I've been on a bit of a mystery bender lately. It started with "The Big Sleep" by Raymond Chandler and continued through his "Farewell My Lovely", "The High Window" and "The Lady in the Lake." I planned on continuing to read the rest of Raymond Chandler's Philip Marlowe books, but then a curious thing happened. I am a huge Doctor Who fan and was watching the season 4 episode "The Wasp and the Unicorn" and became enamored with the Agatha Christie character and her mysterious disappearance after she found out about her husbands affair. My mother and grand mother had read every one of her books that they could get their hands on, so I was familiar with her work. I however, always thought of her work as simple and not up to the high standards I have come to expect from authors like Tolkien, Jordan, Brooks, Weis & Hickman, Asimov and Bradbury to name a few.
On a whim, I downloaded "The Mysterious Affair at Styles" for my Kindle and started to reading it. I have to admit that I was entirely wrong about her writing. She had me hooked from the first paragraph of the first chapter. Her writing style reminded me a lot of Sir Arthur Conan Doyle's. Her Poirot had his Hastings as Holmes had his Watson. Her settings were precise and meticulously described. Clues were left in the open for all to grasp but I have to admit she did toy with me by having Hastings and others poo poo them and throw me off the track. So much so that when the final solutions was presented, I was able to recall just where in the story the author had presented them. This was her first novel and it reads like she had been writing novels for many years.
Overall I would highly recommend it.
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