The Mysterious Affair at Styles: Hercule Poirot: Book #1

Book #1 in Agatha Christie's Poirot series.
'Instinct is a marvellous thing. It can neither be explained nor ignored.'

The extraordinary debut from Agatha Christie, the future Queen of Crime, The Mysterious Affair at Styles remains a timeless benchmark of the murder mystery genre.

The year is 1916. The world is in the throes of the First World War and uncertainty hangs heavily in the air. In Styles Court, an eerily quiet English country estate, tragedy strikes when wealthy heiress, Emily Inglethorp, is poisoned in her locked bedroom, her late husband's name on her dying lips. Suspicions immediately fall on those closest to Emily – her purposeless stepsons, scheming new spouse and devoted companion – with various motives rising quickly to the surface. But amongst the noise of the unspoken accusations, only one man is able to discover the truth. Enter the unparallelled Hercule Poirot, a Belgian detective with a knack for logic and shrewd eye for detail. Deliciously unexpected and meticulously crafted, The Mysterious Affair at Styles showcases Christie's early genius for detective fiction, and remains widely read to this day.
Agatha Christie (1890 – 1976) was an English author. She was a prolific writer, most famous for her detective novels and short story collections which centred around the iconic characters of Hercule Poirot and Miss Marple. Renowned as the 'Queen of Crime', she remains the bestselling novelist of all time, with her sales only second to the Bible.