The Mysterious Affair at Styles (Hercule Poirot Mysteries): Agatha Christie: 9781602067912: Amazon.com: Books The Mysterious Affair at Styles (Hercule Poirot Mysteries) Add all three to Cart Add all three to List One of these items ships sooner than the other. Show details Buy the selected items together This item:The Mysterious Affair at Styles (Hercule Poirot Mysteries) by Agatha Christie Paperback $4.49 Only 4 left in stock (more on the way). Ships from and sold by Amazon.com. FREE Shipping on orders over $25. Details Ships from and sold by Amazon.com. FREE Shipping on orders over $25. Details Ships from and sold by Amazon.com. FREE Shipping on orders over $25. Details Customers Who Bought This Item Also Bought Page 1 of 1 Start over Page 1 of 1 This shopping feature will continue to load items. In order to navigate out of this carousel please use your heading shortcut key to navigate to the next or previous heading. Page 1 of 1 Start over Sponsored Products are advertisements for products sold by merchants on Amazon.com.

When you click on a Sponsored Product ad, you will be taken to an Amazon detail page where you can learn more about the product and purchase it. To learn more about Amazon Sponsored Products, click here . A Scone To Die For (Oxford Tearoom Mysteries ~ Book 1) H.Y. Hanna "Scones, a tea shop in England, a kitty & a murder - yes, please!" A brilliant and funny British cozy mystery for Agatha Christie fans! Quinn Goes West: A gripping mystery thriller (Liam Quinn Mysteries Book 3) LH Thomson A shady businessman cooked in an Arizona sunbed? Quinn is a long way from his beloved Philadelphia. He's up to his neck in trouble. Sand, too. Quinn Plays Ball (Liam Quinn Mysteries Book 10) LH Thomson In the latest Quinn Mystery, a beloved baseball coach finds himself seventh-inning stretchered! Can Philly's favorite PI cope with the Florida heat? Quinn Checks In: A Gripping Thriller (Liam Quinn Mysteries Book 1) LH Thomson Philly ex-con Liam Quinn is back on the street to make amends. 'Wit, action and backstory. What more could you want?' - J.

Michael Orenduff. The Ghost in Mr. Pepper's Bed Sigrid Vansandt Got Ghosts? Willow Valley does and one ghostly femme fatale needs Sonya, ghost whisperer, to find her killer before this good ghost goes dark. Two Birds With One Stone (A Helen & Martha Cozy Mystery Book 1) Sigrid Vansandt Two Southern Sleuths Solve a Murder at the Old Grange! Itâs a beautiful summer and the busy village of Marsden-Lacey, England, has murder on its mind. Pudding, Poison & Pie (A Helen & Martha Cozy Mystery Book 3) Sigrid Vansandt Helen and Martha enter the village's Pudding and Pie Bake-Off and quickly find themselves up to their elbows in meringue, marmalade and murder. "Future scholars of the simon-pure detective novel will hold that its greatest practitioner . . . has been Agatha Christie." --The New York Times Book Review " Future scholars of the simon-pure detective novel will hold that its greatest practitioner . . .

has been Agatha Christie." -- The New York Times Book Review Read more From the Inside Flap Who poisoned the wealthy Emily Inglethorpe, and how did the murderer penetrate and escape from her locked bedroom? Sus-pects abound in the quaint village of Styles St. Mary--from the heiress's fawning new husband to her two stepsons, her volatile housekeeper, and a pretty nurse who works in a hospital dispensary. Making his unforgettable debut, the brilliant Belgian detective Hercule Poirot is on the case. "The key to the success of this style of detective novel," writes Elizabeth George in her Introduction, "lies in how the author deals with both the clues and the red herrings, and it has to be said that no one bettered Agatha Christie at this game." --This text refers to the Kindle Edition edition. Don't have a Kindle? Get your Kindle here , or download a FREE Kindle Reading App . Ignite your imagination with these editor's picks from Kindle books.

