The Mysterious Affair at Styles

The Mysterious Affair at Styles is Agatha Christie’s first published novel, released in 1920. It introduced the world to Hercule Poirot, the fastidious Belgian detective with an egg-shaped head and an unshakeable faith in his own “little grey cells.”

When the wealthy Emily Inglethorp is found poisoned at her country estate in Essex, suspicion falls on nearly everyone in the household — her much younger second husband, her stepsons, and the various guests and companions who populate Styles Court. Captain Hastings, the narrator and Poirot’s loyal friend, is baffled by the contradictory clues, but Poirot methodically untangles the web of motives and alibis to reveal a fiendishly clever murder plot.

Written while Christie was working as a pharmacy dispenser during the First World War, the novel draws on her detailed knowledge of poisons. It established the template for the classic country-house mystery and launched one of the most successful careers in the history of fiction.