The Mysterious Affair at Styles

　　碧草如茵的史岱爾莊園，是英國典型的鄉村農莊，它處於靜謐恬適的如詩畫境中，莊中人亦皆是教養深厚的鄉紳仕女。舊識海斯汀應邀至該莊度假，原想藉機暫避烽火安心療養身體。然而嗅覺敏銳的他，自踏入史岱爾莊的第一日，便隱覺莊中暗潮洶湧，似是人人各懷鬼胎，果真數日之後便發生了一起離奇懸疑的謀殺悲劇。海斯汀火速請來退休的比利時大警探白羅協助調查，不想案情就此撲朔迷離陷入膠著，眼見該是兇手的歹徒他放人一馬；明顯是兇器的證據他置之不理；還對好人事事存疑，偏對惡人推心置腹，怪招百出，倒行逆施，看得旁人直替這位老警探捏一把冷汗……結果如何，保證出人意料，令人心服口服，敬請堅持看完最後一字。

　　★本書中譯本《史岱爾莊謀殺案》由遠流出版

　　With impeccable timing Hercule Poirot, the renowned Belgian detective, makes his dramatic entrance on to the English crime stage. Recently, there had been some strange goings on at Styles St Mary. Evelyn, constant companion to old Mrs Inglethorp, had stormed out of the house muttering something about 'a lot of sharks'. And with her, something indefinable had gone from the atmosphere. Her presence had spelt security; now the air seemed rife with suspicion and impending evil. A shattered coffee cup, a splash of candle grease, a bed of begonias all Poirot required to display his now legendary powers of detection.

作者簡介

　　阿嘉莎．克莉絲蒂（一八九○～一九七六）英籍女作家、劇作家。本名Agatha May Clarissa Miller，生於德望郡（Devon），家境富裕而傳統守舊，是家中的么女。生性害羞，孩童時期未曾接受學校教育，由女家庭教師教導學會識字和讀書。在母親的鼓勵下，大量閱讀各種書籍，並開始創作詩和短篇故事。

　　一九一五年第一次世界大戰期間，克莉絲蒂在醫院擔任藥劑師，從中學習各類毒藥的專業知識，並萌生撰寫推理小說的構想，處女作《史岱爾莊謀殺案》因此誕生。她創造的比利時私家偵探赫丘勒．白羅，是人氣歷久不衰的神探，其著名的「灰色的腦細胞」，已成為超人智慧的代名詞。

　　五十年的寫作生涯中，克莉絲蒂共完成六十六部小說、一百多篇短篇小說、十七個劇本，以一百零三種文字行銷全世界，共賣出二十億冊以上。她有好幾部小說被拍成叫好叫座的電影，如《東方快車謀殺案》、《尼羅河謀殺案》；她寫的劇本《捕鼠器》，從一九五四年以來，至今仍在倫敦劇院上演，堪稱是最長壽的舞台劇。如今克莉絲蒂這個名字，已涵蓋兩種意義：一為「推理小說」的同義字，二者是「謀殺之后」的殊榮。

　　Agatha Christie was born in Torquay in 1890 and became, quite simply, the best-selling novelist in history. Her first novel, The Mysterious Affair at Styles, written towards the end of the First World War, introduced us to Hercule Poirot, who was to become the most popular detective in crime fiction since Sherlock Holmes. She is known throughout the world as the Queen of Crime. Her books have sold over a billion copies in the English language and another billion in over 100 foreign countries. She is the author of 80 crime novels and short story collections, 19 plays, and six novels under the name of Mary Westmacott.