See more Product Details Publisher: Cosimo Classics (October 15, 2007) Language: English Shipping Weight: 6.4 ounces ( View shipping rates and policies ) Average Customer Review: By El Solito on September 6, 2012 Format: Kindle Edition Verified Purchase I have always loved Christie's books for quick and fun entertainment. Although I used to own her entire published works in English, I lost my whole collection years ago to severe water damage. Recently, I was talked into buying a Kindle (reluctantly--I still like the heft, smell and feel of a paper book) and I was pleased to see this book was available at the best price ever: free. However, I was extremely annoyed when I discovered that there is no attempt to reproduce the many diagrams and pieces of evidence discussed in the book; in fact, there isn't even an acknowledgement that they are completely missing. The story will say something like, "Below is a diagram representing the layout of the house", and below there is absolutely nothing. It turns out that these diagrams are essential to understanding (or solving on your own) the pivotal murder in the story. For shame!

This destroys what Christie has always been known for--being completely fair with clues so that the perceptive reader can often solve much of the mystery right along with Poirot. The Mysterious Affair At Styles (First Edition) By Agatha Christie The Mysterious Affair at Styles (First Edition) by Agatha Christie 0 0 The Mysterious Affair at Styles is a book by Agatha Christie (1890-1976). The first edition of this work was published in 1920 by John Lane, America. The first British edition was published by The Bodley Head in 1921. Background Written in 1916, this was Christie’s first published novel, and apparently the result of a bet that she could not write a detective novel in which the identity of the murderer could not be guessed. It introduced the character of moustached Belgian detective Hercule Poirot, who went on to star in 32 further novels and 51 short stories. Plot, characters, themes Set in a vast and isolated stately home, Styles Court, during World War I, the characters include half a dozen suspects who all have something to hide.

The plot contains numerous red herrings and plot twists. Hercule Poirot and his friend Lieutenant Hastings investigate and solve a murder committed here. Author Agatha Christie is one of the best known and admired crime writers. She is credited with creating definitive characteristics in the style of the Golden Age of Detective Fiction. Notable auction sales and collecting tips The first edition of Agatha Christie’s first published novel, the book that paved the way for some of the greatest detective fiction ever written, is extremely collectible. It must be noted that the American first edition preceded the British, and is therefore the true first edition. Copies are must more valuable if they retain their original dust-jacket, the better the condition the more valuable, and preferably not price-clipped. Copies of the first edition (1920 – John Lane) were sold by Christie’s New York for $5,378 and $9,202 in September 2002.

The first British edition (1921 – The Bodley Head) was sold by PBA Galleries for $4,000 in December 2007, and a signed family presentation copy of the same was sold for £10,000 at Sothebys in July 2009. The Writing Style of Agatha Christie | FreelanceWriting The Writing Style of Agatha Christie by Freelance Writing The works of Dame Agatha Christie are still a part of popular culture. In a writing career lasting more than 55 years, she wrote 72 novels (66 mystery novels and 6 romance novels) and 15 short story collections—a body of work that remains unparalleled in any genre, except perhaps by Stephen King . What made Agatha Christie’s stories stand out? What made her stories stand out were, of course, the characters. She created memorable and dignified characters which any class of readers could relate to. Her most memorable and popular characters, Hercule Poirot and Miss Marple, are great examples of her skill to develop “high society” characters with mainstream appeal.

Agatha’s novel, “The Mysterious Affair at Styles” (published in 1920) introduced the character Hercule Poirot. Poirot, a Belgian private investigator, appeared in thirty-three novels, one play, and over 50 short stories from 1920 to 1975. Miss Marple, an elderly woman who used her amateur sleuthing skills to solve crimes, appeared in 12 of Agatha’s mystery crime novels and 22 short stories. Miss Marple often worked beside Poirot on tough crime cases. Agatha regularly looked for “creative inspiration” by studying the people around her; however, her chosen genre, the murder mystery, stunted her writing process because it was difficult at times to put reality into fictional environments; for example, she sometimes had trouble using attributes of acquaintences to do things she couldn’t imagine them doing, like murder, and this often caused writer’s block. To overcome this obstacle, she would develop many characters from scratch. She would note physical appearances of strangers whom she saw and met in public and then would use their likeness and subtle mannerisms to develop relatable characters for her mysteries.

