The Mysterious Affair at Styles
- 186
- Pages
- about 3.5 h
- Reading time
- TV film 1989
- On screen
Affiliate link: buying through it supports BookRank at no extra cost to you.
Our view
Agatha Christie’s first novel is also Hercule Poirot’s first case, and it already shows what she would become known for. It offers a tidy murder puzzle, a detective worth watching and an easy, cosy pace. Some readers do not count it among her best. Short and thoroughly enjoyable, it is a natural place to start for anyone curious about how Poirot began.
The view of the BookRank editors, written from readers’ ratings and comments. It does not affect the score or the book’s place in a ranking.
About the book
The Mysterious Affair at Styles is the first mystery novel by British writer Agatha Christie, introducing her fictional detective Hercule Poirot. It was written in the middle of the First World War, in 1916, and first published by John Lane in the United States in October 1920 and in the United Kingdom by The Bodley Head on 21 January 1921.
Reading order · canon of Hercule Poirot
Full order & progress →
On screen
This book has been adapted for the screen once.
- TV filmThe Mysterious Affair at StylesIMDb
Adaptation data: Wikidata · On screen →
Where the score comes from
The sources average 7.6 across 1,058 ratings. With that many, the reader vote carries 88% of the weight and the score stays at 7.6 — the Classics average of 7.7 barely moves it.
| Source | Average | Ratings | Weight |
|---|---|---|---|
| Open Library | 8.0 | 88 | 8% |
| Hardcover | 7.6 | 970 | 92% |
Frequently asked
How long is The Mysterious Affair at Styles?
It has 186 pages — shorter than 99% of the ranked books in Classics.
In this book
Themes this book shares with others — each leads to the best books on it.
If you liked this
Same shelf — Classics — with scores between 7.6 and 7.7, closest to this book.
