Tag: murder mystery

Audiobook Review: The Mysterious Affair at Styles by Agatha Christie

M.T.Wilson @ The Last Book on the LeftLeave a comment

The Mysterious Affair at Styles by Agatha Christie

Genre: Mystery  

Publishing Info: Audiobook by Harper Collins, narrated by Hugh Fraser

Star Rating: 5/5

Back Cover Summary:

A refugee of the Great War, Poirot is settling in England near Styles Court, the country estate of his wealthy benefactor, the elderly Emily Inglethorp. When Emily is poisoned and the authorities are baffled, Poirot puts his prodigious sleuthing skills to work. Suspects are plentiful, including the victim’s much younger husband, her resentful stepsons, her longtime hired companion, a young family friend working as a nurse, and a London specialist on poisons who just happens to be visiting the nearby village.

All of them have secrets they are desperate to keep, but none can outwit Poirot as he navigates the ingenious red herrings and plot twists that earned Agatha Christie her well-deserved reputation as the queen of mystery.

There is just something about Agatha Christie’s stories which always manage to keep me hooked from beginning to end, and The Mysterious Affair at Styles did this superbly. I have previously read four of Christie’s novels – a rather random selection. This time, I decided to go back to the very beginning and see where it all started. The Mysterious Affair at Styles is both Christie’s first published novel and the first Poirot book. This, it turns out, was an excellent choice.

Although it is possible to dip in and out of Christie’s books, I’m very glad I chose to read the first, as it provided a good introduction to the characters of Poirot and Hastings. Hastings appears in several, though not all, of the Poirot novels. The dynamic of the pair is very much reminiscent of Holmes and Watson and, much like in the Sherlock Holmes stories, we see the mystery from the perspective of Hastings, the Watson of the duo.  

The mystery to be solved in this Poirot instalment is a classic Christie, with a country house, questions over inheritance and, of course, poisoning. I was engaged throughout and sped through the book as I was totally hooked and desperate to find out the solution to the mystery. There were so many twists and turns in the investigation, and the big reveal was a fantastic conclusion.

I listened to the audiobook edition narrated by Hugh Fraser, who was a very good narrator and made it an enjoyable listen.

Overall, this was a brilliant mystery and I am very glad I decided to return to the beginning of the Poirot series. I’ll definitely be reading more!

Book Review: The Hollow by Agatha Christie

M.T.Wilson @ The Last Book on the Left2 Comments

2da87b54f6f4af60e4d249408b40948d-agatha-christieThe Hollow by Agatha Christie

Genre: Detective Fiction

Publishing Info: from the Agatha Christie Collection, Planet Three Publishing (first published 1946)

Pages: 252

Star Rating: 4/5

Back Cover Summary:

When socialite Lucy Angkatell organises a weekend’s entertainment at her English country house, The Hollow, it seems she has thought of everything: the capable butler, the requisite number of kitchen maids – in fact, the only thing she seems to have overlooked is the fact that most of her guests hate each other.

A far-from-warm welcome greets Hercule Poirot as he arrives for lunch. Instead, a man lies dying by the swimming pool, as a gun sinks slowly to the bottom..

Having only read one other Agatha Christie novel – The Murder of Roger Ackroyd – I have little to compare The Hollow to. While The Murder of Roger Ackroyd was written in a first person unreliable narrator style with a focus on the solving of the crime, The Hollow has quite a different focus. The murder – and Poirot – do not appear until a third of the way through the book, with the earlier chapters exploring the characters who will fall under suspicion.

Set in a country house with a host of guests, I was expecting a formulaic mystery. What I got was an exploration into the impact of murder on a group of people. Poirot features very little in the book. The focus is very much on the guests of the weekend country get away, their relationships with each other, and their reactions to murder. Since Christie spent time letting the reader get to know the characters, I cared more about them when murder came into the equation. Having more understanding of the victim and suspects’ characters meant I felt more engaged with the story.

Despite the focus on character, rather than mystery solving, I was still glued to the pages, eager to reach the end and find the solution to the murder. Satisfyingly, it wasn’t a predictable ending, and I hadn’t worked out the ‘whodunit’.

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