Rating: 
Summary: What an intro to the quirky little Belgian
Review: I've always preferred Agatha Christie's early mysteries to those published late in her life. Somehow the most recent works feel cranked out rather than thought out."Styles" reeks with atmosphere, and the characters, stock though they may be, are quite good. The English country house, locked room murder tale has been overdone a bit (I eschew hyperbole), but it seems fresh-born here. Perhaps it is because this is the author's first-born mystery novel and she cared about what she was doing. Other reviewers have described the actual plot, so I will not repeat that. Suffice it to say that the plot works, and the surprises are indeed unexpected. The logic and denouement are fair to the reader. The plot doesn't have to be perfect. It just has to..."work," for lack of a better verb. Mystery readers, often without knowing it, read this genre not for the ingenious plot but for the feel of place and for the characters. If feel and characters are your thing, you can't go wrong with this one.
Rating:
Summary: What an intro to the quirky little Belgian
Review: I've always preferred Agatha Christie's early mysteries to those published late in her life. Somehow the most recent works feel cranked out rather than thought out. "Styles" reeks with atmosphere, and the characters, stock though they may be, are quite good. The English country house, locked room murder tale has been overdone a bit (I eschew hyperbole), but it seems fresh-born here. Perhaps it is because this is the author's first-born mystery novel and she cared about what she was doing. Other reviewers have described the actual plot, so I will not repeat that. Suffice it to say that the plot works, and the surprises are indeed unexpected. The logic and denouement are fair to the reader. The plot doesn't have to be perfect. It just has to..."work," for lack of a better verb. Mystery readers, often without knowing it, read this genre not for the ingenious plot but for the feel of place and for the characters. If feel and characters are your thing, you can't go wrong with this one.
Rating:
Summary: This is my desert island book. Hands down.
Review: I've been reading Agatha Christie books now for a few years, and oddly enough, I hadn't read the first in the Hercule Poirot series until a couple of months ago. Even though the Poirot books are my favorites, and I have already read Curtain (the last one in the series), I still hadn't read the first one!
This first one gives you a taste of what Agatha Christie always delivers to her readers in terms of emotion and suspense. I've already read it twice, and I think I could read it forever (which is often not the case with mystery novels).
A wonderful lazy summer day read!
Rating:
Summary: Meet Hercule Poirot
Review: In 1920 Agatha Christie introduced a quirky little Belgian detective to the world in this book she wrote on a dare from her sister. The time is World War I and Poirot is one of a small group of Belgian refugees who has come to live in a rural English village. With his egg-shaped head and his well-groomed moustache, Poirot enters and soon becomes one of fiction's best-loved detectives. Also in this novel, the reader is introduced to his cohort, Captain Arthur Hastings, recovering from a war injury at the upper-class household known as Styles Court. The mistress of the manor is Emily Inglethorpe, an elderly woman who has just married a much younger man. The family members occupying the house all become suspects when Mrs. Inglethorpe is murdered and it is up to Poirot's little grey cells to sift through all the red herrings and, in the final chapter, reveal all in true detective fashion. High on Poirot's list of suspects are: John Cavendish, the elder stepson; Mary Cavendish, his wife; Lawrence Cavendish, the younger stepson; Evelyn Howard, Mrs. Inglethorpe's companion; Cynthia Murdoch, her protegee; and Dr. Bauerstein, a mysterious stranger who lives in Essex. All have motive and opportunity but only Poirot can discover the truth. This first novel sets the tone for many Christies to follow. The wealthy family inhabiting a country house, the non-violent method of murder (poisoning) so favored by Mrs. Christie, and the light-hearted but often serious romance all became hallmarks of many of her later works. Have a cup of hot chocolate with Poirot and enjoy the adventure.
Rating:
Summary: A Successful Debut For Dame Christie.
Review: In The Mysterious Affair at Styles, Poirot is at his most delightful, Hastings at his most cocky-turned-bumbling self, and the cast of characters the epitome of classic mystery. The Mysterious Affair at Styles also proves that Christie knew from the start what made a mystery shocking and complex. The plot structure is one of the more ingenious takes on mystery writing. It is only second to that which was used in The Murder of Roger Ackroyd and Endless Night. I can find nothing wrong with this book. This is certainly a very good example of Golden Age mystery, it virtually defines the term. A perfect example for those searching for Golden Age and all Christie/mystery lovers.
