Just finished re-reading "The Mysterious Affair at Styles" which not only marked the debut of Agatha Christie the author, but also of a fan favorite detective, Hercule Poirot. While I don't remember reading the book the first time around (probably as a teenager around 30 yrs ago), this time around I thoroughly enjoyed the book from end to end, savoring each and every moment that Poirot explains his deductions.
The story itself is crafted in the now familiar style of whodunits by Agatha Christie, in terms of a myriad ensemble cast of characters, each of whom have equal reasons to have committed (or not committed) the crime in question, with each clue presenting itself and challenging readers to try and figure out who committed the crime and why.
The beauty in Christie's writing is the sheer simplicity with which each character and each fact is presented and it is left for us readers to put together all the various pieces of information and arrange the various pieces of the jigsaw puzzle. This would go on to be the cornerstone of almost all her Hercule Poirot mysteries.
A must read (or re-read, like in my case) for all lovers of detective stories.
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A sampling of a few reviews from 1920 and 1921 when the book was published is given below.
The Times Literary Supplement (3 February 1921) gave the book an enthusiastic, if short, review, which stated: " The only fault this story has is that it is almost too ingenious." It went on to describe the basic set-up of the plot and concluded: "It is said to be the author's first book, and the result of a bet about the possibility of writing a detective story in which the reader would not be able to spot the criminal. Every reader must admit that the bet was won. "
The New York Times Book Review (26 December 1920), was also impressed:
Though this may be the first published book of Miss Agatha Christie, she betrays the cunning of an old hand... You must wait for the last-but-one chapter in the book for the last link in the chain of evidence that enabled Mr Poirot to unravel the whole complicated plot and lay the guilt where it really belonged. And you may safely make a wager with yourself that until you have heard M. Poirot's final word on the mysterious affair at Styles, you will be kept guessing at its solution and will most certainly never lay down this most entertaining book.
