pick#ChristiesCapers
A younger man marries an older wealthy woman and she ends up dead. There is a cast of characters that all seem suspicious at one time or another. My first time reading this and I quite enjoyed getting to know the quirky Poirot.
It‘s time for our first #AgathaChristieClubR3 #ChristiesCapers discussion! I posted 9 questions as spoilers; they can be found on my feed, the book‘s feed, or by searching the group‘s hashtags. Feel free to answer whenever!
February‘s book is The Secret Adversary, which is the first Tommy and Tuppence book. More details will be posted tomorrow!
janeycanuck, Aims42, MallenNC, kspenmoll, BarbaraJean, JenlovesJT47, Lizpixie, MariaW, elkeOriginal, AnneCecilie, Gissy, mrp27, Suet624, Cailey_Mac, Deblovestoread, ferskner, Marmie7, MaleficentBookDragon, majkia, Bookwormjillk, StayCurious, Laughterhp, Sace, RainyDayReading, Skygoddess1, PathfinderNicole, dabbe, tdrosebud, TheAromaofBooks, Tineke, PageShifter, willaful, AnishaInkspill9. In Lucy Worsley's 3-part documentary, she interviews a professor about Christie's racist and anti-Semitic epithets in her novels (the interview is wonderful).
As we progress in the novels, we'll notice this (there were a couple of instances in my addition of this novel that stood out to me).
But yet, we love Christie, and her works have endured for over 100 years. Why do you think this is the case? #AgathaChristieClubR3 #ChristiesCapers
8. According to Brewer‘s Dictionary of Phrase & Fable, a red herring is “a hint or statement in the early part of the story to put the reader on the wrong scent” (derived from the practice of dragging a smelly red herring across a path to confuse hunting dogs). How many red herrings can you find in this mystery? ~from Penguin Random House Reading Group Guide #AgathaChristieClubR3 #ChristiesCapers
7. According to the critic Anthony Lejeune, “The real secret of Agatha Christie . . . lies not in the carpentering of her plots. . .but in . . . [her] ability to buttonhole a reader, to make, as Raymond Chandler put it, ‘each page throw the hook for the next.‘ ” How does Christie build suspense in this novel? Were you surprised when the murderer was revealed? ~from Penguin Random House Reading Group Guide #AgathaChristieClubR3 #ChristiesCapers
6. What role do outsiders play in The Mysterious Affair at Styles? Consider, in particular, the characters of Alfred Inglethorp, Dr. Bauerstein, and Hercule Poirot. ~from Penguin Random House Reading Group Guide #AgathaChristieClubR3 #ChristiesCapers
5. How would you describe the Edwardian social hierarchy that Christie establishes in the novel? Who is on the top of the ladder, and who is on the bottom? Does anyone break the rules of this well-defined social order? ~from Penguin Random House Reading Group Guide #AgathaChristieClubR3 #ChristiesCapers
4. According to Agatha Christie, when she wrote The Mysterious Affair at Styles she saw it as “a story with a moral; in fact it was the old Everyman Morality Tale, the hunting down of Evil and the triumph of Good...” How is this reflected in the characters in the novel? Did you find them realistic, or did you think they were stereotypical? ~based on Penguin Random House Reading Group Guide #AgathaChristieClubR3 #ChristiesCapers
3. The mystery is told through the eyes of Captain Hastings; we will also meet him in other Poirot novels. What do you think of Hastings? Think of the working relationship between Hastings and Poirot and Watson and Holmes (if you're familiar with the Sherlock Holmes stories). How are working relationships similar? Different? #AgathaChristieClubR3 #ChristiesCapers
2. We meet Hercule Poirot for the first time in this novel. What are your impressions of him? He appears in over thirty novels and fifty short stories by Christie (and later in the continuation of stories by Sophie Hannah). What makes him such an appealing and enduring character? ~based on Penguin Random House Reading Group Guide #AgathaChristieClubR3 #ChristiesCapers
