So I've picked Agatha Christie's debut crime novel as my next book as this year marks the 50th anniversary of her death. A little macabre, I agree, but it was a great loss to us armchair detectives and therefore I feel some form of ode is needed.
On the 12th of January, the day she died, Phantom Adventures UK will also be posting an overview of her life following a visit to her gravesite in December. So the reading of her first two novels slots into this quite nicely.
I'll admit, as this was also my introduction to Christie's books (I'm a great fan of her characters on TV), I was a little underwhelmed. It may have been the writing style as I don't often delve into books from that era, thinking about it I really struggled when I read Sherlock Holmes the first time too. Regardless, it took me a little time to warm to Poirot and Hastings, I think it was because everyone was quite self important, vain, and pompous. To be fair to Christie, she was a writer of her time and this reflected the people of said time. As a modern woman sometimes I struggle adjusting from the modern world.
In terms of narrative, I enjoyed it. The story follows Arthur Hastings, otherwise known as Poirot's sidekick, as he is invited to stay at a manor house in Styles Court when he is on sick leave. The owner of the manor, a Mrs Emily Inglethorp, is murdered while he is there, she's been poisoned. So Hastings comes up with the grand idea of inviting Hercule Poirot, the Belgian detective who has settled nearby, to solve the murder as the house is now full of unrest.
Through lots of twists and turns and probably too many characters to have started out with as I struggled to keep track of who was who, Poirot reveals the murderer who he knew from the start. The covering of his trail, or should I say THEIR trail, was quite clever. Lots of planning, deceit, and illusions. However I felt like the delivery of the whole thing was a bit rushed. Her story building was just a tiny bit lackluster for me, we focused on the wrong things. Also it really annoyed me as I felt like the final page stopped mid conversation so I failed to get closure. I am unsure if a page was missing from my copy or what, but overall this particular book failed to thrill me, but I have consumed a few more novels since and have warmed to her writing, but I'm back to the start for now.
I must admit, Poirot is not my favourite creation of Ms Christie. I do like Miss Marple, however I am quite enjoying Tommy & Tuppence. They are next up in my book reviews so you wont have to wait long for that one, but Poirot just seems a little too vain for my tastes. I learnt to love him on telly as he's a national treasure at tea time, but I really did struggle to warm to his original form. I did eventually, but it took me until the Big Four the first time around as I felt this one was where the action was.
Overall then, I'm awarding The Mysterious Affair at Styles a 6/10. It wasn't my cup of tea, but it made me appreciate the difference in classic crime fiction from the 20s compared to today. I can see how it inspired the new generation of twists and turns and vile murderers, I just struggled going back to its inception. I did rather like the fact the Christie's named their home Styles after her first successful novel, that warmed me, takes away the cold from the cruel way Archie left her. I wont go into that now though.
Join me same time next week for The Secret Adversary, the first Tommy & Tuppence novel and Agatha Christie's second. If you like Ms Christie then dont miss Phantom Adventures UK's post on her on the 12th of January either!
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