The Mysterious Affair at Styles

Poirot informs Arthur that Bauerstein was arrested for wartime espionage, not murder. He believes that Mary was never enamored of Bauerstein “because she cares for someone else” (123). Arthur, secretly carrying a crush on Mary, flatters himself that Poirot is talking about him.

Evie Howard approaches Poirot and hands him a receipt from a costumier with the letter “L” written on it, which Dorcas found on top of the wardrobe. Poirot mysteriously declares he now knows how the murder was done. Next, he asks Dorcas whether or not Emily’s bell was functional on the day before the murder and is delighted to hear that it wasn’t, as always leaving Arthur in a state of bewilderment.

Later, Mary unburdens herself to Arthur, exclaiming that she and John are not very happy together. She finds life in the English countryside dull, thinks of Styles Court as a prison, and intends to leave John. She is indifferent to Bauerstein’s arrest. Arthur discovers that Poirot is once again following up on the investigation without him. After lunch, Lawrence approaches Arthur to tell him that “I think I’ve found the extra coffee cup!” (131).

In town, Poirot researches several fingerprint reproductions, and identifies one from a poison cupboard in the dispensary in Tadminster as belonging to Lawrence. When Poirot and Arthur return to Styles Court, they discover the police taking John away. Mary Cavendish faints.

Two months later, John Cavendish goes on trial for the murder of his mother. Mary steadfastly supports her husband. Poirot comments on her jealousy regarding John and notes that it was John who was overheard quarrelling with his mother about marital scandal on the day of her death, not Alfred. John is also very likely to be acquitted due to lack of evidence. Poirot will continue to operate in the background, working on the case in his own way.

John’s defense lawyer relies upon the lack of evidence against him, while the prosecutor plays up the element of scandal, characterizing John as a spendthrift at the end of his financial tether who had been having an affair with Mrs. Raikes. The prosecution claims that it was John who bought poison disguised as Alfred, and that his motive was his mother changing her will to favor Alfred.

Dr. Bauerstein, cleared of espionage charges but now estranged from the family, is asked for his testimony on the basis of his expertise in poisons. In spite of herself, Dorcas gives damning evidence when she recounts giving Poirot the brown paper from a local costume shop found in John’s room, but with Lawrence’s name on it.

The next day, Inspector Japp testifies to finding more costume items in John’s room, and a phial labeled “Strychnine.” John’s defense attorney points out that the evidence was found a week after the crime, in an unlocked room. On the stand, Lawrence testifies to having handled a bottle of strychnine in the Tadminster dispensary while visiting Cynthia.

The defense produces an anonymously-written blackmail note which places John elsewhere during the visit to the chemist’s shop, but with no witnesses. Afterwards, John takes the stand, and answers all questions with a level head. The prosecution rests upon the circumstantial but convincing similarity of the handwriting in the chemist’s ledger and John’s own handwriting.

After arguments, Poirot admits to Arthur that he is very discouraged. At home, he builds a house of cards with shaking hands, trying to fit the pieces of the case together. Arthur points out that the last time he saw Poirot’s hands shake was when he discovered that the locked case had been broken into and began nervously arranging the things on Emily’s mantelpiece. Poirot has a triumphant revelation, and he leaves the room suddenly, disappearing for the entire evening.

After another day’s absence, Poirot appears at Styles Court with Inspector Japp in tow and requests a family meeting. Evelyn Howard makes a great show of not wanting to be in the same room as Alfred Inglethorp, but soon, everyone is present.

Poirot runs through the clues. The green tuft of cloth belonged to Mary Cavendish—part of the uniform of her wartime volunteer efforts. Poirot paints a scene in which Mary Cavendish was searching in Emily’s room for evidence of her husband’s infidelity—the blackmail letter mentioned at trial. She was startled by Emily’s sudden death cry, spilled candle wax, and ran through the door which she later claimed was bolted. Mary admits as much. She also admits that she had added a harmless sleeping sedative to both Emily Inglethorp and Cynthia’s coffee that night, in order to gain access to the damning letter against her husband without fear of being caught. One of these coffee cups went missing, hidden by Lawrence when he realized that Cynthia might be to blame for the poisoning.

As for the burned will, Poirot claims that Emily herself burned it after an afternoon of scandalous reversals. First, she cut John out of her will in favor of Alfred after arguing with her stepson about his dalliance with Mrs. Raikes. Soon after, upon quietly opening her husband’s desk in a search for stamps and discovering new information, Emily ordered the fire started and then burned the newly-rewritten will.

Mary’s sedative must have slowed the effect of the strychnine. Everyone assumes that the poison was put into Emily’s coffee, but Poirot posits a different theory: The strychnine was added to Emily’s commonly-taken bromide powders. Through a chemical reaction, a lethal dose of strychnine would crystallize at the bottom of the cup, rendering only the last sip fatal. However, the murderer’s plan did not happen in a timely manner. Emily forgot her medicine, postponing her own murder by a day. Her service bell had been snipped the day before but repaired soon after.

As for the murderer, Poirot names Alfred Inglethorp. As proof, he produces three strips of torn paper. When combined, they form a letter confessing to the murder written in Alfred’s handwriting. This is the letter Emily Inglethorp found while she searched for stamps. The letter addresses the disingenuous Evelyn Howard as a co-conspirator to the crime.

Days later, when Alfred Inglethorp and Evelyn Howard are in custody, Arthur presses Poirot for more details. Poirot apologizes for not taking Arthur into his full confidence, but he was worried that Arthur’s honest nature would give his suspicions away.

Poirot’s suspicions of Alfred were honed during the inquest, when the more Poirot attempted to clear him, the more Alfred seemed to want to be arrested, since “It is the law of your country that a man once acquitted can never be tried again for the same offense” (165). With his ironclad, secret alibi, Alfred would have easily escaped if he had been tried quickly.

Poirot believes that it was Evelyn Howard who had dressed in the beard and hat and, so disguised, purchased poison from the chemists. In fact, Poirot contends that poisoning Emily was her idea all along. The conspirators replicated John’s handwriting, and then sent him a scandalous letter, telling him to go to a remote location where he wouldn’t be seen and would therefore have no alibi. It was a plan too clever to work. When Evelyn skipped her day of medicine, Evie and Alfred had to improvise new alibis for themselves.

On the day Japp came to Styles to investigate, Alfred only had five short minutes to break into the locked case, take the incriminating letter, and then destroy it in a way that it wouldn’t leave any evidence and wouldn’t be found on his person. Cleverly, Alfred twisted the letter into fire starters and placed them on the mantelpiece. Poirot had meticulously righted all the mantelpiece objects on the day of the murder, so when he had to do so again after discovering the broken case, he realized that something must have been added to the mantle. He returned to the mantelpiece and found the incriminating letter where Alfred had hidden it, still sitting in the sealed crime scene.

To conclude, Poirot explains why John and Lawrence seemed like such good suspects. Both thought that the objects of their affection could be suspected and were attempting to cover for them. For instance, both John and Lawrence had taken pains to cover up the fact that the door between Cynthia and Emily’s room had been unbolted. Now that the crime has been solved, John and Mary are reconciled in love, while Lawrence and Cynthia have finally revealed their true, affectionate feelings for one another.

Arthur is as dumbfounded by Poirot’s genius as he is by the sudden turn of the love lives of the Cavendishes.