Agatha completed her first novel, “Snow Upon the Desert” in 1911 or 1912. She shopped it around to many publishers, only to receive rejection after rejection. Her first novel was never published. Her second novel, “The Mysterious Affair at Styles,” completed in 1919, was published several months later by The Bodley Head, an independent English publishing house. What was Agatha good at? Agatha was adept at combining period subject matter with delicate story development, creative plot structure, and psychology. This is evident in her novel, Curtain, her brilliant finale. Written long before her death and placed in a bank safe with instructions to be published only after her demise, Curtain is a masterpiece that utilizes the best of her talents. The full title, “Curtain: Poirot’s Last Case” was written in 1941, thirty-five years before Agatha’s death. It was published for the first time in 1975, right before Agatha died in 1976.

Her final Poirot novel, “Elephants Can Remember,” was released in 1972, succeeded by her last novel, “Postern of Fate” in 1973, after which she could no longer write due to illness. “Curtain” finally brings the Poirot character to a close—Agatha finally “kills him off.” A common thread in many of Agatha’s novels was to develop a psychological struggle and to use topical references and brilliant characters who appeared to be crossing a stage. Her stories felt that way, as if you were sitting in an audience watching the most elegant play unfold before you. It’s not surprising that films and TV shows based directly on her works were filled with great actors playing crusty and snooty, yet relatable, desperate characters. Guinness Book of World Records recognizes Agatha Christie as the best-selling novelist of all time. Her novels, collectively, have sold more than 4 billion copies. Her best-selling mystery novel of all time is “And Then There Were None,” which has sold over 100 million copies. Agatha is also the most translated individual author. Her novels have been translated into over 100 languages.

To avoid stagnation, Agatha developed a habit of writing more than one book at a time. Despite being raised by an affluent upper-class family in England, her language was always simple, using a writing style that every reader could understand and enjoy. Although simple in style, her intriguing plots and sub-plots challenged readers to figure out “who done it” before the story ended. Agatha cleverly paced material, allowing readers to move through stories at a steady or slow pace that enhanced the drama. She relied heavily on dialogue, a technique to vary the pacing of the story as well as to heighten suspense. The beginnings of her works are strong on description, which gradually drop off as dialogue and interaction between characters take over. With shorter sentences and sharp dialogue, she hurries readers along to what’s always a captivating conclusion. Agatha preferred to plot her crime stories from the murder itself. First, she would plan out the mode of murder, the killer, and the purpose. Second, she would factor in the various suspects and their own intents. Third, she would concoct potential clues and diversionary tactics to pull readers in different directions. She restrained herself from including excessive misleading clues because it would stifle the plot.

Agatha devised her mysteries with intricate deceptions to manipulate readers’ thoughts and feelings and to make it more difficult for readers to solve the main mystery. She often used the same story-development formula for many of her crime novels: the main character—a detective or private investigator—either discovers the murder or a past friend, somehow associated with the murder, contacts the main character for help. As the story unfolds, the main character questions every suspect, investigates the location of the crime, and carefully jots down each clue, allowing readers to scrutinize the clue and try to solve the mystery on their own. Just as readers build up clues and think they know who might have comitted the murder, Agatha kills off one or a few main suspects, leaving readers shocked and confused that they were wrong about the murderer’s identity. Eventually the main character gathers all of the remaining suspects at one location and reprimands the culprit, revealing numerous unconnected secrets along the way, usually lasting 20-30 pages. Agatha Christie: An Autobiography contains her memoirs and her reflections on life, including her writing career. It is believed she began writing her autobiography in 1950 and eventually completed it in 1965.

