Book description
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.
“Almost too ingenious … very clearly and brightly told.” Times Literary Supplement
“Very well contrived.” Sunday Times
“Altogether a skilful tale and a talented first book.” Daily News
“The most ingenious and absorbingly interesting tale of sensations and
mystery we have read for a long time.” Bookman
“Well written, well proportioned, and full of surprises. Lovers of good
stories will, without exception, rejoice in this book.” The British
Weekly Agatha Christie was born in Torquay in 1890 and became, quite
simply, the best-selling novelist in history. Her first novel, The
Mysterious Affair at Styles, written towards the end of the First World
War, introduced us to Hercule Poirot, who was to become the most popular
detective in crime fiction since Sherlock Holmes. She is known
throughout the world as the Queen of Crime. Her books have sold over a
billion copies in the English language and another billion in over 100
foreign countries. She is the author of 80 crime novels and short story
collections, 19 plays, and six novels under the name of Mary Westmacott.
