Book : The Mysterious Affair At Styles by Agatha Christie
Krishna
Agatha Christie is not new to this space. We have reviewed her books earlier. The Body In The Library and And Then There Were None are two examples.
This has the distinction of being the first ever Poirot novel published. The literary world met the great detective for the first time through this book.
Hastings describes how he got involved with the first ever case of Poirot. He was discharged from the army after being wounded. John Cavendish, his army colleague, invited him to come visit him, John, at Styles Court. His mother Emily, he informed Watson, had remarried again. (She must be seventy, thought Watson). She is now Emily Inglethorp, married to Alfred Inglethorp.
John has an elder brother and he himself is forced to live with the mother even after his marriage to Mary Cavendish as he is dependent on her financially.
John dislikes his stepfather Alfred – the new item – who turned up as a second cousin of Evelyn Howard, the mother’s companion for a while. She declared her engagement to him to the stunned surprise of the rest of the family.
Hastings is impressed by Mary Cavendish who seems to be intelligent and interesting. Hastings meets the mother and her very attentive husband.
Cynthia Murdock also lives in the manor. She is a protege of the mother, the daughter of an old schoolmate of hers.Cynthia works in a dispensary in a hospital. (Instantly you think, hm, access to poisons and drugs)
He says he wants to be a detective in the mold of Sherlock and talks about a funny Belgian man whom he had met earlier and who had inspired him.
There is conflict in the house. John chafes under his mother’s influence as seems to be Cynthis. Lawrence, John’s elder brother seems to have a resentment. Evie Howard, upset with Alfred, her own brother, prepares to quit. She told Emily that Alfred is with her only for her money and is fooling around with the young wife of Farmer Raikes who lives nearby. She also warns Emily that Alfred is a ‘bad lot’.
He sees Dr Bauerstein, a London specialist but Hastings takes an instant dislike to him. He seems to be a friend of Mary. There is Mrs Raikes herself who is very pretty and whom the family dislikes.
John is hard up for money and is not getting enough from his mother, in his opinion. Then Hastings runs into Poirot, who has been invited by the lady of the house and has come to London from Belgium.
When Mrs Inglethrop dies of what is suspected to be poison, Hastings goes to call Poirot, who hears him out and asks if the Lady had eaten well. He is informed that she had not. He comes over to the manor to investigate.
He gets into the room where Mrs Inglethrop died and is curious about specific things – a crushed tea cup, a wet pattern on the rug, some blue threads – presumably from someone’s dress and in his typical fashion, refuses to explain his interest to Hastings. He however points to the fact that the wet pattern was caused by a white candle (not the one carried by the housekeeper the previous night, as that was pink) and he also retrieves a piece of what appeared to be a will (judged from the type of paper used, not the contents).
Poirit also finds a duplicate key that opens a chest of drawers. Poirot is agitated and excited to find that Cynthia does not take sugar in her coffee. Why? Hastings wonders with no clue.
Poirot, in the meanwhile astonishes the lawyer Wells, John and others by revealing and proving through a gardener’s testimony that Mrs Inglethrop did indeed wrote a will before she died and says that it was mysteriously burnt. In addition he also witnesses that the locked box where the old lady kept important documents (for which he, Poirot, held both the keys) was forced open.
Clues keep coming. Poirot thinks that the conversation between Mary and Mrs Inglethrop was so out of context with Mary’s character that it is important to consider the implications. Also he says that the weather the previous day (glorious sunshine) and Mr Inglethrop’s odd manner of clothing and beard are two important factors. Hastings is befuddled but you at least see one point – odd clothes and beard may make him easy to impersonate?
Poirot confirms it a short time later. At the inquest, ‘Alfred’, claims the chemist, came to buy strychnine from the chemist. Alfred does not even deign to cooperate and is the prime suspect when Poirot asks the Scotland Yard detectives to trust him, Poirot, when he says that Alfred is innocent.
Hastings accidentally hears John and Mary quarreling over Mary’s growing affection with Dr Baurstein. But Poirot says that her affections were with someone else. In addition, when Baurstein was arrested by the police, Poirot reveals that it is due to the doctor’s involvement in smuggling activities.
Poirot says that ‘He knows how the murder was committed and he has no proof yet’ and astonishes Hastings by correctly guessing that the bell was out of commission one day before the death of the lady – as confirmed by the servant.
Then John gets arrested as the murderer because a false beard was found in her cupboard, and a bottle of strychnine was found in his room. In addition, many people realized that the quarrel that ‘Alfred’ had was in fact John quarrelling with her mother. During the trial, Mary Inglethorp rallies to his side and defends him.
Poirot is crestfallen as he does not have the missing link and Hastings by total coincidence alerts him to the vital clue. Then Poirot rushes off and then when he is back, he is with the police.
In a style that we have come to recognize and admire, Poirot gets everyone in the group together and starts unravelling the plot. How he discovered and whom he suspected is all told brilliantly. The plots within the plots within the plots are all fabulously explained. For instance, the hatred of Evelyn to her own brother/ cousin Alfred; Mary’s seemingly open infatuation with Dr Barustein, the burnt will in the fire, the candle splash, how the murder was planned and how it went wrong with one day’s delay, how John was made to go on a fool’s errand to deny him the alibi, why the good-for-nothing Lawrence also had an admirer, my God, this plot is as intricate as it gets and it is absolutely pure enjoyment to read.
Agatha Christie deserves her fame throughout the world as a consummate magician in constructing mysteries that are well built and astonishingly delivered.
8/10
– – Krishna