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| Photo by HarperCollins |
Do you like mystery? Do you just have to know whodunit after you start a detective novel? Do you enjoy matching your wits with the greatest detectives in the (fictional) world? Well then, YOU should read The Mysterious Affair at Styles (you really should).
The Mysterious Affair at Styles, written by Agatha Christie, the “Queen of Mystery”, is a detective novel which introduces the famous, the brilliant, the great, Belgian detective, Hercule Poirot (or at least in his own opinion); who uses his “little grey cells” better than anyone else. It was Christie’s first detective novel, and it led her to write 65 more, 14 short story collections, and multiple plays and romances.
The Mysterious Affair at Styles (TMAS), was first published in October, 1920. Christie started writing it because of a dare from her sister to write a detective story where the reader was given all the facts, yet still couldn’t guess who the murderer was, and, without a doubt, she succeeded.
Plot
TMAS introduces some of the characters commonly seen in the other books of Christie’s Hercule Poirot Series, which include Hercule Poirot himself, his friend and partner Arthur Hastings, and Inspector Japp, the duo’s friend from the Scotland Yard.
The novel starts off with Hastings returning to Britain after serving in WW I. He runs into one of his old friends, John Cavendish. John invites him to Styles, where his mother lives. After he arrives there, while driving through the village near Styles, Hastings runs into Hercule Poirot, an old friend of his, who is now a refugee from Belgium.
Later on, in the night, Mrs. Inglethrop (John's remarried mother) has an attack, and locks herself inside her room. The whole household eventually wakes up, and by the time they get the door open, Mrs. Inglethrop is near death. By the time an official doctor comes, she is dead...
Hastings, being in possession of the following facts:
1.) That Mrs. Inglethrop was very rich.
2.) That her will said that her wealth would go to her husband, Alfred Inglethrop.
3.) That her husband coincidentally wasn’t at the house when the tragedy occurred.
becomes suspicious about Mrs. Inglethrop’s death. Because of this, he goes and asks Poirot, a former Belgian Police Force member, to investigate the case, and see if there really had been murder.
Poirot eventually, by using his “little grey cells”, and by thinking deeply about the case, unmasks the murderer, and all is revealed in the last two chapters.
My Opinion
My opinion of TMAS is that it is an excellent detective novel, and is definitely among Christie’s best (or at least among those that I have read). It was the first time Christie tried her hand at detective writing, and she definitely succeeded.
Unlike many other detective novels, TMAS is not boring at ALL; and when reading it, you will be on the edge of your seat until the end. The novel is also quite realistic, as Poirot isn’t the "King of Deduction" that Sherlock Holmes is, and the solution as well as the way that Poirot solved the case are both realistic and logical.
In conclusion, The Mysterious Affair at Styles is an excellent detective novel, which started off the career of the best selling mystery writer of all time.
I hope that you have enjoyed this post and if you have any questions or comments about the novel or my blog, please comment below.
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