the-mysterious-affair-at-styles

This was Agatha Christie's first published novel, set in an isolated English country manor during WWI. It introduces the fastidious Belgian detective Hercule Poirot, his British friend Lt. Arthur Hastings, as well as his antagonist Inspector James Japp. The mistress of the manor is poisoned to death and it seems everyone in the house has a motive, from her new husband to her impecunious son. Poirot is called in by Hastings and he, through his powers of observation and strict logic, solves the case.