Top Ten Tuesday is hosted by That Artsy Reader Girl.
If you are new to my blog, I just wanted to share with you that I co-host a monthly bookish link party called A Good Book and A Cup of Tea (no, you don’t have to drink tea to participate) with Erin (Still Life, With Cracker Crumbs) and Cat (Cat’s Wire). You can find a link to it at the top of the page. The link party is for all book-related posts from reviews and recommendations to …well, anything related to books at all. Including Top Ten Tuesday, if you want to link your top ten there too!
Today’s Top Ten Tuesday prompt is: Books on My Summer 2026 To-Read List
Since I listed 15 books I want to read this summer in a blog post last week, I thought today I would list 9 mystery books I want to read this summer and one I already read. There are four Agatha Christe books listed here — one I already read, two I’ll be reading for the Agatha Christie Reading Challenge (July and August) and one I threw in for extra.
Already read: 1. The Murder of Roger Ackroyd by Agatha Christie
Description:
The peaceful English village of King’s Abbot is stunned. The widow Ferrars dies from an overdose of Veronal. Not twenty-four hours later, Roger Ackroyd—the man she had planned to marry—is murdered. It is a baffling case involving blackmail and death that taxes Hercule Poirot’s “little grey cells” before he reaches one of the most startling conclusions of his career.
2. The Ivory Dagger (A Miss Silvers Mystery) by Patricia Wentworth (already started)
Description: When Lila Dryden is discovered standing over her fiance’s body with dagger in hand, Miss Silver is called in to investigate, only to discover Lila’s sleepwalking patterns, the return of her former lover, and the victim’s circle of acquaintances–all of whom occasionally wished him dead.
3. Clouds of Witness by Dorothy Sayers
Description: In a shocking scandal, the likes of which has not been seen in the English aristocracy since the 18th century, the Duke of Denver stands accused of the foul murder or his sister’s fiance, shot through the heart on a cold, lonely night at Riddlesdale Hall in Yorkshire. The Duke’s brother, Lord Peter Wimsey, attempts to prove Denver’s innocence, but why is the Duke refusing to cooperate? And what does his sister, Lady Mary, know about the affair? Trying to reveal the truth, Wimsey uncovers a web of lies and deceit within the family and finds himself faced with the unhappy alternative of sending either his brother or his sister to the gallows – until he himself becomes a target…
4. Mystery Mile by Margery Allingham
Description: A red chess piece… An improbable suicide… A disappearing judge… These were the clues to a killer whose victims never escaped. Judge Lobbett has found evidence pointing to the identity of the criminal mastermind behind the deadly Simister gang that is terrorizing New York. After four attempts on his life, he seeks the help of enigmatic and unorthodox amateur sleuth, Albert Campion, during his travel to England. For safety, Campion sends the Judge and his family to a secluded house in an island on the Suffolk coast.
But that safety is it seemed fitting that odd things should happen in a town called “Mystery Mile”. Soon after their arrival the local vicar is killed – a clear message from the gang. Its a race against time for Campion to get the judge to safety and decipher the clue to their mysterious enemy’s name. But even a connoisseur of crime as Scotland Yard’s Albert Campion had never encountered such elusive clues. He had to trace a mastermind of crime in time to save his client’s life–and his own. Luckily for Judge Lobbett, underneath his constant stream of banter, Campion displays a diamond-sharp intelligence and a natural detective’s instinct… Blackmail, abduction and sudden death bring matters to a climax.
5. Murder, She Wrote: Slaying in Savannah by Donald Bain
Description: Jessica is saddened when her eccentric old friend Tillie Mortelaine passes away—and surprised to learn that Tillie has left her a million dollars. But there are strings attached. Jessica must use the money to help the literacy fund she and Tillie established years ago in Savannah, Georgia. And she will receive the money only if she can solve a mystery within the month: the murder of Tillie’s fiancé, Wanamaker Jones.
