The Mysterious Affair at Styles / The Secret Adversary
by Agatha Christie
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This carefully crafted eBook: "Agatha Christie Collection #1: The Mysterious Affair at Styles (The First Hercule Poirot novel) + The Secret Adversary" is formatted for your eReader with a functional and detailed table of contents."The Mysterious Affair at Styles" is a detective novel by Agatha Christie. It was written in the middle of World War I, in 1916, and first published by John Lane in the United States in October 1920 and in the United Kingdom by The Bodley Head on 21 January 1921. show more Styles was Christie's first published novel, introducing Hercule Poirot, Inspector (later, Chief Inspector) Japp, and Arthur Hastings. The story is told in first person by Hastings and features many of the elements that have become icons of the Golden Age of Detective Fiction, largely due to Christie's influence. It is set in a large, isolated country manor. There are a half-dozen suspects, most of whom are hiding facts about themselves. The book includes maps of the house, the murder scene, and a drawing of a fragment of a will, as well as a number of red herrings and surprise plot twists. "The Secret Adversary" is a work of detective fiction by Agatha Christie, first published in the United Kingdom by The Bodley Head in January 1922. The book introduces the characters of Tommy and Tuppence who feature in three other Christie books and one collection of short stories written throughout her writing career.. show less
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Two early Christies. Her clever plotting as well as the care taken to see the reader understands the solution of the Mystery. First a locked room murder, then intrigue around trying to prevent an international incident at the end of world war 1. Tommy and Tuppence are endearing characters.
Told from the point of view of Hastings, a guest at Styles, The Mysterious Affair at Styles tells the tale of a woman poisoned for her inheritance. Desperate for answers, Hastings introduces his friend, Inspector Hercule Poirot, to the dead woman's son and to the crime in the hopes the detective can solve the mystery. As with any mystery there is a revolving cast of characters, all suitable for the label "guilty."
Having never seen film or television versions of Hercule Poirot, I picture him as a smug little man. His review of the crime scene is fascinating and I could picture his scrutiny perfectly. His relationship with Hastings is humorous, almost patronizing. The key to remember with this mystery is once a man is acquitted of a show more specific crime he can never be tried again for the same offense. show less
Having never seen film or television versions of Hercule Poirot, I picture him as a smug little man. His review of the crime scene is fascinating and I could picture his scrutiny perfectly. His relationship with Hastings is humorous, almost patronizing. The key to remember with this mystery is once a man is acquitted of a show more specific crime he can never be tried again for the same offense. show less
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2,151+ Works 440,058 Members
One of the most successful and beloved writer of mystery stories, Agatha Mary Clarissa Christie was born in 1890 in Torquay, County Devon, England. She wrote her first novel, The Mysterious Affair at Styles, in 1920, launching a literary career that spanned decades. In her lifetime, she authored 79 crime novels and a short story collection, 19 show more plays, and six novels written under the name of Mary Westmacott. Her books have sold over a billion copies in the English language with another billion in 44 foreign languages. Some of her most famous titles include Murder on the Orient Express, Mystery of the Blue Train, And Then There Were None, 13 at Dinner and The Sittaford Mystery. Noted for clever and surprising twists of plot, many of Christie's mysteries feature two unconventional fictional detectives named Hercule Poirot and Miss Jane Marple. Poirot, in particular, plays the hero of many of her works, including the classic, The Murder of Roger Ackroyd (1926), and Curtain (1975), one of her last works in which the famed detective dies. Over the years, her travels took her to the Middle East where she met noted English archaeologist Sir Max Mallowan. They married in 1930. Christie accompanied Mallowan on annual expeditions to Iraq and Syria, which served as material for Murder in Mesopotamia (1930), Death on the Nile (1937), and Appointment with Death (1938). Christie's credits also include the plays, The Mousetrap and Witness for the Prosecution (1953; film 1957). Christie received the New York Drama Critics' Circle Award for 1954-1955 for Witness. She was also named Dame Commander of the Order of the British Empire in 1971. Christie died in 1976. (Bowker Author Biography) show less
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Vampiro Gigante (1)
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- Canonical title
- The Mysterious Affair at Styles / The Secret Adversary
- Original title
- THE MYSTERIOUS AFFAIR AT STYLES, 1920
- Original publication date
- 1920
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Statistics
- Members
- 167
- Popularity
- 196,276
- Reviews
- 3
- Rating
- (4.17)
- Languages
- English, English (UK), Finnish, Portuguese
- Media
- Paper, Audiobook, Ebook
- ISBNs
- 26
- ASINs
- 10
