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Styles: the Mysterious Affair at Styles and Curtain: Poirots Last Case Free FREE STYLES: THE MYSTERIOUS AFFAIR AT STYLES AND CURTAIN: POIROTS LAST CASE PDF Agatha Christie,Tom Adams | 556 pages | 21 Sep 2016 | HarperCollins Publishers | 9780008168315 | English | London, United Kingdom Curtain (novel) - Wikipedia Styles was Christie's first published novel. His friend Hastings arrives as a guest at her home. When the woman is killed, Poirot uses his detective skills to solve the mystery. The book includes maps of the house, the murder Styles: The Mysterious Affair at Styles and Curtain: Poirots Last Case, and a drawing of a fragment of a will. The true first publication of the novel was as a weekly serial in The Timesincluding the maps of the house and other illustrations included in the book. This novel was one of the first ten books published by Penguin Books when it began in This first mystery novel by Agatha Christie was well received by reviewers. An analysis in was positive about the plot, considered the novel one of the few by Christie that is well-anchored in time and place, a story that knows it describes the end of an era, and mentions that the plot is clever. Christie had not mastered cleverness in her first novel, as "too many clues tend to cancel each other out"; this was judged a difficulty "which Conan Doyle never satisfactorily overcame, but which Christie would. The manuscript was rejected by Hodder and Stoughton and Methuen. Christie then submitted the manuscript to The Bodley Head. After keeping the submission for several months, The Bodley Head's founder, John Lane offered to accept it, provided that Christie make slight changes to the ending. She revised the next-to-last chapter, changing the scene of Poirot's grand revelation from a courtroom to the Styles library. On the morning of 18 July, at Styles Court, an Essex country manor, its household wake to the discovery that the owner, elderly Emily Inglethorp, has died. She had been poisoned with strychnine. Arthur Hastings, a soldier from the Western Front staying there as a guest on his sick leave, ventures out to the nearby village of Styles St. Mary, to enlist help from his friend staying there - Hercule Poirot. Poirot learns that Emily was a woman of wealth - upon the death of her previous husband, Mr. Cavendish, she inherited from him both the manor and a large portion of his income. Her household includes: her husband Alfred Inglethorp, a younger man she recently married; her stepsons from her first husband's previous marriage John and Lawrence Cavendish; John's wife Mary Cavendish; Cynthia Murdoch, the daughter of a deceased friend of the family; and Evelyn Howard, Emily's companion. Poirot learns that per Emily's will, John is the vested remainderman of the manor - he inherits the property from her, per his father's will. However, the money she inherited would be distributed according to her own will, which she changed at least once per year; her most recent will favours Alfred, who will inherit her fortune. She had been quite distressed after this, and apparently made a new will - no one can find any evidence that it exists. Alfred left the manor early that evening, and stayed overnight in the village. Meanwhile, Emily ate little at dinner and retired early to her room, taking her document case with her; when her body was found, the case had been forced open. Nobody can explain how or when the poison was administered to her. Inspector Japp, the investigating officer, considers Alfred to be the prime suspect, as he gains the most from his wife's death. The Cavendishes suspect him to be a fortune hunter, as he was much younger than Emily. Poirot notes his behaviour is suspicious during the investigation - he refuses to provide an alibiand openly denies purchasing the strychnine in the village, despite evidence to the contrary. Although Japp is keen to arrest him, Poirot intervenes by proving he couldn't have purchased the poison; the signature for the purchase is not in his handwriting. Suspicion now falls on John - he is the next to gain from Emily's will, and has no alibi for the murder. Japp soon arrests him - the signature for the poison is in his handwriting; a phial that contained the poison is found in his room; a beard and a pair of pince-nez identical Styles: The Mysterious Affair at Styles and Curtain: Poirots Last Case Alfred's, are found within the manor. Poirot soon exonerates John of the crime. He reveals that the murder was committed by Alfred Inglethorp, with aid from his cousin Evelyn Howard. The pair pretended to be enemies, but were romantically involved. They added bromide to Emily's regular evening medicine, obtained from her sleeping powder, which made the final dose lethal. The pair then left false evidence that would incriminate Alfred, which they knew would be refuted at his trial; once acquitted, he could not be tried for the crime again if genuine evidence against him was found, per the law of double jeopardy. John was framed by the pair as part of their plan; his handwriting was forged by Evelyn, and the evidence against him was fabricated. Poirot reveals that when Styles: The Mysterious Affair at Styles and Curtain: Poirots Last Case realised that Alfred wanted to be arrested, he prevented Japp from doing so Styles: The Mysterious Affair at Styles and Curtain: Poirots Last Case he could discover why. He also reveals that he found a Styles: The Mysterious Affair at Styles and Curtain: Poirots Last Case in Emily's room, thanks to a chance remark by Hastings, that detailed Alfred's intentions for his wife. Emily's distress on the afternoon of the murder was because she had found it in his desk while searching for stamps. Her case was forced open by Alfred as he had discovered she had taken the letter and needed to recover it from the case. He then hid it in the room to avoid being found with it. Christie's mother, Styles: The Mysterious Affair at Styles and Curtain: Poirots Last Case "Clara" Boehmer Miller —was a strong influence on her life and someone to whom Christie was extremely close, especially after the death of her father in It was while Christie was ill circa that her mother suggested she write a story. The result was The House of Beautynow a lost work which hesitantly started her writing career. Christie also dedicated her debut novel as Mary Westmacott, Giant's Breadto her mother who, by that time, had died. The Times Literary Supplement 3 February gave the book an Styles: The Mysterious Affair at Styles and Curtain: Poirots Last Case, if short, review, which stated: "The only fault this story has is that it is almost too ingenious. Every reader must admit that the bet was won. Though this may be the first published book of Miss Agatha Christie, she betrays the cunning of an old hand You must wait for the last-but-one chapter in the book for the last link in the chain of evidence that enabled Mr. Poirot to unravel the whole complicated plot and lay the guilt where it really belonged. And you may safely make a wager with yourself that until you have heard M. Poirot's final word on the mysterious affair at Styles, you will be kept guessing at its solution and will most certainly never lay down this most entertaining book. The novel's review in The Sunday Times of 20 Februaryquoted the publisher's promotional blurb concerning Christie writing the book as the result of a bet that she would not be able to do so without the reader being able to guess the murderer, then said, "Personally we did not find the "spotting" so very difficult, but we are free to admit that the story is, especially for a first adventure in fiction, very well contrived, and that the solution of the mystery is the result of logical deduction. The story, moreover, has no lack of movement, and the several characters are well drawn. The contributor who wrote his column under the pseudonym of "A Man of Kent" in the 10 February issue of the Christian newspaper The British Weekly praised the novel but was overly generous in giving away the identity of the murderers. To wit. It will rejoice the heart of all who truly relish detective stories, from Mr. McKenna downwards. I have heard that this is Miss Christie's first book, and that she wrote it in response to a challenge. If so, the feat was amazing, for the book is put together so deftly that I can remember no recent book of the kind, which approaches it in merit. It is well written, well proportioned, and full of surprises. When does the reader first suspect the murderer? For my part, I made up my mind from the beginning that the middle-aged husband of the old lady was in every way qualified to murder her, and I refused to surrender this conviction when suspicion of him is scattered for a moment. But I was not in the least degree prepared to find that his accomplice was the woman who pretended to be a friend. I ought to say, however, that an expert in detective stories with whom I discussed it, said he was convinced from the beginning that the true culprit was the woman whom the victim in her lifetime believed to be her staunchest friend. I hope I have not revealed too much of the plot. Lovers of good detective stories will, without exception, rejoice in this book.
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