In 2012, U.S. publisher William Morrow Paperbacks re-published her 570-page autobiography as a “reprint edition.” It is available at Amazon.com. It’s not a coincidence that Agatha’s most famous protagonist, Hercule Poirot, constantly referred to his approach to solving mysteries as using his “little gray cells,” a reference to his brain. Similarly, Agatha applied her “little gray cells” to the written page. She was an exceptionally smart and gifted writer, deftly combining sharp structure with a psychological spin that still feels fresh today. She refused to write down to her readers, but instead invited all types of readers into her stories. She left a library of work that’s both intelligent and timeless. A reader can pick up a book published decades ago and not feel any passage of time. Murder and good writing—a combination that made the “Queen of Crime” one of the best writers in history. Agatha Christie - Early Novels, the Mysterious Affair at Styles and Secret Adversary by Agatha Christie, Hardcover | Barnes & Noble® These novels show Agatha Christie's detective writing genius began with her first Novel.

The reviews of "The Mysterious Affair at Styles" at the time said this: The Times Literary Supplement of February 3, 1921 stated: "The only fault this story has is that it is almost too ingenious.... It is said to be the author's first book, and the result of a bet about the possibility of writing a detective story in which the reader would not be able to spot the criminal. Every reader must admit that the bet was won." The New York Times Book Review of December 26, 1920, said: "Though this may be the first published book of Miss Agatha Christie, she betrays the cunning of an old hand ... You must wait for the last-but-one chapter in the book for the last link in the chain of evidence that enabled Mr. Poirot to unravel the whole complicated plot and lay the guilt where it really belonged. And you may safely make a wager with yourself that until you have heard M.

Poirot's final word on the mysterious affair at Styles, you will be kept guessing at its solution and will most certainly never lay down this most entertaining book." And the reviews of "Secret Adversary" were equally enthusiastic: The Times Literary Supplement in its edition of January 26, 1922 said it was "a whirl of thrilling adventures". The characters Tommy and Tuppence were "refreshingly original" and the "identity of the arch-criminal, the elusive "Mr Brown", is cleverly concealed to the very end". The New York Times Book Review of June 11, 1922 said: "It is safe to assert that unless the reader peers into the last chapter or so of the tale, he will not know who this secret adversary is until the author chooses to reveal him." Enjoy these 1920 classics that are as compelling today as they were when they were written. Advertising Agatha Christie timeline | World History Project Agatha Christie b. Sep 15 1890 d. Jan 12 1976 Dame Agatha Mary Clarissa Christie, DBE was an English crime novelist, short story writer, and playwright.

She also wrote six romances under the name Mary Westmacott, but she is best known for the 66 detective novels and 14 short story collections she wrote under her own name, most of which revolve around the investigations of such characters as Hercule Poirot, Miss Jane Marple and Tommy and Tuppence. She also wrote the world's longest-running play, The Mousetrap. More Born into a wealthy upper-middle-class family in Torquay, Devon, Christie served in a hospital during the First World War, before marrying and starting a family in London. She was initially unsuccessful at getting her work published; but in 1920 The Bodley Head press published her novel The Mysterious Affair at Styles, featuring the character of Poirot. This launched her literary career. The Guinness Book of World Records lists Christie as the best-selling novelist of all time. Her novels have sold roughly 4 billion copies, and her estate claims that her works come third in the rankings of the world's most-widely published books, behind Shakespeare's works and the Bible. According to Index Translationum, Christie is the most-translated individual author – having been translated into at least 103 languages.

And Then There Were None is Christie's best-selling novel with 100 million sales to date, making it the world's best-selling mystery ever, and one of the best-selling books of all time. In 1971, she was made a Dame by Queen Elizabeth II at Buckingham Palace. In 2013, The Murder of Roger Ackroyd was voted the best crime novel ever by 600 fellow writers of the Crime Writers' Association. Agatha Christie timeline Dame Agatha Christie, DBE (15 September 1890 – 12 January 1976), was an English crime writer of novels, short stories and plays. She also wrote... Read more Oct 1920 The Mysterious Affair at Styles is a detective novel by Agatha Christie. It was written in 1916 and was first published by John Lane in the US in... Read more Jan 1922 The Secret Adversary is a work of detective fiction by Agatha Christie and first published in the UK by The Bodley Head in January 1922 and in the...

