The Mysterious Affair at Styles by Agatha Christie
Reviewed by Nadav Sternheim
Agatha Christie’s writing career began with a bet. At the height of World War I, while Christie was working at a hospital dispensary, her sister Madge claimed that Christie would not be able to write a murder mystery novel in which the reader is given the same clues as the detective but is unable to correctly identify the murderer.1 Rising to the challenge, Christie wrote The Mysterious Affair at Styles. The novel won her the bet and marked the start of an extraordinary career, which helped Christie earn the title the “Queen of Crime.”
The Mysterious Affair at Styles stands out not only as Christie’s first contribution to the “whodunit” tradition but also as a celebration of human reason and the pursuit of truth. It is a thrilling literary adventure, filled with drama, suspicious characters, and epic twists.
The story is told from the perspective of Arthur Hastings, a former British Army officer during the war. After being released from duty, Hastings runs into his old friend, John Cavendish, who invites Hastings to come stay at his family’s manor, Styles Court. The property is owned by John’s mother, Emily Inglethorpe, who inherited it after her husband’s death.
Not all is tranquil at Styles, though, as Hastings quickly finds out; Emily has married a much younger man named Alfred, much to the dismay of the rest of the manor’s inhabitants. The controversial marriage, Hastings learns, is not the only source of drama within the household; in fact, many of the residents and guests have their own secrets.
One night, the whole household is awakened by Emily’s screams, but by the time the others can break into her locked bedroom and get a doctor, it is already too late. Emily has been poisoned, and everyone is a suspect. Hastings commissions his friend Hercule Poirot, an eccentric Belgian living in the nearby town after his escape from the war raging through his homeland, to help. Poirot had been a successful detective for the Belgian police before the war; and after Hastings informs him of the murder, he quickly sets out to identify the murderer and solve the mystery of Emily’s death.
Hastings is a loyal, trustworthy, and often amusing narrator. Similar to the way Arthur Conan Doyle uses Dr. Watson’s perspective in his Sherlock Holmes stories, Christie uses Hastings to describe the mystery while letting the reader try to figure it out along with the narrator. Hastings also offers some comic relief intermittently throughout the book, as he is prone to thinking rather highly of himself, resulting in him overestimating his own detective abilities and jumping to erroneous conclusions.
Christie is an expert at bringing the reader along for the ride. Reading The Mysterious Affair at Styles feels like solving a puzzle. Although the plot can get complex at times, and the many clues are quite difficult to keep track of without writing them down, Christie’s detailed storytelling brings the story to life. The mystery’s complexity also highlights Poirot’s extraordinary sleuthing abilities, a result of his strict adherence to deductive reasoning—or, as he calls it, using his “little gray cells.”
Poirot is a fascinating character and he is arguably one of the most lovable fictional detectives ever conceived. Christie describes him as a small man with a big mustache and a spotless appearance. Poirot also has a flair for drama, and he seems to get a kick out of revealing his theories in the most spectacular fashion. His commitment to finding the truth and the pride he takes in his discoveries are infectious. Poirot is especially good at understanding the motives and emotional states of the suspects. Compared to Sherlock Holmes, who primarily uses deductive reasoning based on physical evidence, Poirot offers a more well-rounded and, therefore, more engaging approach to his craft.
Poirot’s most exceptional characteristics are his dedication to uncovering the truth and his consistent application of reason. Not once does he let his emotions interfere with his ability to determine the truth. Poirot is completely committed to reason; at one point, he tells Hastings that “if the fact will not fit the theory—let the theory go” (83).
Although the book emphasizes the importance of truth and honesty, it does so by describing the events of the mystery rather than exploring the themes directly. The Mysterious Affair at Styles works well as a fast-paced whodunit, but it is not deeply philosophical. It is worth mentioning, however, that some of Christie’s later books are more profound. For example, And Then There Were None and The Murder of Roger Ackroyd offer deeper explorations into the natures and consequences of evil and guilt.
The Mysterious Affair at Styles is a fun, action-packed read that portrays the potency of reason and shows its value as a tool for understanding reality and discovering truth.
This article appears in the Spring 2025 issue of The Objective Standard.
I assume that the bet was that Christie’s mystery would be difficult to figure out from its detail and complexity, not from it being a bad story.