My First Agatha Christie Book

I had never heard of Agatha Christie till earlier this year when I bought a book from BOTM (Book Of The Month Club) called The Christie Affair by Nina de Gramont. It was an exciting and different way to look at the scandal that took place in Agatha Christie’s early life. That book left me curious to know more about Agatha Christie and her books, which led to me reading everything I could about Agatha Christie and eventually purchasing 3 of her books.

I began this new journey with her first book, The Mysterious Affair at Styles. It is the first in a series of her books involving Detective Hercule Poirot, and, in this one, he is solving the murder of Emily Inglethorp. I loved all the twist and turns of this book. It felt as if it was written today and not over 100 years ago. It was a quick read, which surprised me as I tend to take longer to read classic books. But it seems as if Agatha Christie had a way with her words that pulled you in and made you want to know what happened next.

The book begins with our narrator Mr. Hastings arriving at Styles, and within two weeks, the head of the household Emily Inglethorp is killed. Who did it? That is the mystery Agatha has concocted for us in this thrilling novel. Throughout the book, we meet with many characters that could have done it, not knowing which one is the killer till Hercule points it out to us in the end. And the way Agatha throws in so much evidence to distract us while having Mr. Hastings talk in a way that has you convinced that he was on to something when he brought up who he thought the killer could have been. Only to find out from Hercule that he was wrong in thinking that, and that would make it feel like we were back to square one every time that happened. Leaving me wanting to skip ahead to know who the killer was, but having enough restraint not to ruin the book like that for myself.

The only thing that bugged me, if you want to even say that, about this book was that she let us think that Alfred was the killer at first and then gave us the run-around, and in the end, had the killer turn out to be him anyhow. I didn’t want all the characters living in the house to be right about who the killer was in the end. It would have been an even bigger shock at the end of the book had it not been, so cliche for the murderer to be the husband. And I understand that the author wrote the ending to the book over 100 years ago, which may have shocked readers back then. But nowadays, most authors write books this way when the spouse is the killer.

Overall this was an excellent book and held my attention throughout its entirety. There wasn’t a moment in this book that I found dull. And with the way Agatha Christie writes, it’s as if every word and scene pulls the story forward at a fast pace. And it felt as if she tied up all the loose ends by the end of the story. Nevertheless, all the characters’ stories felt complete and didn’t leave me feeling like there was more to the story. This book gives me hope that the rest of Agatha Christie’s books will be good too. Here’s to me; looking forward to reading more of her books!