A couple weeks ago I asked my friends to suggest books for me to read. Many of my future posts will fall under this category.
One of my friends recommended I read Agatha Christie. Since I obviously have lots of books to read I decided to pick one of her works and review it. I chose The Mysterious Affair at Styles.
The Mysterious Affair at Styles is Agatha Christie's first published novel. As with all of Agatha Christie's works, it is a detective novel. It was published in the US in 1920 (Great Britain 1921).
The novel is written in first person and narrated by Lt. Hastings. Hastings goes to visit friends and almost immediately the benefactress is murdered. He knows a great Belgian detective (who just happens to be in the area) and is an amateur detective himself. The two begin investigating the case.
The plot is solidly twisting, just as any good detective novel should be. The characters are engaging enough without being too emotional. The detectives can see things the casual observer cannot. It follows right in line with Sherlock Holmes without mirroring him. I did find the beginning a little slow but once the story began, I was drawn in enough to read it in one sitting. I can see why Agatha Christie is heralded as a great detective writer.
Honestly, reading detective novels isn't my favorite thing to do. I love
watching them on TV or in movies but for some reason I just don't enjoy
reading them as much as I think I will. This novel is not an exception.
As I mentioned in my The Woman in White
post, this is not in any way to dissuade you from reading the book.
If
you enjoy detective stories, you should enjoy this novel.
--As a side note, the great Belgian detective is Poirot. He (apparently)
shows up a lot in Agatha Christie's novels (Thanks wikipedia!). If you
like other Poirot novels, you should read this, the first.--
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