The Mysterious Affair at Styles

Here it all starts then. Poirot 1.

It's the classic detective story to start us off, in so many ways.

A manor house. Poison. Detective. Clues and red herrings. A mysterious will. Gathering everybody to go over the facts. A satisfying solution.

Styles proposes many of the elements of what would become the platonic ideal of a murder mystery, but on top of that I really enjoyed the introduction of Hercule Poirot, the context of the Belgian refugees of the first world war, and what would become very common in Christie novels of a romance between the characters.

In short, it was very readable and fun, a great start to the series.