Project Gutenberg's The Mysterious Affair at Styles, by Agatha ChristieThis eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and withalmost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away orre-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included
with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.orgTitle: The Mysterious Affair at StylesAuthor: Agatha ChristieRelease Date: July 27, 2008 [EBook #863]
Last Updated: January 26, 2013
Language: English
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*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE MYSTERIOUS AFFAIR AT STYLES ***Produced by Charles Keller
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 view of the world-wide notoriety which attended it, I have been asked, both by my friend Poirot and the family themselves, to write an account of the whole story. This, we trust, will effectually silence the sensational rumours which still persist.
I will therefore briefly set down the circumstances which led to my being connected with the affair.
I had been invalided home from the Front; and, after spending some months in a rather 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 to do, when I ran across John Cavendish. I had seen very little of him for some years. Indeed, I had never known him particularly well. He was a good fifteen years 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 in Essex.
We had a good yarn about old times, and it ended in his inviting me down to Styles to spend my leave there.
"The mater will be delighted to see you again—after all those years," 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 had married John's father when he was a widower with two sons, had been a handsome woman of middle-age as I remembered her. She certainly could not be a day less than seventy now. I recalled her as an energetic, autocratic personality, somewhat inclined to charitable and social notoriety, with a fondness for opening bazaars and playing the Lady Bountiful. She was a most generous woman, and possessed a considerable fortune of her own.
