The culprit is quite intelligent, seeming to be a step ahead of Poirot, not leaving enough clues. Or maybe there are too many conflicting clues. Don’t forget the generous red herrings thrown in! All in all, The Mysterious Affair at Styles is a lovely introduction to Poirot – though it still surprises me how much Agatha Christie disliked him!
Title: The Mysterious Affair at Styles
Author: Agatha Christie
Genre: Mystery, Fiction, Classics
Publication Date: January 1, 1920
Review Date: November 24, 2025
Number of Pages: 174 (paperback)
My Rating: 5/5
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Book Blurb of The Mysterious Affair At Styles:
Agatha Christie’s debut novel was also the first to feature Hercule Poirot, her famously eccentric Belgian detective.
A refugee of the Great War, Poirot has settled in England near Styles Court, the country estate of his wealthy benefactor, the elderly Emily Inglethorp. When Emily is poisoned and the authorities are baffled, Poirot puts his prodigious sleuthing skills to work. Suspects are plentiful, including the victim’s much younger husband, her resentful stepsons, her longtime hired companion, a young family friend working as a nurse, and a London specialist on poisons who just happens to be visiting the nearby village.
All of them have secrets they are desperate to keep, but none can outwit Poirot as he navigates the ingenious red herrings and plot twists that contribute to Agatha Christie’s well-deserved reputation as the queen of mystery.
Book review of The Mysterious Affair At Styles:
The very first book to feature Poirot! I’ve read this book before, but never wrote about it. In a happy coincidence, I also completely forgot the plot – so I get to read it again!
We meet Hastings, who narrates the story. I really enjoyed the narration, especially his opinions on Poirot and how he approaches the process of finding clues and solving crime. Later, of course, he is quite devoted to his friend and supports all the “crazy”, but here we see how he initially felt. I found that really cool, knowing what we know about how their friendship goes over the course of Poirot’s many adventures.
Hastings comes to Styles to stay with his friend John Cavendish. We are introduced to the main cast, friends and family who are staying at Styles. There are other characters playing roles of varying importance. Hastings coincidentally meets Poirot, staying in the same village. He’s with a group of other Belgians who have been provided safe haven (this book is set during the war) by Cavendish’s stepmother. Now that everyone’s met up and relationships explained, tragedy strikes.
As always, I won’t get into spoiler territory, so I won’t be discussing plot specifics. The culprit is quite intelligent, seeming to be a step ahead of Poirot, not leaving enough clues. Or maybe there are too many conflicting clues. Read the book to know more about that bit! I can’t help but comment on one thing I always adore about Christie stories: there’s always enough clues for us to try and figure out what’s happening; sometimes Poirot emphasizes on some points that are for us to draw our own inferences from. And of course, the red herrings! I really enjoyed “solving along” as the story proceeded.
As for pace, what can I say except I binge-read this story over little more than a weekend. I started on a Saturday afternoon and finished Monday evening! All in all, The Mysterious Affair at Styles is a lovely introduction to Poirot – though it still surprises me how much Agatha Christie disliked him!
Recommended for fans of:
Agatha Christie, lots of twists, locked room style mysteries, fast paced stories, solving along and parsing clues! Head over to my Agatha Christie reading challenge page where I work my way through Christie’s books!
