Agatha Christie Reviews
Monday, January 29, 2007
The Mysterious Affair At Styles
Christie breaks into the mystery scene with a good first novel, introducing us to Hercule Poirot and his companion, Arthur Hastings. World War I is raging, and Hastings is home on medical leave.
You wouldn't believe it, though. While almost everyone at Styles is doing something to help the war effort, they still manage to have some servants and even enjoy tea on the lawn.
Enjoyment ends quickly with the death by poisoning of Emily Inglethorpe, elderly, autocratic and wealthy. Suspicion naturally falls on her husband, Alfred, whom the Inglethorpe family members consider "not one of us".
Hastings, having run into Poirot earlier - he's a member of a small Belgian refugee group - hurries to drag his friend into the case. In no time at all, Poirot is following a maze of physical clues, closely-held secrets, and red herrings.
Typical for a first effort, The Mysterious Affair At Styles is overburdened with those clues, or supposed clues. Christie was a great fan of Sherlock Holmes, and Styles is heavily influenced by physical evidence.
Nonetheless, everything is still fair and aboveboard. The plotting, while a bit over-elaborate, is carefully done. Poirot explains everything quite clearly at the end, and the reader has no trouble following the sequence of what really happened that fateful day at Styles.
This one is on my "top 10" list of Christie novels, and recommended to anyone who enjoys reading the "Golden Age" mysteries.
You wouldn't believe it, though. While almost everyone at Styles is doing something to help the war effort, they still manage to have some servants and even enjoy tea on the lawn.
Enjoyment ends quickly with the death by poisoning of Emily Inglethorpe, elderly, autocratic and wealthy. Suspicion naturally falls on her husband, Alfred, whom the Inglethorpe family members consider "not one of us".
Hastings, having run into Poirot earlier - he's a member of a small Belgian refugee group - hurries to drag his friend into the case. In no time at all, Poirot is following a maze of physical clues, closely-held secrets, and red herrings.
Typical for a first effort, The Mysterious Affair At Styles is overburdened with those clues, or supposed clues. Christie was a great fan of Sherlock Holmes, and Styles is heavily influenced by physical evidence.
Nonetheless, everything is still fair and aboveboard. The plotting, while a bit over-elaborate, is carefully done. Poirot explains everything quite clearly at the end, and the reader has no trouble following the sequence of what really happened that fateful day at Styles.
This one is on my "top 10" list of Christie novels, and recommended to anyone who enjoys reading the "Golden Age" mysteries.
posted by Nightowl, 9:31 PM
