The Mysterious Affair at Styles

Review "Though first released in 1929 this murder mystery is every bit as entertaining now as it was then...This is just one in a series of audio adaptations from Audio Renaissance, the only US publisher approved by the Christie estate to adapt her stories for audio format...Hugh Fraser was well chosen as the narrator...Best of all is the Belgian accent he uses for Poirot. Not only is the accent spot on, but Fraser speaks with a flourish and a lightness in tone that befit the brilliant, if preening, little detective."--The Boston Globe Product Description Agatha Christie launches the legendary career of Hercule Poirot with this classic tale of intrigue.Did one of the Cavendish brothers poison their stepmother, Mrs. Iglethorp, or was it her new husband? 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." About the Author Agatha Christie was born in 1890 and created the detective Hercule Poirot in her debut novel, The Mysterious Affair at Styles (1920). She achieved wide popularity with The Murder of Roger Ackroyd (1926) and produced a total of eighty novels and short-story collections over six decades. Twenty-four of Christie's best whodunits are now available from Black Dog & Leventhal as part of their bestselling hardcover Agatha Christie Collection. From the Back Cover Here is the famous first case that launched the legendary career of Hercule Poirot and his ingenious creator Agatha Christie, now the most popular mystery writer of all time, as well as the world's best-selling author (over two billion copies of her books are in print). With The Mysterious Affair at Styles, Agatha Christie's cerebral and eccentric Belgian detective steps out of retirement and into the limelight of a classic mystery.Styles Court is a magnificent English manor house owned by a rich, strong-willed matron who, to the dismay of her stepson, has recently married a fortune hunter. The scene is set for death by violence. The murder of the mistress of Styles Court is so baffling, so cleverly-plotted, that it challenges even the skill of Hercule Poirot, notwithstanding the legions of tiny gray cells that take residence in his ever-so-fertile mind. Excerpt. © Reprinted by permission. All rights reserved. A wealthy woman is poisoned at an English country manor and the world of detective fiction is changed forever. With The Mysterious Affair at Styles, Agatha Christie launched herself, and her beloved Belgian detective Hercule Poirot, into popular culture history. When the wounded Captain Arthur Hastings runs into an old friend, John Cavendish, and is invited to the family estate at Styles to convalesce, he has a “premonition of approaching evil.”1 Outside, the Great War is still raging, and England is in upheaval. Cavendish’s widowed stepmother has brought the turmoil home by marrying a sinister-looking younger man, and when she is killed, presumably poisoned with strychnine, he becomes the first and most obvious suspect. But the wealthy Mrs. Inglethorpe appears to have been alone in her locked bedroom when the poison was administered. And other family members, including Cavendish’s estranged wife, may also have had motives for murder. Luckily, the estate has also taken in some Belgians, refugees from the German occupation. Among them, Hastings recognizes an old acquaintance, a dimin