Read more 1923 The Murder on the Links is a work of detective fiction by Agatha Christie and first published in the US by Dodd, Mead and Company in 1923 and in... Read more Aug 1924 The Man in the Brown Suit is a work of detective fiction by Agatha Christie and first published in the UK by The Bodley Head in August 1924 and in... Read more 1925 The Secret of Chimneys is a work of detective fiction by Agatha Christie and first published in the UK by The Bodley Head in June 1925 and in the... Read more 1926 The Murder of Roger Ackroyd is a work of detective fiction by Agatha Christie, first published in the UK by William Collins & Sons in June 1926 and... Read more Jan 27 1927 The Big Four is a work of detective fiction by Agatha Christie and first published in the UK by William Collins & Sons on January 27, 1927 and in...

Read more 1928 The Mystery of the Blue Train is a work of detective fiction by Agatha Christie and first published in the UK by William Collins & Sons on March... Read more 1929 The Seven Dials Mystery is a work of detective fiction by Agatha Christie and first published in the UK by William Collins & Sons on January 24,... Read more 1930 The Murder at the Vicarage is a work of detective fiction by Agatha Christie and first published in the UK by the Collins Crime Club in October... Read more 1931 The Sittaford Mystery is a work of detective fiction by Agatha Christie and first published in the US by Dodd, Mead and Company in 1931 under the... Read more 1932 Peril at End House is a work of detective fiction by Agatha Christie and first published in the US by the Dodd, Mead and Company in February 1932... Read more 1933 Lord Edgware Dies is a work of detective fiction by Agatha Christie and first published in the UK by the Collins Crime Club in September 1933 and...

Read more Jan 1 1934 Murder on the Orient Express is a work of detective fiction by Agatha Christie and first published in the UK by the Collins Crime Club on January... Read more Jan 1935 Three Act Tragedy is a work of detective fiction by Agatha Christie and first published in the US by Dodd, Mead and Company in 1934 under the title... Read more Mar 10 1935 Death in the Clouds is a work of detective fiction by Agatha Christie and first published in the US by Dodd, Mead and Company on March 10 1935... Read more Jan 6 1936 The A.B.C. Murders is a work of detective fiction by Agatha Christie and first published in the UK by the Collins Crime Club on January 6, 1936 and... Read more Jul 6 1936 Murder in Mesopotamia is a work of detective fiction by Agatha Christie and first published in the UK by the Collins Crime Club on July 6, 1936 and...

Read more Nov 2 1936 Cards on the Table is a work of detective fiction by Agatha Christie and first published in the UK by the Collins Crime Club on November 2 1936 and... Read more Jul 5 1937 Dumb Witness is a work of detective fiction by Agatha Christie and first published in the UK by the Collins Crime Club on July 5 1937 and in the US... Read more Nov 1 1937 Death on the Nile is a work of detective fiction by Agatha Christie and first published in the UK by the Collins Crime Club on November 1, 1937 and... Read more May 2 1938 The book features the Belgian detective, Hercule Poirot and reflects Christie's experiences travelling in the Middle East with her husband, the... Read more Dec 19 1938 It was published in US by Dodd, Mead and Company in February 1939 under the title of Murder for Christmas. This edition retailed at $2.00. A...

