The Mysterious Affair at Styles
Review of the novel The Mysterious Affair at Styles by Agatha Christie.
Published by John Lane Company, The Bodley Head, on 21st January 1921.
Cost: 2ꞌ6 1958 [£7.99]
ISBN 9780007119271 (Paperback Edition - 190 pages)
I have read this book a number of times and as this is a special year for the book, to be celebrated at The International Agatha Christie Festival in Torquay in September 2016, it seemed like a good time to review the novel.
Not only is The Mysterious Affair at Styles Christie’s first novel, it is our introduction to Hercule Poirot and Captain Hastings. Their relationship started before this case and it because of that, that Hasting draws in Poirot to investigate the sudden death of his friend’s mother. As with a number of the Poirot stories, Hastings is the narrator of the tale and we see the case unravel through his eyes.
Hastings is invited to continue his convalesce from the war, at the home of John Cavendish and his family, a country-place called Styles Court, in Essex. The investigation revolves around the death of Mrs Inglethorp, who at the age of 70, was not well, but lived her life to the full.
In chapter 1 we are introduced to all the possible murder suspects and although the story is not a locked room situation, it is the characters within the Styles Court house that must have committed the murder of Mrs Inglethorp. Each individual is paraded before the reader, they all have a motive and the possibility of having committed the crime, except one.
It is not until chapter 2 that the reader is introduced to Poirot; Hastings ‘cannoned into a little man’ as he enters the village post office. However, it is half a page later that Hastings describes this individual:
Poirot was an extraordinary-looking little man. He was hardly more than five feet four inches, but carried himself with great dignity. His head was exactly the shape of an egg, and he always perched it a little on one side. His moustache was very stiff and military. The neatness of his attire was almost incredible.
[He] had been in his time one of the most celebrated members of the Belgian police. As a detective, his flair had been extraordinary, and he had achieved triumphs by unravelling some of the most baffling cases of the day.
Christie has taken her time in introducing Poirot and his credentials to her readers but develops them further in the story.
At the time of writing, Christie was not bound to the rules of the detective club, to which she was later to become member and president, but she was an avid reader of detective novels and knew how to craft a story according to the rules of her peers.
Christie presents her readers with clues, some red-herrings, but just like Hastings, it is difficult to be persuaded that the crime was committed by anyone else than the obvious individual.
As Poirot is staying in the village, and not at Styles Court, he is unable to carry out some of the detective work he would like to and encourages various individuals, including Hastings, to do some of the detective work on his behalf. We are soon made aware that Hastings does not always see the facts laid out before him.
Although this is the first Christie novel and the first time we are introduced to Poirot, she also introduces Detective Chief Inspector James Japp of Scotland Yard in chapter 7; a character that would appear in a further six Christie novels.
In this story we discover Christie’s incredible knowledge of poisons. During World War I, as a volunteer nurse in a Torquay hospital, she developed a lifetime interest in toxicology. She studied and qualified as an apothecary’s assistant in 1917. In all, Christie was to poison more than 300 characters in her stories.
In The Mysterious Affair of Styles, we learn about the detection methods of strychnine; its effect on the taste of food, and hot drinks.
At the end of the story, Poirot gathers all the suspects in to one room and reveals his findings; accusing and questioning each individual’s behaviour in the lead up to Mrs Inglethorp’s death. The solution involves one item that Christie has kept back from the reader, although in hindsight it must have taken place.
It is an excellent novel, and I have enjoyed reading again. It’s a must read for Christie fans. Rating: 5 stars
Dr James Sheppard
16 February 2016
