Sofa Spotlight - The Mysterious Affair at Styles, Agatha Christie

This is the first story with the expertise of Hercule Poirot in it. As expected there is a murder. This one involves the family of one of Hastings' friends who he happens to be staying with. And the best bit is that Hastings tries to solve the crime himself, and goes hopelessly wrong.

The book is narrated by Hastings and seeing the story through his eyes really made me laugh. Not just at Hastings trying to work out what is going on (because I would be just as hopeless) but also at how unique Poirot is in his ways and methods.

In my edition of the book the original unpublished ending is also included. Because I like to know what my options are I read both, and I have to agree that the ending that was published was better than the original. The original was noticeably less dynamic and required serious concentration, whereas the published one has you in that reading state where you are so desperate to find out the solution to the mystery that you are more skimming than reading. At least that's what I end up doing because I can't cope with the tension.

A nice read if you want something intriguing but also light hearted.