Read more Jun 5 1939 Agatha Christie Collection #1: The Mysterious Affair at Styles (with Hercule Poirot) + The Secret Adversary (with Tommy and Tuppence) by Agatha Christie | NOOK Book (eBook) | Barnes & Noble® Meet the author Overview This carefully crafted ebook: “Agatha Christie Collection #1: The Mysterious Affair at Styles (with Hercule Poirot) + The Secret Adversary (with Tommy and Tuppence)” is formatted for your eReader with a functional and detailed table of contents. "The Mysterious Affair at Styles" is a detective novel by Agatha Christie. It was written in the middle of World War I, in 1916, and first published by John Lane in the United States in October 1920 and in the United Kingdom by The Bodley Head on 21 January 1921. Styles was Christie's first published novel, introducing Hercule Poirot, Inspector (later, Chief Inspector) Japp, and Arthur Hastings.

The story is told in first person by Hastings and features many of the elements that have become icons of the Golden Age of Detective Fiction, largely due to Christie's influence. It is set in a large, isolated country manor. There are a half-dozen suspects, most of whom are hiding facts about themselves. The book includes maps of the house, the murder scene, and a drawing of a fragment of a will, as well as a number of red herrings and surprise plot twists. "The Secret Adversary" is a work of detective fiction by Agatha Christie, first published in the United Kingdom by The Bodley Head in January 1922. The book introduces the characters of Tommy and Tuppence who feature in three other Christie books and one collection of short stories written throughout her writing career. Advertising SparkNotes: And Then There Were None: Context And Then There Were None Agatha Christie Table of Contents Plot Overview Agatha Christie was born Agatha Mary Clarissa Miller on September 5, 1890, in Torquay, England. In 1914 she married Colonel Archibald Christie, an aviator in the Royal Flying Corps.

They had a daughter, Rosalind, and divorced in 1928. By that time, Christie had begun writing mystery stories, initially in response to a dare from her sister. Her first novel, The Mysterious Affair at Styles, was published in 1920 and featured the debut of one of her most famous characters, the Belgian sleuth Hercule Poirot. Christie would go on to become the world’s best-selling writer of mystery novels. By the time Christie began writing, the mystery novel was a well-established genre with definite rules. Edgar Allan Poe pioneered the mystery genre in his short story “Murders in the Rue Morgue,” and writers like Sir Arthur Conan Doyle carried on the tradition Poe began. In traditional mysteries like Poe’s and Doyle’s, the story is told from the perspective of a detective-protagonist (or a friend of the detective, like Sherlock Holmes’s companion, Dr. Watson) as he or she examines clues and pursues a killer. At the end of the novel, the detective unmasks the murderer and sums up the case, explaining the crime and clearing up mysterious events.

As the story unfolds, the reader gets access to exactly the same information as the detective, which makes the mystery novel a kind of game in which the reader has a chance to solve the case for him- or herself. Fairly early in her career, in 1926, Christie came under fire for writing an “unfair” mystery novel. In The Murder of Roger Ackroyd, the killer turns out to be the narrator, and many readers and critics felt that this was too deceptive a plot twist. Christie was unapologetic, however, and today The Murder of Roger Ackroyd is considered a masterpiece of the detective genre. And Then There Were None, written in 1939, breaks more rules of the mystery genre. No detective solves the case, the murderer escapes from the law’s grasp, and the plot construction makes guessing the killer’s identity nearly impossible. Despite this rule-breaking, or perhaps because of it, And Then There Were None ranks as one of Christie’s most popular and critically acclaimed novels. It was made into a stage play, and several film versions have been produced, the most celebrated of which is the 1945 version starring Barry Fitzgerald and Walter Huston.

In all, Christie produced eighty novels and short-story collections, most of them featuring either Poirot or her other famous sleuth, the elderly spinster Miss Marple. She also wrote four works of nonfiction and fourteen plays, including The Mousetrap, the longest-running play in history. Eventually, Christie married an archaeologist named Sir Max Mallowan, whose trips to the Middle East provided the setting for a number of her novels. In 1971, Queen Elizabeth II awarded Christie the title of Dame Commander of the British Empire. Christie died in Oxfordshire, England, on January 12, 1976. More Help Christie's most famous mystery solved at last | UK news | The Guardian Christie's most famous mystery solved at last A new biography of the crime writer claims her 11-day disappearance was due to out-of-body amnesia Share on Messenger Close The solution to the darkest of all Agatha Christie mysteries may be at hand. What lay behind her extraordinary 11-day disappearance in 1926? Several plausible theories have competed for favour over the years, but biographer Andrew Norman believes he is the first to find one that satisfies every element of the case.