As Jessica settles into Tillie’s Savannah mansion and meets Tillie’s boarders, she also discovers that the spirit of Wanamaker Jones haunts the grounds. And that there are those in Savannah who are looking to cash in on Tillie’s demise—and Jessica’s failure…
6. ABC Murders by Agatha Christie
Description:
When Alice Asher is murdered in Andover, Hercule Poirot is already looking into the clues. Alphabetically speaking, it’s one letter down, twenty-five to go.
There’s a serial killer on the loose. His macabre calling card is to leave the ABC Railway Guide beside each victim’s body. But if A is for Alice Asher, bludgeoned to death in Andover, and B is for Betty Bernard, strangled with her belt on the beach at Bexhill, who will then be Victim C? More importantly, why is this happening?
Often considered to be one of Agatha Christie’s best.
7. By The Pricking of My Thumbs by Agatha Christie
Description:
Tommy and Tuppence Beresford, Agatha Christie’s delightful sleuthing duo, investigate the strange and troubling doings behind the scenes at a gothic British nursing home in By the Pricking of My Thumbs
When Tommy and Tuppence visit an elderly aunt in her gothic nursing home, they think nothing of her mistrust of the doctors; after all, Ada is a very difficult old lady.
But when Mrs. Lockett mentions a poisoned mushroom stew and Mrs. Lancaster talks about “something behind the fireplace,” Tommy and Tuppence find themselves caught up in a spine-chilling adventure that could spell death for either of them.
8. Pigeon Pie Mystery by Julia Stuart
Description: When Indian Princess Alexandrina is left penniless by the sudden death of her father, the Maharaja of Brindor, Queen Victoria grants her a grace-and-favor home in Hampton Court Palace. Though rumored to be haunted, Alexandrina and her lady’s maid, Pooki, have no choice but to take the Queen up on her offer.
Aside from the ghost sightings, Hampton Court doesn’t seem so bad. The princess is soon befriended by three eccentric widows who invite her to a picnic with all the palace’s inhabitants, for which Pooki bakes a pigeon pie. But when General-Major Bagshot dies after eating said pie, and the coroner finds traces of arsenic in his body, Pooki becomes the #1 suspect in a murder investigation.
Princess Alexandrina isn’t about to let her faithful servant hang. She begins an investigation of her own, and discovers that Hampton Court isn’t such a safe place to live after all.
With her trademark wit and charm, Julia Stuart introduces us to an outstanding cast of lovable oddballs, from the palace maze-keeper to the unconventional Lady Beatrice (who likes to dress up as a toucan—don’t ask), as she guides us through the many delightful twists and turns in this fun and quirky murder mystery. Everyone is hiding a secret of the heart, and even Alexandrina may not realize when she’s caught in a maze of love.
9. Sad Cypress by Agatha Christie
Description:
Beautiful young Elinor Carlisle stood serenely in the dock, accused of the murder of Mary Gerrard, her rival in love. The evidence was only Elinor had the motive, the opportunity, and the means to administer the fatal poison.
Yet, inside the hostile courtroom, only one man still presumed Elinor was innocent until proven Hercule Poirot was all that stood between Elinor and the gallows.
10.The Cat Who Had 60 Whiskers by Lilian Jackson Braun
(Little nervous about this one as it is the last in the series before Lilian died and the later books really weren’t very good.)
Description: A twenty-ninth installment of the popular series finds Moose County in an uproar over a string of lucrative inheritances and a bee sting-related death, throughout which Polly departs for Paris, Koko the irrepressible Siamese meets a piano tuner, and Qwill writes a play.
Have you read any of these? What did you think of them?
On Thursdays, I am part of the Weekend Traffic Jam Reboot blog link party. You can find the latest one in the sidebar to the right under recent posts.
Hello! Welcome to my blog. I am a blogger, homeschool mom, and I write cozy mysteries.
You can find my Gladwynn Grant Mystery series HERE.
You can also find me on Instagram and YouTube.
If you would like to be the first to get news about my books or just have access to special posts for supporters, you can do so here for $2.99 a month : https://lisahoweler.com/support-my-writing/
