The Mysterious Affair at Styles

Agatha Christie

Meet the famous Belgian detective, Hercule Poirot. He is a refugee in England during "The Great War", WW I. He meets an old friend, Hastings, who is recuperating at his friend's home at Styles. It is Hastings who brings Poirot into a puzzling case.

Mrs. Inglethorpe, the matriarch at Styles who holds all the purse strings, dies from strychnine poisoning. Immediately, her new husband is suspected. Yet either of her stepsons may have a motive, especially the elder, John, the one who would inherit Styles. There is also John's wife, Mary, and a ward Mrs. Inglethorpe had taken in, Cynthia.

Poirot is immediately brough in by Hastings. He sifts through the clues, revealing them to Hastings (and us, the reader) to also try to put together. He trusts intuition as well as the logical process. He leads us to, then from different suspects.

This is a classic in the mystery genre. And it is easy to understand why. This is an easy read, very well crafted. We see the clues fairly quickly within the time frame that Poirot did, but do not know how to put them together. This is always a good first read or re-read, whether you are a mystery fan or not.

The Mysterious Affair at Styles
Murder on the Links
Poirot Investigates
The Murder of Roger Ackroyd
The Big Four
The Mysery of the Blue Train
Peril at End House
Thirteen at Dinner
Murder on the Orient Express
The A.B.C. Murders
Death in the Air
Murder in Three Acts
Cards on the Table
Murder in Mesopotamia
Death on the Nile
Poirot Loses a Client
Dean Man's Mirror
Appointment With Death
A Holiday for Murder
Sad Cypress
An Overdose of Death
Evil Under the Sun
Murder in Retrospect
Murder After Hours
The Labours of Hercules
There is a Tide
The Underdog and Other Stories
Mrs. McGinty's Dead
Funerals Are Fatal
Hickory, Dickory, Death
Dead Man's Folly
Cat Among the Pigeons
The Adventure of the Christmas Pudding
Double Sin and Other Stories
The Clocks
Third Girl
Halloween Party
Elephants Can Remember
Hercule Poirot's Early Cases
Curtain

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