The Mysterious Affair at Styles (Christie)

The Mysterious Affair at Styles, by Agatha Christie (1920)

(Not a review, just some notes to help me remember the things I've read. But written this way because it's the Internet, and some people will stumble across this page.)

I will admit that I was looking for a couple of quick, short books to read to pad out my blog by the end of the year. An anthology of Agatha Christie books showed up online, and I thought this would be perfect. A couple of reasons: one, I just read a couple of mysteries by Sue Grafton; and two, I'd read the first book before. (Note: the image above is generic, not from the download.)

Okay, so it's been a long time since high school, and the only things I remembered about the book were Poirot, Hastings and "it wasn't strychnine, was it?" Also, back then, I didn't understand the title -- it didn't make any sense to me because I didn't know in advance that "Styles" refered to Styles Court, the estate were the murder takes place.

I knew I was in trouble when the book was front-loaded with characters whom I knew I'd never keep straight. I had trouble with the last Grafton book because of all the players. It was slow going, particularly since without a daily commute, I was reading primarily in the evening. When I didn't fall asleep, I was drowsy enough that I wasn't remembering what was going on. I think I missed part of the ending (about the third chapter from the end) which left me a little confused. At the same time, I didn't want to go back because I wanted to finish before midnight. That wouldn't happen if I kept going back.

So the question is, will I read more Christie? It is something that I should've done long ago as my wife not only has read them all but has a set of her books. (These actually my be in a relative's basement, but they still exist.) Something to think about.

As mentioned above, this was an ebook.

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