The Mysterious Affair at Styles
Ratings338
Average rating3.9
An excellent tale. I'm quite surprised that it is Agatha Christie's first book. The story was gripping and masterfully unravelled. I have always been partial to Miss Marple, but Poirot is fun too.
Agatha Christie's first novel brings us a fully formed Hercule Poirot, a murder in a locked room and too many suspects. There are twists and turns all dictated by the rather gormless Mr Hastings who consistently gets it wrong. It's most enjoyable, if rather farfetched, I loved it!
This is the first Agatha Christie book I have read and it has left me very keen to dive into some more of her work. Poirot is full of life and there are some great moments of comedy as the narrator, Hastings, gets irritated with Poirot's nonsensical actions or thinks that he has got it right and Poirot is barking up the wrong tree. The country estate setting is classic for a murder mystery and the ensemble cast is well flashed-out. A great introduction to Agatha Christie's oeuvre.
A pesar de que Hastings pasó todo el rato siendo un onvre con Mary Cavindish, la historia me gustó mucho.
A mi parecer, tiene un desarrollo de personajes y ritmo de narración mejores que varias de las obras posteriores de Christie. No muchos escritores tienen una carta de presentación tan impecable como esta.
This was a good mystery, but definitely did not live up to “And Then There Were None”. I wanted to start reading about Hercule Poirot from the first in the series, and I'm definitely not disappointed. I like Poirot a lot. He's hyperactive and intuitive. But there was still the extreme suspense missing. This story was a little more slow-moving, I think because Hastings really got on my nerves. I just don't like him, not even a little bit.
Overall, this was a clever story that tied up very nicely at the end, even after everyone was suspected in some way or another.
Initial Thoughts Brilliant this story is! No doubt one of my favorite stories from the queen of mystery, Agatha Christie! I'll try to make this review as unbiased as possible, but there are simply not enough superlatives one can tack on to the ingenious writer. Plot Overview Oh no! Emily Inglethorp, owner of a sprawling estate and a good sum of money, is poisoned in her room! She has a few family members, an orphan she graciously took in, and a new young husband. With wills being written and changed faster than Usain Bolt can run a 100-metre, us readers get a front-row seat to this exciting affair that unfolds in many logical layers. Who benefits the most from her murder? The Murder Now we get down to the nitty-gritty! We have locked doors, we have poison, we have impersonators, we have several witnesses, and we have implicated gardeners. For once, the butler did not do it!
