. Kiss the Girls (1994)
3. Jack and Jill (1996)
4. Cat and Mouse (1997)
5. Pop! Goes the Weasel (1999)
6. Roses Are Red (2000)
7. Violets Are Blue (2001)
8. Four Blind Mice (2002)
9. The Big Bad Wolf (2003)
10. London Bridges (2004)
11. Mary Mary (2005)
12. Cross (2006)
13. Double Cross (2007)

When the Wind Blows
1. When the Wind Blows (1998)
2. The Lake House (2003)

Women's Murder Club
1. 1st to Die (2001)
2. 2nd Chance (2002) (with Andrew Gross)
3. 3rd Degree (2004) (with Andrew Gross)
4. 4th of July (2005) (with Maxine Paetro)
5. The 5th Horseman (2006) (with Maxine Paetro)
6. The 6th Target (2007) (with Maxine Paetro)

Novels
The Thomas Berryman Number (1976)
Season of the Machete (1977)
The Jericho Commandment (1979)
aka See How They Run
Virgin (1980)
aka Cradle and All
Black Market (1986)
aka Black Friday
The Midnight Club (1988)
Sam's Letters to Jennifer (1991)
Hide and Seek (1995)
Miracle on the 17th Green (1996) (with Peter De Jonge)
Suzanne's Diary for Nicholas (2001)
The Beach House (2002) (with Peter De Jonge)
The Jester (2003) (with Andrew Gross)
Honeymoon (2005) (with Howard Roughan)
The Lifeguard (2005) (with Andrew Gross)
Beach Road (2006) (with Peter De Jonge)
Judge And Jury (2006) (with Andrew Gross)
Step on a Crack (2007) (with Michael Ledwidge)
The Quickie (2007) (with Michael Ledwidge)
You've Been Warned (2007) (with Howard Roughan)

J.R.R. Tolkien

John Ronald Reuel Tolkien CBE (January 3, 1892 – September 2, 1973) was an English philologist, writer and university professor who is best known as the author of The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings. He was an Oxford professor of Anglo-Saxon language (1925 to 1945) and Merton Professor of English language and literature (1945 to 1959). He was a devout Roman Catholic. Tolkien was a close friend of C. S. Lewis; they were both members of the informal literary discussion group known as the Inklings.

Silmarillion
The Hobbit
The Fellowship of The Ring
The Two Towers
The Return of The King 3
Appendices and Index