Full Review on: FLIPPING THROUGH THE PAGES

This is the first book of the mystery queen, Agatha Christie. It was written in the 1920s. The most famous detective of Agatha Christie is Hercule Poirot and this book is the first to feature him and his friend Hastings. I don’t know yet if any other character would appear in the next books or not, but let’s see.

I never thought that I would love Poirot right away, from his first appearance? He was definitely charming and witty. Poirot was an eccentric detective from Belgium and fled to England during WWI. I really liked his friendship with Hastings, who was opposite than him in nature. Hastings was a little on the dramatic side. He always tried to prove to Poirot that he can solve the case but he always jumped to the conclusions and never actually caught the hint that Poirot gave him. Poirot made fun of Hastings for this and those scenes were really funny. We get to see that funny side of Poirot apart from being an intelligent detective. Poirot is annoying and sometimes painful, but I guess that’s his best charm 🙂

I don’t read much murder-mysteries but I was surprised how much I really liked it. The mystery built by Agatha Christie was really great. It kept me hooked from the first page to the last. This novel has everything a good mystery novel should have. Colonel Hasting is the narrator of the story and I think Agatha Christie used this to benefit. By making Hastings the narrator of the story and not Poirot, w don’t get to see inside the Poirot’s head and thus the mystery was still mysterious 😀

The build-up of the novel is very slow. It will introduce you to each character one by one and will tell you their relationship with the murdered woman. At each point, you will get many clues and your mind will keep racing. At each clue, I guessed a wrong criminal. And well, that makes a good mystery, isn’t it?

This novel had been written almost 100 years back and yet I can say that it stood the test of the time. I can say that it is remarkably updated considering the time period it was written. There is some usage of old language but it fits perfectly with the current world and it would not divert you from enjoying the story itself.

There are too many characters in the story and it often made it hard for me to remember all of them. That’s the only thing that disturbed me and I gave one less star. Also, there was so much information in the beginning, probably in starting 100 pages. You can find yourself suspecting each of the characters, excepts the servants. This definitely makes it a bit puzzled.

The Mysterious Affairs at Styles by Agatha Christie is a murder mystery with all the perfect ingredients. If you haven’t read any Agatha Christie book, then I would suggest starting with this one. This will keep you hooked and will keep you guessing until the end. I can’t wait to pick up more of Christie’s work.

Blog | Facebook | Twitter | Instagram | Pinterest | Google+ | Amazon