The Mysterious Affair at Styles

By: Agatha Christie

Narrated by: David Thorn

Length: 6 hrs and 25 mins

Publisher's summary

Mrs. Christie introduces us for the first time to Hercule Poirot, as he solves the mysterious demise of Mrs. Alfred Inglethorpe at her country estate, Styles Court. Many suspects come under his scrutiny but it is his genius to unravel all the intricacies and end up solving the crime with a very surprising ending.

Table of Contents:

Chapter 01: I Go to Styles

Chapter 02: The 16th and 17th of July

Chapter 03: The Night of the Tragedy

Chapter 04: Poirot Investigates

Chapter 05: "It Isn't Strychnine, Is It?"

Chapter 06: The Inquest

Chapter 07: Poirot Pays His Debts

Chapter 08: Fresh Suspicions

Chapter 09: Dr. Bauerstein

Chapter 10: The Arrest

Chapter 11: The Case For the Prosecution

Chapter 12: The Last Link

Chapter 13: Poirot Explains

Agatha Christie

Agatha Mary Clarissa Christie (1890 –1976) was a British author, poet and playwright famed for her crime and detective fiction. The creator of Miss Marple and Hercule Poirot is the best-selling author of all time.

A prolific writer, Christie grew up in a privileged background, and was home schooled. A voracious reader, Christie first took up writing as a hobby and then made it her life's work when the pieces she published garnered attention.

Public Domain (P)2007 Alcazar AudioWorks

Critic reviews

" The Mysterious Affair at Styles introduced the world to two lasting heroes: new author Agatha Christie, and her sleuthing protagonist, Hercule Poirot....Christie ushered in the "Golden Age" of crime novels, and continues to mystify - and delight - her many faithful readers." ( The New York Public Library's Books of the Century)

David Thorn is captivating as Hurcules Poirot

I Loved it!, I hope to find more books with David Thorn reading Hurcules Poirot!!

It's agatha Christie style so its always good.

it's good, but very obvious that is before she hit her stride. first of the hercule poirot series.

Pretty good overall.

The storyline was excellent. The narrator did a good job with everyone's voice except Poirot's. Since he was the main character it caused me some listening issues. His Poirot voice was at times garbled and hard to understand.

Agatha Chrisie's Hercule Poirot Debut

I have always enjoyed Agatha Christie's Miss Marple and Hercule Poirot, but have never read/heard one of their debuts, until now. Poirot first appears in "The Mysterious Affair at Styles" (published in 1920), which took place in a British country manor, Styles Court. A wealthy old mistress, Mrs. Inglethorpe, was poisoned to death, and anyone, including her newly-married 'younger' husband, her stepsons, her daughter-in-law, the young protegee, and the mysterious doctor, could be the murderer; and I found the many twists and turns of the story kept me guessing WHO KILLED MRS. INGLETHORPE until the end.

Hercule Poirot is one of Christie's most famous and long-lived characters, appearing in 33 novels, one play (Black Coffee), and more than 50 short stories published between 1920 and 1975.

In this debut novel Captain Arthur Hastings' (a secondary character) first description of Poirot is as follows:
He was hardly more than five feet four inches but carried himself with great dignity. His head was exactly the shape of an egg, and he always perched it a little on one side. His moustache was very stiff and military. The neatness of his attire was almost incredible; I believe a speck of dust would have caused him more pain than a bullet wound. Yet this quaint dandified little man had been, in his time, one of the most celebrated members of the Belgian police.

Through David Thorn's superb performance each character and scene is easily visualized. His ability to change his voice for so may characters is amazing.

It's a non-violent (according to today's murder mysteries) light read, and a nice change of pace. The 6 hours and 26 min. was just the right amount of time for me; each minute full of intrigue.

I recommend it to anyone who wants an entertaining break from their usual genre.

Worst French accent I've heard.

Would you say that listening to this book was time well-spent? Why or why not?

Story seems great, all of the voices and accents are great but Poirot is impossible to listen to. I've taken 7 years of French, 2 years by a French person and yet many times I had no idea what word Poirot was saying. So overdone, I can hardly continue listening.

What didn’t you like about David Thorn’s performance?

Only the French accent. Everything else was great.

enjoyed the book.

another good Agata christie book. enjoyed it. will look forward to an other one . good read

Great start to a series

An excellent introduction to the Poirot series. Performance and story were both wonderful and enjoyed very much.

Poirot is always enjoyable

Since this is the first Poirot mystery I felt compelled to get it. The story, plot and characters are not quite as compelling as others however this may be due to the narrators baffling attempt at a Belgian accent. No one is John Moffitt but this was a distraction from the story. Next time I'll listen to a sample prior to purchase.

Difficult accents

I am a huge fan of Agatha Christie and this is one of her best stories! However this audio version introduces numerous difficult accents for the main characters—I’ve had to re-listen to entire chapters to understand the thick difficult accents used. I find it very frustrating.

Performance would be excellent except...

The actors thick accent when voicing Hercule Poirot can sometimes be difficult to understand. I found a few instances where I was required to re-listen to a passage in order to make sure I understood properly. Otherwise it was an excellent story and good performance.