The Mysterious Affair at Styles

The Mysterious Affair at Styles
Agatha Christie

Agatha Christie’s first ever murder mystery.With impeccable timing Hercule Poirot, the renowned Belgian detective, makes his dramatic entrance on to the English crime stage.Recently, there had been some strange goings on at Styles St Mary. Evelyn, constant companion to old Mrs Inglethorp, had stormed out of the house muttering something about ‘a lot of sharks’. And with her, something indefinable had gone from the atmosphere. Her presence had spelt security; now the air seemed rife with suspicion and impending evil.A shattered coffee cup, a splash of candle grease, a bed of begonias… all Poirot required to display his now legendary powers of detection.

Copyright (#ulink_4b5c48f0-6006-55fe-b987-49de8ee66f5c)

Published by HarperCollinsPublishers Ltd

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First published in Great Britain by John Lane Company, The Bodley Head Ltd 1921

Copyright © 1921 Agatha Christie Ltd.

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Source ISBN: 9780007119271

Ebook edition © 2010 ISBN: 9780007422586

Version: 2017-04-13

Dedication (#ulink_c43a8a11-ddd9-50b3-8584-aad35a758254)

To my mother

Contents

Cover (#ub178617f-863b-5948-ae2b-71d2ad02aa9f)

Title Page (#ubd07fda9-a13f-5183-9a9b-0862dd0e7875)

Copyright (#ulink_4dca9113-a79e-5653-95a5-6ef4e281980b)

Dedication (#ulink_7bd395de-db28-5bb8-b5e0-a79d0db985ad)

1 I Go to Styles

2 The 16th and 17th of July

3 The Night of the Tragedy

4 Poirot Investigates

5 ‘It isn’t Strychnine, is it?’

6 The Inquest

7 Poirot Pays his Debts

8 Fresh Suspicions

9 Dr Bauerstein

10 The Arrest

11 The Case for the Prosecution

12 The Last Link

13 Poirot Explains

Extract from Closed Casket, the new Hercule Poirot novel by Sophie Hannah (#litres_trial_promo)

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About the Author

The Agatha Christie Collection

About the Publisher (#litres_trial_promo)

Chapter 1 (#ulink_00aa6bd2-68dd-5618-ad25-406ca5b14b96)

I Go to Styles (#ulink_00aa6bd2-68dd-5618-ad25-406ca5b14b96)

The intense interest aroused in the public by what was known at the time as ‘The Styles Case’ has now somewhat subsided. Nevertheless, in view of the world-wide notoriety which attended it, I have been asked, both by my friend Poirot and the family themselves, to write an account of the whole story. This, we trust, will effectually silence the sensational rumours which still persist.

I will therefore briefly set down the circumstances which led to my being connected with the affair.

I had been invalided home from the Front; and, after spending some months in a rather depressing Convalescent Home, was given a month’s sick leave. Having no near relations or friends, I was trying to make up my mind what to do, when I ran across John Cavendish. I had seen very little of him for some years. Indeed, I had never known him particularly well. He was a good fifteen years my senior, for one thing, though he hardly looked his forty-five years. As a boy, though, I had often stayed at Styles, his mother’s place in Essex.

We had a good yarn about old times, and it ended in his inviting me down to Styles to spend my leave there.

‘The mater will be delighted to see you again—after all those years,’ he added.