Agatha Christie: THE MYSTERIOUS AFFAIR AT STYLES & THE SECRET ADVERSARY

Agatha Christie

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2017 OK Publishing

ISBN 978-80-272-1826-4

The Mysterious Affair at Styles (The First Hercule Poirot novel) The Mysterious Affair at Styles (The First Hercule Poirot novel) Table of Contents Chapter 1 I GO TO STYLES Chapter 2 THE 16TH AND 17TH OF JULY Chapter 3 THE NIGHT OF THE TRAGEDY Chapter 4 POIROT INVESTIGATES Chapter 5 “IT ISN’T STRYCHNINE, IS IT?” Chapter 6 THE INQUEST Chapter 7 POIROT PAYS HIS DEBTS Chapter 8 FRESH SUSPICIONS Chapter 9 DR. BAUERSTEIN Chapter 10 THE ARREST Chapter 11 THE CASE FOR THE PROSECUTION Chapter 12 THE LAST LINK Chapter 13 POIROT EXPLAINS

Chapter 1 I GO TO STYLES

Chapter 2 THE 16TH AND 17TH OF JULY

Chapter 3 THE NIGHT OF THE TRAGEDY

Chapter 4 POIROT INVESTIGATES

Chapter 5 “IT ISN’T STRYCHNINE, IS IT?”

Chapter 6 THE INQUEST

Chapter 7 POIROT PAYS HIS DEBTS

Chapter 8 FRESH SUSPICIONS

Chapter 9 DR. BAUERSTEIN

Chapter 10 THE ARREST

Chapter 11 THE CASE FOR THE PROSECUTION

Chapter 12 THE LAST LINK

Chapter 13 POIROT EXPLAINS

The Secret Adversary

Prologue

Chapter 1 The Young Adventurers, Ltd.

Chapter 2 Mr. Whittington’s Offer

Chapter 3 A Set Back

Chapter 4 Who Is Jane Finn?

Chapter 5 Mr. Julius P. Hersheimmer

Chapter 6 A Plan of Campaign

Chapter 7 The House in Soho

Chapter 8 The Adventures of Tommy

Chapter 9 Tuppence Enters Domestic Service

Chapter 10 Enter Sir James Peel Edgerton

Chapter 11 Julius Tells a Story

Chapter 12 A Friend in Need

Chapter 13 The Vigil

Chapter 14 A Consultation

Chapter 15 Tuppence Receives a Proposal

Chapter 16 Further Adventures of Tommy

Chapter 17 Annette

Chapter 18 The Telegram

Chapter 19 Jane Finn

Chapter 20 Too Late

Chapter 21 Tommy Makes a Discovery

Chapter 22 In Downing Street

Chapter 23 A Race Against Time

Chapter 24 Julius Takes a Hand

Chapter 25 Jane’s Story

Chapter 26 Mr. Brown

Chapter 27 A Supper Party at the Savoy

Chapter 28 And After

Table of Contents

Chapter 1 I GO TO STYLES

Chapter 2 THE 16TH AND 17TH OF JULY

Chapter 3 THE NIGHT OF THE TRAGEDY

Chapter 4 POIROT INVESTIGATES

Chapter 5 “IT ISN’T STRYCHNINE, IS IT?”

Chapter 6 THE INQUEST

Chapter 7 POIROT PAYS HIS DEBTS

Chapter 8 FRESH SUSPICIONS

Chapter 9 DR. BAUERSTEIN

Chapter 10 THE ARREST

Chapter 11 THE CASE FOR THE PROSECUTION

Chapter 12 THE LAST LINK

Chapter 13 POIROT EXPLAINS

Table of Contents

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.

Their country-place, Styles Court, had been purchased by Mr. Cavendish early in their married life. He had been completely under his wife’s ascendancy, so much so that, on dying, he left the place to her for her lifetime, as well as the larger part of his income; an arrangement that was distinctly unfair to his two sons. Their step-mother, however, had always been most generous to them; indeed, they were so young at the time of their father’s remarriage that they always thought of her as their own mother.

Lawrence, the younger, had been a delicate youth. He had qualified as a doctor but early relinquished the profession of medicine, and lived at home while pursuing literary ambitions; though his verses never had any marked success.

John practiced for some time as a barrister, but had finally settled down to the more congenial life of a country squire. He had married two years ago, and had taken his wife to live at Styles, though I entertained a shrewd suspicion that he would have preferred his mother to increase his allowance, which would have enabled him to have a home of his own. Mrs. Cavendish, however, was a lady who liked to make her own plans, and expected other people to fall in with them, and in this case she certainly had the whip hand, namely: the purse strings.

John noticed my surprise at the news of his mother’s remarriage and smiled rather ruefully.

“Rotten little bounder too!” he said savagely. “I can tell you, Hastings, it’s making life jolly difficult for us. As for Evie—you remember Evie?”

“No.”

“Oh, I suppose she was after your time. She’s the mater’s factotum, companion, Jack of all trades! A great sport—old Evie! Not precisely young and beautiful, but as game as they make them.”

“You were going to say——?”

“Oh, this fellow! He turned up from nowhere, on the pretext of being a second cousin or something of Evie’s, though she didn’t seem particularly keen to acknowledge the relationship. The fellow is an absolute outsider, anyone can see that. He’s got a great black beard, and wears patent leather boots in all weathers! But the mater cottoned to him at once, took him on as secretary—you know how she’s always running a hundred societies?”

I nodded.

“Well, of course the war has turned the hundreds into thousands. No doubt the fellow was very useful to her. But you could have knocked us all down with a feather when, three months ago, she suddenly announced that she and Alfred were engaged! The fellow must be at least twenty years younger than she is! It’s simply bare-faced fortune hunting; but there you are—she is her own mistress, and she’s married him.”

“It must be a difficult situation for you all.”

“Difficult! It’s damnable!”