Retro Book Review: The Mysterious Affair at Styles

The Mysterious Affair at Styles is the first Hercule Poirot novel. When this novel opens, he’s already a retired detective, with no idea he’s about to become an enduring character in a long, beloved mystery series.  It’s not actually necessary to read The Mysterious Affair at Styles first, though, because each mystery is a complete story, and because even this first one begins with Poirot’s detective career and his friendship with Captain Hastings already established off-stage. Hastings is the narrator of this one, so we can see Poirot’s eccentricities described with affection, and we can see his brilliant deductive skills confusing poor Hastings.

The pace of The Mysterious Affair at Styles can feel pretty slow, especially for readers of modern thrillers. Instead of a dramatic, attention-grabbing opening, there’s a lot of scene-setting about Hastings coming to the countryside to recover after a war injury, getting back in touch with an old friend, arranging the visit, and then establishing all the residents of Styles. I like the way this sets up the complicated Cavendish-Inglethorpe family, and sets up Hastings as kind of an observer to the action, but readers do need to be in the mood for characters having tea and arranging countryside walks to enjoy this book. 

This novel follows kind of a classic whodunit pattern. It’s not exactly a locked-door mystery, but The Mysterious Affair at Styles has a murder, with a limited number of possible suspects who could possibly have reached the victim. There’s no shortage of possible heirs with possible motives and methods, though. Then there’s the investigation, where readers are challenged to solve the mystery along with the detective. (Or maybe even before the detective? Remember that time I solved The Mirror Crack’d From Side To Side? Because I definitely did that.) I love this because Christie is setting us up for a great mystery here, and then later mystery novels where she subverts the expected structure, like in The Murder of Roger Ackroyd.

Mrs. Emily Cavendish Inglethorp dies of poison, in her bedroom which has been locked from the inside. Her grown stepsons, John and Laurence Cavendish, are the sons of her first husband and will inherit the house at Styles, of course. But her money is her own, and different wills at different times leaving to various relatives and friends, including her second husband, the much-younger Arnold Inglethorp. Perhaps one of her stepsons was having financial trouble and hurried his inheritance along? Or maybe an orphaned family friend, Cynthia, who works in the hospital, has access to poisons, and depends on Mrs Cavendish for a home and support?

Oddly, the book’s tension doesn’t come from the murder, mostly because the murder occurs in the slow-paced English country house visit part of the novel. (And maybe because no readers would have a moment of doubt  in Poirot’s successfully solving the mystery) Instead, the tension comes from the suspicions of the family members and household residents towards each other, which is an interesting interpretation of the country-house novel. The tension really comes in after the murder has been committed, and they’re all having breakfast with a possible poisoner at the table. 

There are some dated attitudes in this one, although the cringy bits aren’t connected with the mystery itself. The murder is a straight-up inheritance mystery. But there are references to the Cavendish family members playing dress-up and charades games, with predictably cringy character choices. No one could just dress up as a pirate or a wizard or something, nooooo, they’ve gotta be the cringiest ethnic stereotypes possible. Ugh. 

There are a lot of red herrings in this book, including a very complicated twist that reminded me a bit of It’s Always the Husband, by Michele Campbell. I like a few misdirections in a mystery, don’t you? But there might even be too many red herrings, our baddies are very skillful. This makes it much harder to guess the villain, but it also strains credulity a bit to have such a skillfully ruthless long-con murder in what Hastings considers a typical quiet village. 

Overall, this is a Christie classic. Poirot does his usual obscure questions, leaving poor Hastings confused because he refuses to reveal anything until this end, in the style that readers will become familiar with in the rest of the series. The Mysterious Affair at Styles remains popular for its clever, surprising plot and the introduction to the Poirot series.