The Mysterious Affair at Styles (Hercule Poirot, #1) in Read Runners

Dec 11, 2015 Girish rated it really liked it · review of another edition

The first mystery by Agatha Christie introduces our favorite Belgian Detective Hercule Poirot. It is to the credit of the author that the debut is a mind boggling mystery though too contrived.

The Ingelthorp household is full of people with secrets to hide and access to poison. So when a murder is committed with poison, no one is clear of suspicion. Enter Poirot. The who and how of the murder are unraveled over the course of multiple red herrings, wrong guesses and missing information.

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Jul 09, 2009 Ahtims rated it liked it

Shelves: re-read, ebooks, buddy-group-reads, series-part-of-a, cozy-mystery

This is not one of my favorite Christies. I liked the initial half, but the latter half was too concocted and drab. Too many falsehoods, too many red herrings.. and the final explanation by Poirot was dramatic. I am also a bit peeved because I guessed the killer wrong. The gist of the mystery is the death by poisoning of a rich old lady who speaks out her mind, and doles out largess,only to never let the receivers forget it. She is surrounded by her much younger second husband, her secretary, 2 ...more

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Aug 16, 2014 Pankaj Goyal rated it liked it

Shelves: reread, agatha-christie, mystery-thriller, detective-fiction, three-star-books, murder-mystery, hercule-poirot

Agatha Christie made her impressive debut with ‘The Mysterious Affairs at Styles’, the first adventure of Hercule Poirot. The book was written towards the end of the First World War and was published by The Bodley Head in 1920. Though the book cannot be claimed as a great read, it was with this book Christie established herself as a major new talent.

Her creation ‘Hercule Poirot’ later on became one of the most popular detectives in crime fiction. He is featured in 33 novels and 65 short stories Agatha Christie made her impressive debut with ‘The Mysterious Affairs at Styles’, the first adventure of Hercule Poirot. The book was written towards the end of the First World War and was published by The Bodley Head in 1920. Though the book cannot be claimed as a great read, it was with this book Christie established herself as a major new talent.

Her creation ‘Hercule Poirot’ later on became one of the most popular detectives in crime fiction. He is featured in 33 novels and 65 short stories. Even today, people not only adore the character of this Belgian detective but also love to read books featuring Poirot again and again. You can take me as an example who loves revisiting Poirot books.

One characteristic feature that makes Agatha Christie special is her ability to create ingenious plots. And, that’s why she is also known as an innovative puzzle-plotter. In addition, Christie also provided the potential for the reader to solve the mystery alongside the detective in her novels. The pleasure of reading these novels is in trying to solve the crime by analysing all the clues provided in the books and catching the murderer before the detective. ‘The Mysterious Affairs at Styles’ is one such book, where all the clues have been presented in front of you.

Being the first book featuring Hercule Poirot, you get your first impression of this Belgian sleuth. You come to know about his oval-shaped head, outrageous moustaches and overbearing self-importance. And, slowly but steadily, you start to develop a liking towards him. You are also introduced to Hasting – the invalid war-hero sent home from the front. In fact, Hasting is introduced first and then Poirot. Both of these together try to solve a murder mystery and, in process, start to love the company of each other.

The book has everything an Agatha Christie mystery should have. There are a number of interesting characters, an interesting murder, a large number of clues and a great plot. The narration is good and the language is both simple and easy to follow. However, in no way, this book can be considered as a must read. You feel that it could have been better. The story sometimes even bore you. Being Christie’s first work, the book certainly lacks the subtlety of later works. So, do not compare it with works like ‘And Then There Were None’ and ‘The Murder of Roger Ackroyd’, which were masterpieces of Christie’s art.

In any case, it was not a bad read at all. While I enjoyed reading it, I did not find the book as intrigued as I had hoped. It could be that I have been reading too many Christie books lately.

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Aug 28, 2016 Neeti rated it really liked it

A good book. Hercule Poirot being the matchmaker :') The story and the mystery was appealing. The final explanation, enlightening. I couldn't digest the inquest parts, so it dulled the book for me a bit. 3.5 stars! ...more

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