Celebrating 100 years of Agatha Christie stories, The Mysterious Affair at Styles is Hercule Poirot’s first case, performed on audio by Captain Hastings actor Hugh Fraser.

‘Beware! Peril to the detective who says: “It is so small – it does not matter…” Everything matters.’

After the Great War, life can never be the same again. Wounds need healing, and the horror of violent death banished into memory.

Captain Arthur Hastings is invited to the rolling country estate of Styles to recuperate from injuries sustained at the Front. It is the last place he expects to encounter murder. Fortunately he knows a former detective, a Belgian refugee, who has grown bored of retirement…

‘Agatha Christie is the gateway drug to crime fiction thanks to her storytelling skills. Just one book is never enough…’ VAL McDERMID

‘What a writer. A hundred years after her first novel, and we are all still standing in her shadow.’ ANDREW TAYLOR

‘Agatha Christie must surely be the most imitated author in the entire canon of literature – what greater acclaim could there be?’ PETER JAMES

© 2006 HarperCollins (Audiobook): 9780007248773

Release date

Audiobook: 12 September 2006