Discussing The Mysterious Affair at Styles

[Catherine]

Discuss the book here.

[Catherine]

I haven't had the chance to pick this up yet, as I've been finishing other books. Really looking forward to giving this one a read.

[Porcelina]

Right, my post moved from the other thread (sorry about that Catherine! I'm a bit keen sometimes!!)

I read this book many years ago and remember watching the David Suchet adaptation on TV, so from the outset I had a vague hazy memory of who might be the murderer. The complexity of the details that Christie writes always means that I can never quite line up the clues and remember the whys and hows, so re-reading is still a puzzling pleasure.

It seems to me in this early book that Hasting's character, with his weakness for a pretty face and a have-a-go-hero attitude, is much more firmly drafted than Poirot's, and I enjoyed Hastings being so central to the plot, which in later books he sometimes isn't.

This book was a great short read - it took me one train ride home to get to the satisfying conclusion. It's not as finely crafted and developed as later books, but there is something to be said for starting at the beginning with the Poirot series and seeing its arc over time.

As an aside, I didn't realise that the version I picked up from the library is for English language learners - for the life of me I couldn't work out why Christie had stressed certain words with annoying underlines, until I twigged there was a glossary in the back!!

What did you all think, did you think Poirot was more 'sketchy' in this one??
X

[Catherine]

Thank you! I'm looking forward to reading it even more now! I just downloaded the audio book so going to listen to it while I get other stuff done today. :-)

[Catherine]

I finished reading this ages ago and have been so busy in the Christmas rush that I've not had the chance to get my thoughts down.

I'll try and get more said later, but my first impression was that the book would have fitted better as a short story.
I've been reading lots of Christie's short stories and love the quickness of them, they get to the point quickly. So reading this straight after the short stories made it feel fluffed out and it dragged a bit!
The plot was pretty good, and I enjoyed reading about Poirot before Christie had fully developed him as a character and got to know him.
Hastings was great in this and I found him particularly engaging.