In his study of the writer's life published this autumn, Norman uses medical case studies to show that Christie was in the grip of a rare but increasingly acknowledged mental condition known as a 'fugue state', or a period of out-of-body amnesia induced by stress. In effect, the writer was in a kind of trance for several days, he claims. The mystery, which has puzzled both the police and Christie fans for 80 years, is a why-dunnit, rather than a who-dunnit. It began on the evening of Friday 3 December at Styles, the Berkshire home of the crime writer, by then already an established name, with a sixth novel, The Murder of Roger Ackroyd, selling well. Around 9.45pm, without warning, she drove away from the house, having first gone upstairs to kiss her sleeping daughter, Rosalind. Her abandoned Morris Cowley was later found down a slope at Newlands Corner near Guildford. There was no sign of her. For 11 days the country buzzed with conjecture about the disappearance. All the elements of a classic Christie story were there.

The Silent Pool, a natural spring near the accident scene, for instance, was said to be the site of the death of a young girl and her brother and many thought the novelist had drowned herself there. Others suggested the incident was a publicity stunt, while, more chillingly, some clues seemed to point in the direction of murder at the hands of her unfaithful husband, Archie Christie, a former First World War fighter pilot. Such was the speculation that the home secretary of the day, William Joynson-Hicks, put pressure on the police to make faster progress. Even the celebrated crime writers Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, creator of Sherlock Holmes, and Dorothy L Sayers, author of the Lord Peter Wimsey series, were drawn into the puzzle. Conan Doyle, who was interested in the occult, took a discarded glove of Christie's to a medium, while Sayers visited the scene of the disappearance, later using it in the novel Unnatural Death. Christie was eventually discovered safe, but in circumstances that raised more questions than they answered.

Alone, and using an assumed name, she had been living in a spa hotel in Harrogate since the day after her disappearance, even though news of her case had reached as far as the front page of the New York Times. Until now the two most popular theories offered for these strange events have been that either Christie was suffering from memory loss after a car crash, or that she had planned the whole thing to thwart her husband's plans to spend a weekend with his mistress at a house close to where she abandoned her car. But Norman, a former doctor, believes the novelist was in a fugue state, or, more technically, a psychogenic trance, a rare, deluded condition brought on by trauma or depression, which may also have led the writer and actor Stephen Fry to travel to Bruges in 1995 without leaving word with his friends or family. 'This kind of fugue state, which is much better understood these days, fits the symptoms that Christie showed during her stay in Harrogate,' said Norman.

In his book, The Finished Portrait, Norman says that her adoption of a new personality - she took the name Teresa Neele - and failure to recognise herself in newspaper photographs were signs that the novelist had fallen into a psychogenic amnesia after a period of depression. 'I believe she was suicidal,' said Norman. 'Her state of mind was very low and she writes about it later through the character of Celia in her autobiographical novel, Unfinished Portrait.' She divorced in 1928 and later married archaeologist Sir Max Mallowan. The Queen of Crime The premise Agatha Mary Clarissa Miller was born on 15 September 1890. She married Archibald Christie in 1914 and in 1930 became Lady Mallowan on marriage to her second husband, Max Mallowan. Birth of a famous Belgian Christie's first crime novel, The Mysterious Affair at Styles, introducing Hercule Poirot, was published in 1920. As She Liked It In 1919, Christie gave birth to her only child, Rosalind, named after Shakespeare's heroine.

