The Mysterious Affair at Styles (TSS)

Title: The Mysterious Affair at Styles
Author: Agatha Christie
Publication Year: 1920
Pages: 196
Genre: Mystery
Count for Year: 3

How I discovered

I believe I first read this Agatha Christie mystery, her first and her first Hercule Poirot novel, when my mother introduced me to Dame Christie’s mysteries as a teen. However, I am being reintroduced to the novel, thanks to Kerrie from Mysteries in Paradise, who has started an Agatha Christie Reading Challenge.

The setup

Who poisoned the wealthy Emily Inglethorpe, and how did the murderer penetrate and escape from her locked bedroom? Suspects abound in the quaint village of Styles St. Mary–from the heiress’s fawning new husband to her two stepsons, her volatile housekeeper, and a pretty nurse who works in a hospital dispensary. Making his unforgettable debut, the brilliant Belgian detective Hercule Poirot is on the case.

– from Google Books

For someone who has never read an Agatha Christie mystery, this is one of the best places to start, if not because it is her first novel, or her first novel with Hercule Poirot, her most celebrated detective, but also because it “gets you” into what an Agatha Christie mystery feels like. For the person who has watched David Suchet as Poirot or who has read other Poirot novels, it is also a good place to start with the first appeance of Poirot and the subsequent development of his character.

Poirot was an extraordinary looking little man. He was hardly more than five feet, four inches, but carried himself with great dignity. His head was exactly the shape of an egg, and he always perched it a little on one side. His moustache was very stiff and military. The neatness of his attire was almost incredible. I believe a speck of dust would have caused him more pain than a bullet wound. Yet this quaint dandyfied little man, who I was sorry to see, now limped badly, had been in his time one of the most celebrated members of the Belgian police. As a detective, his flair had been extraordinary, and he had achieved some of the most baffling cases of the day.

Even before she begins in what will be our first introduction to him, his reputation precedes him.

His method is simple, as he tells Capt. John Hastings, the narrator of the story:

…we will arrange the fact, neatly, each in its proper place. We will examine– and reject. Those of importance we will put on one side; those of no importance, pouf!…blow them away!

And when Hastings questions how to decide what is important and what isn’t, Poirot answers:

Not so. Voyons! One fact leads to another– so we continue. Does the next fit in with that? A merveille! Good! We can proceed. This next little fact– no! Ah, that is curious! There is something missing– a link in the chain that is not there. We examine. We search. And that little curious fact, that possibly paltry little detail that will not tally, we put it here!…It is significant! It is tremendous!

Everything matters, he says not much later, and sometimes just when you think as a reader, you think you have figured it out, think again. Christie is the master of the red herring within the red herring, and here in her first case, she introduces us all to what became a staple of hers. Here begins the work of true genius and, in short, without giving any of the story away, is a must-read for Christie fans and non-Christie fans alike. Needless to say, though, I don’t think this will betray too much: The butler didn’t do it, in fact, no butler is in the story.

My rating: a 5.

My rating system:

5- Classic, must read
4- Worth owning a copy
3- Worth picking up at library
2- Worth skimming at the bookstore
1- Worth being a doorstop