The Mysterious Affair at Styles

Why does the novel make readers distrust Alfred Inglethorp from the beginning? Does this make the revelation that he is the murderer more or less surprising? Why?

What are Arthur’s strengths and weaknesses as a narrator? Why does the novel feature a narrator with weak spots?

What are some of the character traits that Emily Inglethorp displayed in life that made her death so difficult to untangle? Why does the novel make her a morally gray character rather than a blameless victim?

Christie mostly does not describe her characters. Why does she make an exception in the case of Alfred Inglethorp and Hercule Poirot?

How to the various suspects in the case draw attention to themselves as potentially guilty parties? What complications in their character or upbringing make it difficult for the reader to dispel lingering doubts about them?

How does Christie handle class, nationality, and race in the novel, and how does that affect the way she misdirects the reader? Are readers ever encouraged to examine their prejudices? Why or why not?

How is Poirot guided by empathy as well as by raw intellect? How does that make him a more effective investigator than others on the case?

What do the legal technicalities revealed at the end of the novel reveal about the ways in which Christie withholds information to construct her plot?