Publisher's Synopsis
Agatha Christie's first novel, The Mysterious Affair at Styles, introduces the characters of Hercule Poirot, Chief Inspector Japp, and Captain Arthur Hastings. In the midst of World War I, the residents of Styles wake one morning to find Emily Inglethorpe has been fatally poisoned. Captain Hastings, staying with the family, enlists the help of his old friend, Belgian detective Hercule Poirot. With the evidence mounting against one member of the family, Poirot uses his technique to prove who really killed Emily. The novel is told in first person by Hastings and features many of the elements that, thanks to Christie, would become icons of the Golden age of detective fiction: it is set in a large, isolated country manor and features half a dozen suspects, most of whom are hiding facts about themselves; the book includes maps of the house and the murder scene and a drawing of a fragment of a will; and there are a number of red herrings and surprise plot twists. This title can only be shipped within the United States.
