The Mysterious Affair at Styles

Agatha Christie’s debut novel was the first to feature Hercule Poirot, her famously eccentric Belgian detective.

A refugee of the Great War, Poirot is settling in England near Styles Court, the country estate of his wealthy benefactress, 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 earned Agatha Christie her well-deserved reputation as the queen of mystery.

“"Christie wrote brilliantly compact, stylized and efficient mysteries. . . . The genre in its lean classic English form fit her like a cat burglar's thin black glove." --John Updike”

“Christie’s books are so much more than great puzzles. Each of her novels demonstrates a profound understanding of people–how they think, feel and behave–all delivered in her crisp, elegant, addictively readable style.” —The Guardian  

"Agatha Christie created the modern murder mystery." —The New Yorker

“Christie wrote brilliantly compact, stylized and efficient mysteries. . . . The genre in its lean classic English form fit her like a cat burglar’s thin black glove.” —John Updike

AGATHA CHRISTIE (1890-1976) was born in Devon, England. She wrote more than seventy books and 150 short stories, as well as works for stage and screen. Her novel And Then There Were None is considered the world's bestselling mystery novel, and her play The Mousetrap is the longest-running play in London theater history.

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