Agatha Christie's first detective novel, The Mysterious Affair at Styles, was published in 1920. The story was inspired in part by the real-life case of nurse Florence Nightingale Shore, who was murdered on a train in 1920. However, the similarities between the real-life case and the plot of the novel are limited, as Agatha Christie developed a completely fictional plot around the murder at Styles Mansion.

The Mussoorie Case

The “Mussoorie Affair” is a reference to the 1911 murder in the city of Mussoorie, British India. This case, also known as the “Allahabad Carriage Affair”, inspired Agatha Christie to write the novel “The Mysterious Affair at Styles”, her first book featuring detective Hercule Poirot.

In the “Mussoorie Affair,” a woman named Emily Inglethorp was poisoned, and the murder involved several suspects and twists. Agatha Christie used elements of this real-life case as inspiration for the plot of her detective novel, although she made several changes and added her own creative touch.

Parallels between reality and fiction

There are several parallels between the real-life Mussoorie murder case (also known as the “Allahabad Carriage Case”) and the fictional plot of “The Mysterious Affair at Styles”, Agatha Christie's first novel.

1. **Murder by poisoning**: In both the real and fictional cases, the victim was murdered by means of poisoning. In “The Mysterious Affair at Styles”, the victim is Emily Inglethorp, while in the Mussoorie case, the victim has been identified as Emily Kaye.

2. **Mysterious circumstances**: In both cases, the murder took place under mysterious circumstances, leaving investigators perplexed and raising several suspicions about who the culprit might be.

3. **Presence of a foreign detective**: In “The Mysterious Affair at Styles”, Agatha Christie introduces detective Hercule Poirot, a former Belgian police officer, to solve the crime. In the Mussoorie case, the investigation was attended by a foreign detective named Jacques Hornung, an expert in poisons.

4. **Twists and suspicions among family members**: In both the real story and the fiction, there are plot twists and suspicions that fall on different family members and associates of the victim.

5. **Conclusion with surprising revelations**: In both cases, the conclusion of the investigation reveals surprising and unexpected details about the murder, with the true culprit eventually being revealed.

Although Agatha Christie used the Mussoorie case as inspiration for her novel, she added fictional elements and significantly altered the story to create an original and engaging plot.