The Mysterious Affair at Styles (1921) was the first novel published by English author Agatha Christie, who is widely considered to be the queen of detective fiction. As well as introducing Hercule Poirot, the Belgian detective persuaded out of retirement, the novel also introduces Inspector Japp and Poirot's friend Arthur Hastings. Poirot was inspired by the Belgian soldiers whom Christie encountered while working as a nurse in World War I, and also by the Belgian refugees she met while living in Torquay, a fishing town on the southeast coast of England.
Christie's debut was well-received by the public at the time, and has continued to be one of Christie's most popular novels, even considered to be one of her best, because the plot is the most congruent with its historical setting and geographical location. Some critics accuse the novel of being almost too clever, and claim the plot was difficult for some readers to follow. The novel is also recognized as one of the best detective novels ever written because it ticks all the boxes of a classic whodunnit: the suspects are all brought together in the same house due to coincidence and circumstances; the mystery takes place in a spooky sprawling manor house; each of the characters is shady and secretive and clearly a viable candidate for the murderer. There are plot twists, surprises, and so many false leads given to the reader that it is never really obvious who committed the crime.
Christie herself was well aware that this novel both began, and cemented, her literary career; she even named her own home "Styles" after the isolated old house in the book. Poirot's detective career also begins and ends at Styles Manor; just as he solves his first case there, it is also the setting for his last.
The book has been adapted for television several times, most notably for the Poirot series that ran on England's Independent Television Network, starring David Suchet as perhaps the most faithful portrayal of the Belgian detective on the screen. The episode was made in celebration of what would have been Agatha Christie's one-hundredth birthday; after the dramatic serialization, the cast came together for a question and answer session and tribute to the author, during which, in true Christie style, a large studio light fell from the ceiling and only narrowly missed hitting Suchet, and other members of the cast.
Although not made a Dame by the Queen until well into her sixties, Christie married into the aristocracy and became Lady Mallowan after her wedding. She published sixty six-detective novels, primarily featuring her two unlikely detectives, retired Belgian Detective Hercule Poirot, and neighborhood busybody Miss Jane Marple. She is considered to be both the mother of the Golden Age of Detective Fiction and also a founding contributor to it. Her initial attempts at writing were unsuccessful, but after a period of time spent working in a pharmacy at University College Hospital in London, she put her new-found knowledge of poisons and medicines to good use, and featured these as the murder weapons in her novels, giving the novels a sense of realism by including actual pharmacology. With global sales of over two billion, Christie is the best-selling novelist of all time, and also the most widely translated—her novels have been published in one hundred and three languages.
