First published in 1920, The Mysterious Affair at Styles was Agatha Christie's first novel. It introduced the world to Hercule Poirot, Christie's Belgian detective, who would go on to be featured in 39 of her novels.

The mystery begins with the death of Emily Inglethorp at Styles, a manor in the English countryside. Captain Hastings, a guest at the house, calls upon his friend Poirot to help investigate. The obvious suspect is Emily's husband, who stood to inherit a large fortune upon her death. But the timeline doesn't quite work out, and Poirot must delve further into the lives and motivations of the family living at Styles to uncover who could have poisoned Emily with strychnine and why.

Fans of the genre will enjoy introducing themselves to or rediscovering Agatha Christie, considered one of the great mystery writers of all time, with this classic tale of whodunit from the golden age of mystery.


British novelist DAME AGATHA CHRISTIE (1890-1976) wrote more than 80 books, and is most famous for mystery series featuring detectives Hercule Poirot and Miss Marple. She is the best-selling fiction writer of all time, with more than one billion copies of her books sold in the English language, and another billion in 103 other languages.