Rating:
Summary: Outstanding First Novel
Review: POIROT & HASTINGS introduced to the world. Ms. Christies first novel reads wonderfully. I challange you to start it and try to get anything accomplished until you receive HERCULE POIROT's explantion on how his "little gray cells" deduced the "Mysterious Affair at Styles". Absolutely charming period piece on top of a first-rate stumper.
Rating:
Summary: One of the magnificent debuts of mystery fiction.
Review: Styles, the first Christie novel, introducing Hercule Poirot (and Captain Hastings and Inspector Japp), is one of the greatest debut novels of the mystery field. It heralded the start of the Golden Age of detective fiction. The book does not yet have the great, easy to read prose that would be a hallmark of the author in the years to come, but is near it. The very ingenious plot, the use of one of the great ploys of classical detective fiction, the various subplots, and the many sympathetic characters are all elements of Dame Agatha's later justly famous novels and are handled here very skilfully. It possibly deserves 4 stars for its "standalone" merits but the moment it arrived and its historical significance in the genre raise it to a 5. Not to be missed.
Rating: 
Summary: A Worthy First Novel
Review: The first novel ever by the queen of mysteries is elegently done and contains a colorful and sort of exotic plot and characters, introducing her famous detective Poirot. But the story drags, only a bit, in the middle but the very end is fast paced and a sheer surprise. It may not be her best novel but this is a great one.
Rating:
Summary: Introducing Hercule Poirot.
Review: The Mysterious Affair at Styles was Agatha Christie's first book and the one that first introduced the world to the inimitable Belgian detective, Hercule Poirot. Christie startedwriting this book in 1910 when,during a period of illness, she was so bored that her mother challenged her to write a book. This, more of less , was the result and what a result it was!. The story takes place at Styles Court , a country house in Essex.We are also introduced to Captain Hastings, Poirot's sometimes sidekick, in this book.The Mysterious Affair at Styles is classic Christie - lots of upper-crust suspects, an isolated country house, lots of red herrings, crisp dialogue and superb plotting. This is a great introduction to Christie and definitely one of her best. Highly recommended
Rating:
Summary: The Simplest Explanation is Always the Most Likely???
Review: The narrator, a military man recently wounded in battle and invalided home, runs into an old friend. This chance meeting leads to an unlikely collaboration with an eccentric detective. The crime is murder by poisoning, and in the end, the poisoner is brought to justice. No, this is not "A Study in Scarlet" by Arthur Conan Doyle, and the narrator and detective are not Watson and Holmes. I had enjoyed several of Christie's later Poirot novels before reading "Styles", and I had never suspected that Agatha Christie patterned Hercule Poirot so much after Conan Doyle's Sherlock Holmes. I've already noted the similarities in the plotting of Poirot's and Holmes' debut novels, but there is more. Holmes was tall, thin, bohemian, and utterly British. Poirot was short, fat, fastidious, and decidedly un-British. Holmes' examination of the crimescene in "Scarlet" was very similar to Poirot's in "Styles", but Holmes would never have flinched at examining the contents of the dispatch box. Holmes solved his mysteries by logical deduction, Poirot by the exercise of the "little grey cells". Both could get so involved in the work of detection that they cut quite comical figures. Both labored mightily to keep the detectives from Scotland Yard on the right track. Both men's confidence in their abilities bordered on arrogance, and both held their cards close to their vests before dramatically divulging the villian. Holmes was always one for a pithy aphorism on detection. Poirot also: "Imagination is a good servant and a bad master. The simplest explanation is always the most likely." "Everything must be taken into account. If the fact will not fit the theory; let the theory go." "It is always wiser to suspect everybody until you can prove logically, and to your own satisfaction, that they are innocent." There are similarities, but we cannot press them too far. Differences abound. Christie writes a much more Byzantine plot that Conan Doyle ever did, and in this case she arrives at the simplest explanation in the most complex, convoluted, contrived, and circuitous route imaginable. She also likes to play tricks on the reader, so beware! I occasionally wanted to cry foul during the course of the book, but her storytelling was so delightful, and the ending so satisfactory, that I had to applaud even as I felt somewhat betrayed.
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