Favorite Authors in Order

Sunday, October 29, 2017

The Mysterious Affair at Styles

Fiction by Agatha Christie.

The Mysterious Affair at Styles (Hercule Poirot Series)
https://www.barnesandnoble.com

I just read Agatha Christie's autobiography and she said this was her very first shot at a detective novel. It was rejected a few times and then finally published, gaining her a contract to write more books and not much money. She rather describes this book something she just dashed off and forgot about until they agreed to publish it, and sort of characterizes her other novels as books which she'd churn out with a few months' work when she needed a bit of cash.

This did not jibe with the intricately plotted stories I remembered reading, so I thought I'd look at her first book again with all that in mind.

I have to conclude that she was just being self-deprecating, or was in fact an incredible literary genius, or both. This book is still fabulous one hundred years later.




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