The Mysterious Affair at Styles

It's been a long while since I have read an Agatha Christie novel, last one was And There Were None back in grade school, and ultimately I have mixed opinions about. I think because of the novel having been written so long ago and set in a different world from the one we live in today, it was a bit harder to get through this novel than I was anticipating. Still, I am glad that I ventured outside of my comfort zone and gave a good classic mystery a shot because I do not regret reading this one. It had it's pluses and minuses but ultimately it's a story that transcended time and made history so I am working on expanding my horizons a bit.

A Mysterious Affair at Styles is the first novel in the Hercule Poirot series and it's an old fashioned “who-dunn-it”, where a wealthy woman gets poisoned at her estate and the rest of the book is spent trying to figure out what exactly occured and who did the deed. The plot was interesting enough and I enjoyed experiencing something that happened during a different time. A lot of things were a bit confusing to me because the language used was fitting for the times but ultimately I was able to get the gist. It wasn't the most exciting and exhilarating plot but it was nice to take a step back and try to think like detective Hercule Poirot.

Further on, the characterization specifically of Hercule Poirot is astounding. He is a very complex character and that is very evident from the novel. All his intricacies are laid out for us and I grew in awe of him and his brilliance. The other characters weren't as closely observed or delved into but they did show somewhat of themselves and we got a brief look into who they were. All in all, not bad in that area.

Thirdly, the writing is where I struggled the most with this novel. It was rather long winded and drawn out and I was sad to discover that I couldn't get through this novel as quickly as I wanted to because I had to take my time when reading it for fear of misunderstanding something. I understand that this book was written long ago but I don't think I will be venturing into another novel by Christie for a while since this one was just too much for me in regards to the writing style. I want to get to all of her novels eventually but I am in no hurry to do so and will be taking my time.

In conclusion, I think that this classic mystery novel is definitely worth a read but even though the plot and mystery is rather light, the writing makes it feel very heavy and a lot of the information gets repeated many times throughout the book. Also, be prepared not to have any clue as to who the culprit is until the last few pages because even though the information is given to us all throughout the novel, the answers are not revealed until the very end. That frustrated me a little bit but not enough to deter me from her books forever. It was not bad.