Mysterious affair at styles by Agatha Christie – book review

I am fascinated by origin stories of famous personalities. Like how their first attempts at fame would’ve been received on their area of expertise. Especially for novelists I am always curious as to how the first novel was received, how much they’ve changed their style over the years and their first success story, how different or unique it was for that time etc. I am hell bent on reading all of Agatha christie’s Poirot novels at the least and wanted to read her first novel for long. Happened to get a copy recently and needless to say, the master has been shining bright right from her debut. The more I read her novels, the more fascinating it becomes especially considering the timing of those books. How she could’ve made herself so versatile? How she could’ve got so many references? I read that she was much married and travelled a lot. But still her grasp of poisons, laws, human psyche, criminal procedures have all been absolutely riveting. All the more curious has been her brilliant creative mind in making a story of all those points. It is one thing to be observant, one thing to remember everything and even make a logical pattern out of those interesting things but a totally different skill to weave a spellbindingly interesting tale, with so many twists and turns, deceiving the readers at every turn, throwing so many clues that most of them cancel each other but for the real ones that matters and finally the grand reveal which will make the readers kick themselves for missing out on the obvious. Of course there is a character than runs along the storyline with Poirot as a mock representative for the readers, as much as mocking as representation. The level of detailing which she brings out on her novels and the devious mind behind all those twists are nothing short of magic. In this novel, even though its her very first one with Poirot, she is right at her best. The way she sets up the villain and all those cunning twists in the open, it makes an amazing read. Like Poirot and Hastings, you can sense the missing link all throughout and when the reveal is made it is nothing short of a “wow”!! I wouldn’t rate this higher than “Murder at Orient express” but for a first novel it is amazing that she reached her peak right from the moment go!! A must read for thriller genre fans!