I think every bookworm who loves crime fiction would have a favorite fictional detective. One of my favorites is Hercule Poirot. I think the works featuring him are some of Agatha Christie’s best. But Christie also has given the world some other wonderful detectives. Miss Jane Marple is another. This book is the first Miss Marple mystery.
Parson Clement, vicar of St Mary Mead remarks that anyone who murders Colonel Protheroe would be doing the world at large a favor. As the story moves on, we find that Protheroe’s is such a character. But when the Colonel is found shot dead in the vicar’s study, those very words of the vicar come back to haunt him. But there’s a little detective in each of St Mary Mead’s residents, and one of its residents is Miss Marple. She seems to think at least seven people at the village would have reason to kill the Colonel. This gives Melchett, the chief constable, and the Vicar, who aids Melchett’s investigation a headache. Who’s the killer?
The plot of the novel is such that it keeps the reader guessing. I usually try to analyze the clues and go along with the flow of the novel too. Though I knew the perpetrators of some other small events that happen in the novel, I couldn’t quite tell who the murderer was. I think it made sense at the end. The book is definitely a page-turner, and I felt it was an engaging read. I finished reading it in a day or so. I like Miss Marple’s character, but I don’t think we see enough of her in the novel. It’s the Vicar who is more prominent. I loved the Vicar’s character, and his banter with Griselda, his wife. The motive for the crime is quite justified too, and how the murderer goes to some lengths to make sure the police are on the wrong foot.
All in all, I feel that this is a book that I’d read again. It has the excitement that Christie weaves in crime fiction usually.
| Book Details | |
|---|---|
| Title: The Mysterious Affair at Styles | Series: Marple #1 |
| Author(s): Agatha Christie | Genre: Crime Fiction |
| ISBN/ASIN: 9780007120857 | Publisher: Harper Collins |
No payment was taken for this review. The views expressed here are mine, and they remain uninfluenced and unbiased.
(© Vinay Leo R. @ A Bookworm’s Musing
28th June 2017)
