The Mysterious Affair at Styles is the first of over 60 detective mystery novels written by Agatha Christie. A classic whodunit, this novel hails from the golden age of detective fiction, a period of literary history that occurred between the first and second world wars. Published in 1920, The Mysterious Affair at Styles is also Christie’s first of over 30 novels that specifically feature the main protagonist, Hercule Poirot. Christie’s Poirot novels are some of the most famous examples of this genre.
The origins of detective mystery fiction may be traced to Edgar Allan Poe’s 1841 short story “The Murders in the Rue-Morgue”, and his character C. Auguste Dupin, who repeatedly appeared in subsequent Poe stories. Dupin’s amateur detective sleuthing became the model upon which all future classic fictional detectives were based. One of the most notable fictional detectives of all time may be found in the iconic stories of Sir Arthur Conan Doyle: Sherlock Holmes. Christie herself includes references to Sherlock Holmes in her novels, as a nod to the origins of her genre, including in the very first chapter of The Mysterious Affair at Styles. Detective mysteries are defined by their complex puzzles, which the reader and the detective race to solve together. Other aspects of stories belonging to this genre include the presence of a large number of clues (often including red herrings), a focus on middle-class characters, and the solving and explanation of the case in a grand reveal by the end of the tale.
