A complex first novel from Dame Agatha featuring the debut of Hercule Poirot, Belgian war refugee who is very grateful to the British people. When Emily Ingelthorp is murdered in a locked room at her country estate in Styles, house guest Hastings knows the perfect detective to help with the case. The cast of characters is large and a bit underdeveloped, but it is fun watching Christie launch Monsieur Poirot with all his tics and his “little gray cells.” And who cares if there’s no way the reader could have figured out the murder?