The Mysterious Affair at Styles
by Agatha Christie
Contents
| CHAPTER I. | I GO TO STYLES |
| CHAPTER II. | THE 16TH AND 17TH OF JULY |
| CHAPTER III. | THE NIGHT OF THE TRAGEDY |
| CHAPTER IV. | POIROT INVESTIGATES |
| CHAPTER V. | “IT ISN’T STRYCHNINE, IS IT?” |
| CHAPTER VI. | THE INQUEST |
| CHAPTER VII. | POIROT PAYS HIS DEBTS |
| CHAPTER VIII. | FRESH SUSPICIONS |
| CHAPTER IX. | DR. BAUERSTEIN |
| CHAPTER X. | THE ARREST |
| CHAPTER XI. | THE CASE FOR THE PROSECUTION |
| CHAPTER XII. | THE LAST LINK |
| CHAPTER XIII. | POIROT EXPLAINS |
CHAPTER I.
I GO TO STYLES
The intense interest aroused in the public by what was known at the time as“The Styles Case” has now somewhat subsided. Nevertheless, in viewof the world-wide notoriety which attended it, I have been asked, both by myfriend Poirot and the family themselves, to write an account of the wholestory. This, we trust, will effectually silence the sensational rumours whichstill persist.
I will therefore briefly set down the circumstances which led to my beingconnected with the affair.
I had been invalided home from the Front; and, after spending some months in arather depressing Convalescent Home, was given a month’s sick leave.Having no near relations or friends, I was trying to make up my mind what todo, when I ran across John Cavendish. I had seen very little of him for someyears. Indeed, I had never known him particularly well. He was a good fifteenyears my senior, for one thing, though he hardly looked his forty-five years.As a boy, though, I had often stayed at Styles, his mother’s place inEssex.
We had a good yarn about old times, and it ended in his inviting me down toStyles to spend my leave there.
“The mater will be delighted to see you again—after all thoseyears,” he added.
“Your mother keeps well?” I asked.
“Oh, yes. I suppose you know that she has married again?”
I am afraid I showed my surprise rather plainly. Mrs. Cavendish, who hadmarried John’s father when he was a widower with two sons, had been ahandsome woman of middle-age as I remembered her. She certainly could not be aday less than seventy now. I recalled her as an energetic, autocraticpersonality, somewhat inclined to charitable and social notoriety, with afondness for opening bazaars and playing the Lady Bountiful. She was a mostgenerous woman, and possessed a considerable fortune of her own.
Their country-place, Styles Court, had been purchased by Mr. Cavendish early intheir married life. He h