Poll

This is a tricky choice. If I were to recommend a collection to first-time Christie-readers, I’d probably avoid Parker Pyne and Mr Quin since they’re quite atypical in different ways. I’m not at all a PP fan, but the Mr Quin stores have a strange charm.
Witness for the Prosecution is top-notch Christie, but again, the other stories are more unusual.
So I’m going to vote for the Thirteen Problems. Many of the Christietropes are set out within these stories which could form a basis for future novel-length reads and, although I’m a Poirot girl on the whole, the Miss Marple and other characters who tell these stories are a lot of fun!

Pip wrote: "This is a tricky choice. If I were to recommend a collection to first-time Christie-readers, I’d probably avoid Parker Pyne and Mr Quin since they’re quite atypical in different ways. I’m not at al..."

It is a tricky choice. I almost offered Partners in Crime, but on reflection, I felt like that should be read after The Secret Adversary. I didn't feel the same way about The Thirteen Problems, which seemed to be a great introduction to Miss Marple.

Any of them would be cool. Suddenly it feels like September will come, and Summer will at long last be over.

Miss Marple has taken the lead!

Is The Thirteen Problems the same as Miss Marple: The Complete Short stories?

Natalie aka Tannat wrote: "Is The Thirteen Problems the same as Miss Marple: The Complete Short stories?"

No - that one has many more stories, but all of the stories in the 13 problems should be in that omnibus.

I own an ebook of Miss Marple: The Complete Stories, and my table of contents lists out the stories by which collection they were published in, including stories from The Thirteen Problems.

Barring some ground swell of support in the next 12 hours, we have made our choice!