WARNING: THE LIST AT THE END OF THIS POST CONTAINS SPOILERS! DO NOT READ IT, AND THEN BLAME ME FOR SPOILING THE MYSTERIES!!!
For awhile, it was popular to accuse Agatha Christie of picking the least likely suspects to be her murderers. There was even some faintly patronizing eye-rolling by writers like Ngaoi Marsh (who should have known better) and various critics: there goes Christie again, picking the suspect in the shadows!
Personally, I think this response was just sour grapes. And the truth is, Agatha Christie's murderers are more often than not front and center family members; they just also happen to have really good alibis that must be broken. But Christie understood crime profiling long before it came along: the most likely suspect in a domestic crime is a family member, specifically a spouse. The next likely suspect is the person who will benefit financially. The third most likely is a sociopath.
The reason this matters is that what makes Christie so great is the simplicity of her story ideas. Story often comes down to one idea. The telling may be elaborate (red herrings plus more red herrings plus more red herrings), but the ultimate denouement is not complicated at all.
The simple story is often also extremely satisfying because it is believable. The reader recognizes the solution as the most probable because it is the solution that corresponds best to human nature.
I think all crime shows can be held to this standard of simple & believable. Unfortunately, Christie-adaptations often try to "improve" her stories by making the bad guys the--yup, you've guessed it--least likely suspects. And, of course, that isn't simple or believable at all.
LAST WARNING OF SPOILERS!
The significant other as murderer always comes first in Christie.
Mysterious Affair at Styles (1920): husband
Murder in Mesopotamia (1936): husband
Evil Under the Sun (1941): boyfriend
Five Little Pigs (1942): girlfriend
The Hollow (1946): wife
The Murder at the Vicarage (1930): wife
A Caribbean Mystery (1964): husband
Lord Edgware Dies (1933): ex-wife
Death on the Nile (1937): husband
Towards Zero (1944): ex-husband
Endless Night (1967): husband (& sociopath)
Death in the Clouds (1935): husband
Other family members:
Elephants Can Remember (1972): sister
Sleeping Murder (1976): older brother
Pocket Full of Rye (1953): son
Sad Cypress (1940): aunt
Dumb Witness (1937): niece
Hercule Poirot's Christmas (1938): son
Peril at End House (1932): cousin
ABC Murders (1936): brother
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