The Mysterious Affair at Styles (1920)

I reread The Mysterious Affair at Styles, Poirot's first case, a year or so ago. As usual with Christie's books, I could not remember who the murderer was even though I had probably read it at least twice before. (Subsequently I watched the David Suchet film,) Having read a great many first novels, I was surprised at how polished Christie's first effort was. ( )

This book kept me guessing who did it the entire way through and I was very surprised by who it was. I really liked it and think it is well done. ( )

Hastings is visiting some old friends when suddenly the mother of his friend dies (very dramatically). An inquest begins and Hastings calls on his Belgian friend Poirot who happens to be in town to come and investigate. Poirot looks into every possibility (even though her children and the other members in the household all point their fingers at her new husband, which nobody seems to like.) Poirot flies from one thing to the next and Hastings has trouble keeping up with him. In true murder mystery fashion the murderer was found out at the very end of the book (although there were points where I though the killer had been caught).

I loved this book from beginning to end and found it delightfully entertaining. Not only that but I didn’t even try to guess the outcome. (Most of the time I can usually see how a book is going to end and this time I was right on some accounts, but there were some surprises.)

Now that I have finished the first in Christie’s series involving Hercule Poirot I need to find the next one. It was too engaging not to find what other mysteries Poirot will uncover next. ( )

I can proudly say, this it the first book I read on my new birthday Kindle! So that is exciting.

I decided upon reading an Agatha Christie novel because I watch way to much Doctor Who (Is that possible? Probably not.) I had seen the episode of DW many times where Agatha Christie helps the Doctor figure out a supernatural murder and always thought to myself, "I really need to read her stuff". So here I am reading. Starting I thought that I might not like it because most mystery novels are very predictable because they try so hard NOT to be predictable.

However Ms. Christie surpasses them all. When I first started reading I was sure that the murderer was Mr. Inglethorpe, but was quickly lead away from that notion once I started reading further into the story. Ms. Christie does a phenomenal job distracting the reader from who actually committed the crime until the end of the story and I LOVED that!

It is very easy to see how she has remained on top after all these years as one of the best mystery novel writers of all time. The highest recommendation! ( )

I liked the book, but I made a serious mistake when I first approached it: I underestimated Agatha Christie. The last time I read Agatha Christie was in high school (The ABC Murders and Murder on the Orient Express) and now I had thought her dated and perhaps even less-than- sophisticated! I was struck by the density of the cast list, the plot, the motives and the subterfuges. I anticipate returning to this book again and being able to appreciate it more with each re-reading or re-telling.

As much as I love Nadia May, she was miscast for this book. The narrator is a 45 year-old male Captain coming in from the Front. Despite Nadia May's versatility, there was no way to ignore that she wasn't a 45 year-old male Captain coming in from the Front! There is a scene early on wherein Captain Hastings looks out the window to see Lawrence Cavendish walking with Cynthia Murdoch. In my mind's eye, I saw Miss Marple peering out the window! Later, as Captain Hastings expresses his crush on Mary Cavendish or even later, proposes to Cynthia Murdoch, it took me aback.

Redacted from the original blog review at dog eared copy, Hercule Poirot Mysteries (1-4): Mini Op-Ed Reviews, 10/10/2011 and; The Msyterious Affair at Styles, 10/14/2011 ( )