Facts of the case An estimated billion copies of her novels have been sold in English, and another billion in 103 other languages. Serial murders In total, she wrote 80 novels. The final pages She died in 1976 in Cholsey, near Wallingford, Oxfordshire. Review: The Mysterious Affair at Styles by Agatha Christie | Reactions to Reading Review: The Mysterious Affair at Styles by Agatha Christie Posted on May 6, 2010 by bernadetteinoz A few months ago Kerrie who is hosting the Agatha Christie Reading Challenge & Blog Carnival prompted me to look for a way to re-visit Agatha Christie’s work, something I hadn’t done for more than 20 years. I picked up a copy of an audio book of David Suchet narrating Death on the Nile and enjoyed experiencing an old favourite in the new format so much that I sought out some more .

Now, with the first of Ms Christie’s books to have been published, I come to the end of my mini-challenge to listen to all of the Christie works I can find narrated by David Suchet (though apparently he has recorded more but these have not yet been transferred to a format I can use in 2010 so I might return in the future). It’s the 17th book that counts towards the 2010 Audio Book Challenge (for which I have to listen to 20 books by the end of the year). Emily Cavendish inherited Styles Court in Essex from the father of John and Lawrence Cavendish to whom she is a loving stepmother though she is recently remarried to the much younger Alfred Inglethorp whom the Cavendish boys do not like. John Cavendish invites his old friend Arthur Hastings, invalided home from the First World War, to recuperate at the house where he spent many happy days as a young boy.

When the new Mrs Inglethorp dies of strychnine poisoning Hastings urges John Cavendish to secure the assistance of Hercule Poirot who is a well-known Detective of Hastings’ acquaintance and who, as a Belgian refugee from the War, has been billeted in the nearby village of Styles St Mary. What remains is to discover how Poirot will arrive at the solution to the mystery. We meet the main characters of the Poirot novels who fans will later come to love including Lieutenant (later Captain) Arthur Hastings who narrates the tale and, like Dr Watson in the Sherlock Holmes novels, provides the role of a slow-on-the-uptake, slightly foolish person who Poirot can explain things to. Inspector Japp is also present to essentially carry out Poirot’s suggestions whenever a formal police presence is required. And of course the funny little Belgian detective is introduced with a description that enables readers to picture him well He was hardly more than five feet four inches but carried himself with great dignity. His head was exactly the shape of an egg, and he always perched it a little on one side. His moustache was very stiff and military.

Even if everything on his face was covered, the tips of moustache and the pink-tipped nose would be visible. The neatness of his attire was almost incredible; I believe a speck of dust would have caused him more pain than a bullet wound. Yet this quaint dandified little man who, I was sorry to see, now limped badly, had been in his time one of the most celebrated members of the Belgian police. Poirot’s superior intellect and detecting abilities are also evident from the very beginning of the book as he immediately spots vital evidence in the room where Mrs Inglethorpe died and starts to make connections between events that no one else can see the significance of. The logic and cleverness of Christie’s best plots is already present in this, her first published novel. We also see Christie’s characteristic populating of the story with an array of interesting people, almost all of whom have motive for committing the crime in question so that readers will normally choose several culprits as they progress through the book. Is it John Cavendish whose wife Mary appears to be consorting with a German spy? Or Cynthia Murdoch who works at the hospital pharmacy and has ready access to poisons?

Or Alfred Inglethorp who wishes to be rid of his much older wife? Having half-forgotten the culprit despite having read the book years ago I found myself suspecting several other people on my way to the inevitable denouement. In some ways the classic whodunnit has become clichéd these days but Agatha Christie was one of the original creators of the genre and this country house mystery with its plethora of clues, red herrings and plot twists remains as engaging and suspenseful today as when it was published. The Mysterious Affair at Styles was written, reportedly as part of a bet , in 1916 and published in 1920. It really is damned impressive how well it stacks up given its age and its place in Ms Christie’s canon. I doubt there are many authors who have produced such a solidly accomplished first novel that is also perfectly readable and enjoyable ninety years after its release. ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦

Question: Which crime writer’s first published novel is entitled ‘The Mysterious Affair at Styles’?
Answer: Agatha Christie