The Mysterious Affair at Styles: A Collector’s Edition Featuring Original Illustrations and Agatha Christie's Biography. The First Hercule Poirot Mystery.

by Agatha Christie, Angelo Zammit (Illustrator)

The Mysterious Affair at Styles announced the arrival of one of the most enduring talents in modern fiction. In this debut novel, Agatha Christie introduced Hercule Poirot and quietly reshaped the detective story into a precise, psychological form that would guide the genre for generations.

The story unfolds at Styles Court, a secluded country house whose calm routines are shattered by a sudden death in the night. Within its orderly rooms lies a web of quiet resentments, concealed motives, and carefully guarded secrets.

As suspicion shifts among family members and guests, Poirot applies his method of exact observation and psychological insight, revealing how the smallest details can carry devastating weight. The mystery advances not through spectacle, but through logic, patience, and the gradual tightening of truth. The narrative unfolds with measured tension and intellectual rigor. Its power lies in structure, restraint, and respect for the reader’s intelligence—qualities that would come to define Christie’s extraordinary body of work.

This edition
More than ten original black-and-white illustrations, commissioned exclusively for this volume and executed in a period-appropriate style that reflects the novel’s early twentieth-century origins
A newly written biography of Agatha Christie, offering insight into her early life, creative discipline, and the circumstances that shaped her first published mystery
Careful attention to typography, layout, and print quality, suitable for a high-quality hardcover intended to endure
Produced as an heirloom-worthy volume, this edition stands apart as a lasting tribute to the birth of a genre—and to readers who appreciate detective fiction in its most disciplined and enduring form.

Kindle Edition

Published February 6, 2026

About the author

Agatha Christie also wrote romance novels under the pseudonym Mary Westmacott, and was occasionally published under the name Agatha Christie Mallowan.

Dame Agatha Mary Clarissa Christie, Lady Mallowan, DBE (née Miller) was an English writer known for her 66 detective novels and 14 short story collections, particularly those revolving around fictional detectives Hercule Poirot and Miss Marple. She also wrote the world's longest-running play, the murder mystery The Mousetrap, which has been performed in the West End of London since 1952. A writer during the "Golden Age of Detective Fiction", Christie has been called the "Queen of Crime". She also wrote six novels under the pseudonym Mary Westmacott. In 1971, she was made a Dame (DBE) by Queen Elizabeth II for her contributions to literature. Guinness World Records lists Christie as the best-selling fiction writer of all time, her novels having sold more than two billion copies.

This best-selling author of all time wrote 66 crime novels and story collections, fourteen plays, and six novels under a pseudonym in romance. Her books sold more than a billion copies in the English language and a billion in translation. According to Index Translationum, people translated her works into 103 languages at least, the most for an individual author. Of the most enduring figures in crime literature, she created Hercule Poirot and Miss Jane Marple. She atuhored The Mousetrap, the longest-running play in the history of modern theater.

Associated Names:
Agata Christie
Agata Kristi
Агата Кристи (Russian)
Агата Крісті (Ukrainian)
Αγκάθα Κρίστι (Greek)
アガサ クリスティ (Japanese)
阿嘉莎·克莉絲蒂 (Chinese)