8.97k reviews for:

The Mysterious Affair at Styles

Agatha Christie

3.79 AVERAGE

shelf_reflect10n's review against another edition

4.0

funny mysterious fast-paced

Plot or Character Driven: Plot

Strong character development: No

Loveable characters: Yes

Diverse cast of characters: No

Flaws of characters a main focus: Yes

twisher's review against another edition

4.0

adventurous funny lighthearted mysterious fast-paced

Plot or Character Driven: A mix

Strong character development: Yes

Loveable characters: Yes

Diverse cast of characters: No

Flaws of characters a main focus: Yes

ajmatchi's review against another edition

5.0

adventurous mysterious fast-paced

Plot or Character Driven: Plot

Strong character development: Yes

Loveable characters: Yes

Diverse cast of characters: Yes

Flaws of characters a main focus: Yes

ash_thelibrarian_reads's review against another edition

3.0

adventurous funny informative mysterious tense medium-paced

Plot or Character Driven: A mix

Strong character development: Yes

Loveable characters: Complicated

Diverse cast of characters: No

Flaws of characters a main focus: Yes

gertrudis's review against another edition

4.0

mysterious fast-paced

Plot or Character Driven: Plot

general_kenobi's review against another edition

3.5

dark mysterious slow-paced

Plot or Character Driven: Plot

Strong character development: N/A

Diverse cast of characters: No

Flaws of characters a main focus: Yes

harleydeans's review against another edition

4.0

mysterious fast-paced

Plot or Character Driven: Plot

Strong character development: Yes

Loveable characters: Yes

Diverse cast of characters: Yes

Flaws of characters a main focus: Yes

sarabl3's review against another edition

4.0

funny mysterious medium-paced

Plot or Character Driven: Plot

Diverse cast of characters: No

jcbkr's review against another edition

5.0

adventurous lighthearted mysterious medium-paced

Plot or Character Driven: A mix

Strong character development: Complicated

Loveable characters: Complicated

Diverse cast of characters: No

Flaws of characters a main focus: No

phillip_mk's review against another edition

2.0

---

The sort version is that this is basically a Sherlock Holmes story, except all the characters are thoroughly unlikeable, especially the main/narrator. Hastings is an arrogant idiot, Hercule is a plot device, and all the rest are spoiled gross rich fops who you kind of hope all get hanged wether they committed the crime or not.

The story works fine as long as you accept that no one in the story is behaving like a real person and you don’t think about any of it too hard. The character who is supposed to be solving the crime spends the whole time supplying red herrings for the reader, which is so heavy handed it knocks you right out of the story and assume everything he is saying is a literary device.

Really not sure why these books get so much acclaim, they are fine for a casual read but are by no means brilliant storytelling. It’s possible that they just haven’t aged well (the anti-Semitic, racist, and classist undertones certainly haven’t).