Durante la Prima guerra mondiale, un giovane ufficiale inglese ferito al fronte, Arthur Hastings, viene ospitato per la convalescenza da un vecchio amico, John Cavendish. Il soggiorno nella residenza di campagna dei Cavendish nell’Essex, la lussuosa Styles Court, sarà però tutt’altro che tranquillo. La padrona di casa, matrigna di John, ha sposato un uomo di vent’anni più giovane, e i figliastri, scavalcati nell’eredità, sembrano tramare qualcosa. La governante è sicura che prima o poi la situazione possa precipitare e, in breve, la profezia si avvera. La padrona di Styles Court …
Durante la Prima guerra mondiale, un giovane ufficiale inglese ferito al fronte, Arthur Hastings, viene ospitato per la convalescenza da un vecchio amico, John Cavendish. Il soggiorno nella residenza di campagna dei Cavendish nell’Essex, la lussuosa Styles Court, sarà però tutt’altro che tranquillo. La padrona di casa, matrigna di John, ha sposato un uomo di vent’anni più giovane, e i figliastri, scavalcati nell’eredità, sembrano tramare qualcosa. La governante è sicura che prima o poi la situazione possa precipitare e, in breve, la profezia si avvera. La padrona di Styles Court viene avvelenata e i sospetti si concentrano subito sui membri della famiglia. Per loro fortuna, in paese c’è un profugo belga dai grandi baffi, uno che di delitti se ne intende…
Così nel 1920 il mondo scopriva il talento narrativo di Agatha Christie e faceva conoscenza con il suo detective, Hercule Poirot. A cent’anni dalla pubblicazione, Poirot a Styles Court è qui accompagnato da “contenuti speciali”: il testo originale inviato all’editore del capitolo 12 (diverso da quello che sarebbe andato in stampa, come racconta l’introduzione di John Curran) e un curioso articolo della Christie sul suo rapporto con i veleni e sul loro ruolo nelle crime stories.
Hardcover, 187 pages
Italiano language
Published Jan. 1, 2001 by Hachette.
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Subjects
- Mystery
- Hercule Poirot (Fictitious character)
- Private investigators
- English Detective and mystery stories
- Tommy Beresford (Fictitious character)
- Open Library Staff Picks
- Fiction in English
- Fiction
- Belgians
- Tuppence Beresford (Fictitious character)
- Married people
- Classic Literature
- Books on CD
- Detective and mystery stories
- Large type books
- Murder
- Investigation
- War wounds
- Widows
- May-December romances
- Private investigators, fiction
- Fiction, mystery & detective, traditional
- Poirot, hercule (fictitious character), fiction
- England, fiction
- Hastings, arthur, captain (fictitious character), fiction
- Fiction, mystery & detective, general
- Fiction, thrillers, general
Reviews
joelchrono reviewed The Mysterious Affair at Styles by Agatha Christie (Hercule Poirot, #1)
My first novel by Christie, super cool!
4.0 stars
This book was a bit confusing at first with the dozen or so characters that are presented during the beginning chapters. However, I quickly familiarized with them—I still mixed up some of the last names but I knew who was who. It is a simple story in theory: a rich lady with an inheritance, a second husband, two sons and a wife of one, some servants, a doctor, you know the drill.
Honestly, this was very fun to read along someone else, after each chapter we each had our suspects and opinions on the cast, it was as entertaining as the novel itself every time Poirot explained his findings and changed our whole perspective on the events all the way up to the final reveal, which is just amazing.
It is funny and well written, a definite page turner for me, I read the …
This book was a bit confusing at first with the dozen or so characters that are presented during the beginning chapters. However, I quickly familiarized with them—I still mixed up some of the last names but I knew who was who. It is a simple story in theory: a rich lady with an inheritance, a second husband, two sons and a wife of one, some servants, a doctor, you know the drill.
Honestly, this was very fun to read along someone else, after each chapter we each had our suspects and opinions on the cast, it was as entertaining as the novel itself every time Poirot explained his findings and changed our whole perspective on the events all the way up to the final reveal, which is just amazing.
It is funny and well written, a definite page turner for me, I read the last four chapters altogheter because all the revelations and explanations were quite mind-boggling to me—also because isa kept reading ahead, so evil lol.
I recently acquired And Then There Were None, considered to be one of Agatha Christie’s best work, and one of the best selling books of all time, because if this one amazed me, I can’t help but wonder what her best writing would be like. Yes, I have an e-reader but I couldn’t help myself. Good stuff.
I might continue my read of The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes, just to refresh myself and see the way both fictional detectives work, and have some more fun outside of the Science Fiction genre.