hercule poirot the mysterious affair at styles

The most unlikely person, of course, might ultimately be revealed as the murderer.įront fold blurb from 1927 Grosset & Dunlap edition. Written while working as a pharmaceutical dispenser during and just after the close of World War I, The Mysterious Affair at Styles is a classic puzzle mystery, with all clues revealed to the reader, and a generosity of suspects.

The Mysterious Affair at Styles was inspired by her sister Madge’s comments that Agatha couldn’t possibly write a decent murder mystery. Her very first, a romantic drama set in Cairo and sent out under the working title Snow Upon the Desert, was read and favourably remarked upon but ultimately refused by the publishers she sent it to. Inglethorpe’s adult sons, hard up for cash and living on their mother? Her daughter-in-law, cool and unemotional? Her lady housekeeper, outspoken and jealously loyal? Or perhaps the sinister German-Jewish doctor, who just happens to be an expert on poisons? *****Īgatha Christie’s first published novel. Could it be the sweet young pharmacy assistant, with her easy access to poisons? Or either of Mrs. But the philandering Albert has an ironclad alibi, as do all of the other members of the Styles Court ménage. Inglethorpe succumbs to a dose of strychnine, suspicion immediately falls upon her much younger (and forbiddingly black-bearded) second husband, Albert. Method(s) of Murder: POISON – strychnine 100 Word Plot Summary: Setting: An English country House, Styles Court in Essex, sometime during the Great War.ĭetection by: HERCULE POIROT, with “assistance” from CAPTAIN HASTINGS (narrator) INSPECTOR JAPP of Scotland Yard is introduced.

The Mysterious Affair at Styles by Agatha Christie ~ 1920.

Hercule poirot the mysterious affair at styles