The Mysterious Affair At Styles - Agatha Christie

Featuring: The Theme Of The Season "Magic, Mystery & Murders"

This is the first official case of Hercule Poirot and the best way to begin the long journey of cases that will be solved by this former celebrated Belgian cop and a later turned private investigator. His extreme obsessive-compulsive disorder towards exactness (some may call that traits of a perfectionist) and his quick observational and analytical skills will leave you baffled and laughing, especially because of the way he approaches them (which I promise solemnly not to disclose).

Now when an old rich woman marries a young man who was her secretary, it usually sets tongues wagging and when this said old woman suddenly dies under mysterious circumstances, we all know what the next thing that comes to our mind...But it’s not usually that simple when a large amount of money is involved and a prosperous estate like Styles Court. Because each member in the family had their own motives and nobody was spared from suspicion, and we always come back to our ancient argument: 'motive versus opportunity'.

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Set during the timeline of the First World War, it all begins when our narrator (and also the well-known accomplice of Poirot) captain Arthur Hastings was sent back from the front after spending some months in a convalescent home. He comes across a friend of his, John Cavendish, and gets invited straightaway to his mother’s (stepmother actually) country house in Essex, Styles Court. He had known John and his family for a long time, and he knew that their long-dead rich father remarried Emily when they were just boys and they always thought of her as their own mother. The Late Mr. Cavendish had been so much enamoured by his wife that the country house was bought right after their marriage and after he passed away, he left the place to her for her lifetime as well as the larger part of his income. Now we may all think that this might be the beginning of the troubles but no! The relation between the mother and the boys never really altered until many years later when she dies all of a sudden. There is John and Lawrence, both unsuccessful in their fields of employment and now living in Styles court under the generosity of Emily (John was at his ‘wit’s end for money’ and his brother after completing his medical study, now wants to be a writer). The others being John’s beautiful wife Mary, the old lady’s companion Evelyn Howard, the protégé Cynthia, a random Dr. Bauerstein, and not to forget the most ominous and suspicious Alfred Inglethorp (secretary-turned-husband).

With the entry of Hastings, some strange incidents suddenly start happening. The constant companion to old Mrs. Inglethorp (Emily) storms out of the house after getting into a big quarrel with her, and before leaving, she warns Hastings that the old lady is surrounded by ‘a lot of sharks.’ On the auspicious day when the tragedy strikes, there was a quite heated quarrel between Mrs. Inglethorp and someone (a male member) which the maid overheard, even Hastings came by a scrap of an unpleasant conversation between Emily and Mary. On top of that, there was the incident of a maid finding fine crystalline particles on the tea tray which she thought as salt and brushed it off. It was in the middle of the night when everyone awakened because Mrs. Inglethorp suddenly took ill. When everyone enters her room (the entering was a difficult intervention altogether) finds her in the middle of a fit and muttering something, showing all the symptoms of the effects of consuming Strychnine. She dies abruptly. So as I’ve stated each one of them had their own motives, and the funny thing was that the only person with a more or less impeachable alibi was Mr. Inglethorp.

A shattered coffee cup, a splash of candle grease and a bed of begonias was all that Poirot required revealing the foul play. The most interesting thing about reading an Agatha Christie novel is that there would be a way in which the reader’s own intuition would head, then there would be the one in which the story would progress and finally there is the actual revelation which is altogether different from both. This is a must read for all those thriller lovers out there and this book will keep every reader on their edge till they reach the last page, and not to forget the legendary powers of detection of Poirot. In fact, I, myself, finished it within a day. I couldn’t help but think that the process of elimination would never work in this particular case, because each one of the suspects individually came across the poison and the crime was conducted so flawlessly that it was very difficult to point a finger at the real perpetrator. So be prepared to be amused and puzzled to your wit’s end for Hercule Poirot always says,” you are not looking close enough mon ami...”

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