The Mysterious Affair at Styles: Chapter 5: “It Isn’t Strychnine, Is It?” Summary & Analysis

Hastings recognizes the handwriting on the envelope as Mrs. Inglethorp’s and wonders if she was in the midst of some kind of “demoniacal possession.” Before he can think this over, though, Poirot declares that they have to go examine the coffee cups—a suggestion that annoys Hastings, who’s sure that the cocoa was what the murderer poisoned. But Poirot simply laughs at his friend’s obsession with the cocoa. He then leads Hastings to the drawing room, where he asks him to tell him everything about the coffee hour the night before. Hastings tells him where everyone was, pointing out each person’s coffee cup, since Annie has yet to clean them up.

Poirot takes samples from each of the five coffee cups (Mr. Inglethorp doesn’t drink coffee), tasting them as he goes. As he does this, a look of surprise crosses over him, but he doesn’t explain the reaction—he simply says that he had suspected something but that he now thinks he was wrong. He and Hastings then meet John Cavendish, who tells them breakfast is ready. He also asks about the investigation, noting that his brother, Lawrence, insists that their stepmother must have died of heart failure. It has been hard for everyone in the house, he adds, to be around Mr. Inglethorp, since everyone thinks he’s the murderer.

The mood at breakfast isn’t very uplifting, but it’s also not overrun with sorrow. Hastings thinks this is because everyone present is devoted to upholding a sense of “decorum,” though he wonders if this kind of “self-control” is a sign of politeness or a sign that nobody cares that much about Mrs. Inglethorp’s death. Alfred Inglethorp, in fact, is the only person who seems stricken by guilt, but everyone dislikes his display of emotion, thinking that he’s simply acting.

Cynthia complains about having a headache, so Poirot jumps up and offers to get her some coffee, claiming that it’s the best remedy for headaches. She accepts but asks him not to put sugar in it. He obliges, asking if she gave up sugar because of wartime rationing, but she says she has never taken sugar in her coffee—a comment that brings excitement to Poirot’s eyes. Hastings notices this change come over his friend and can tell that Poirot is making all kinds of calculations in his mind, though it’s unclear why. 

Mrs. Inglethorp’s lawyer, Mr. Wells, arrives at Styles. John invites Poirot and Hastings to meet with him and Wells in the study. On their way, Poirot whispers to Hastings about the coffee cups, saying that his instincts were right and that it’s good he tasted all of the coffee left in the cups—comments that make no sense to Hastings. When they reach the study, Mr. Wells tells them that there will certainly be an inquest and that both John Cavendish and Mr. Inglethorp will be called to the stand to give information about what happened on the day of Mrs. Inglethorp’s death.

Poirot asks Mr. Wells if the letter that Mrs. Inglethorp wrote to him contained anything of importance, but the lawyer says that it simply asked him to come to see her the next day because she wanted his advice on a pressing matter. Poirot also asks who would inherit Mrs. Inglethorp’s money, and Mr. Wells says that—according to her most recent will, which was made in August of the previous year—her entire fortune would go to John Cavendish. At first, Poirot thinks this is unfair to Lawrence, but Mr. Wells explains that Lawrence would also receive a good deal of money, since his father’s will stipulated that he should receive some of his leftover money upon Mrs. Inglethorp’s death.

Even if Mrs. Inglethorp’s most recent will was fair to both her sons, Poirot points out that it must not be valid anymore, since she married Mr. Inglethorp. By British law, her will was made “null and void” when she got married, and Mr. Wells notes that it’s unclear whether or not she was aware of that at the time of her death. John, however, insists that she was aware, since he talked about it with her yesterday.

John Cavendish and Mr. Wells are about to search through Mrs. Inglethorp’s papers to see if she happened to have made a new will, but Poirot saves them the trouble: she did make a new one. But it doesn’t exist anymore, since it was burned in her fireplace. He shows them the fragment he found among the ashes. It’s possible that the will was old, not new, but Poirot thinks it was made yesterday afternoon.

To prove his point, Poirot asks John to call for one of his gardeners. When the gardener, Manning, arrives he answers Poirot’s questions, explaining that he was planting begonias when Emily Inglethorp came to the window and asked the other gardener to go into town to obtain a “form of will.” Once he’d brought it back, she spent some time with the will and then asked both Manning and the other gardener to come inside to sign something. She put a piece of paper over the top of the will so that they couldn’t see what it said, and then they signed their names as witnesses. 

Mr. Wells realizes that Emily Inglethorp wanted him to come to the house that morning to make the new will she’d created official. When John Cavendish asks how Poirot knew Manning and the other gardener had served as witnesses, Poirot simply smiles and says, “A scribbled-over old envelope, and a freshly planted bed of begonias.”

The sound of a car arriving outside interrupts the conversation; Evelyn Howard has returned. Hastings and the others go down to greet her, and when John Cavendish introduces Poirot as a detective helping them investigate the case, she wonders why they need anyone to investigate at all—Alfred Inglethorp, she believes, clearly murdered Emily. She asks them if they’ve already taken him to prison, and when John tells her to be careful about flinging around accusations because some people—like Lawrence—think the death was a natural accident, she grows angry. She even shames him for indulging such foolish thinking. Hastings, for his part, realizes how hard it is going to be for John, as a host, to have Evelyn Howard and Alfred Inglethorp in the house at the same time.

Later that day, Poirot seeks out Evelyn Howard and asks her if he can depend on her help. She says he can, but she still doesn’t see why he needs much assistance, since it’s so obvious to her that Alfred Inglethorp is the murderer. Still, Poirot presses on. He says he specifically needs her help because she’s the only person who seems to have shed a tear about Emily’s death. Evelyn becomes somewhat defensive, going on a rant about how Emily blocked people out by always demanding something in return whenever she helped people. Evelyn, however, didn’t let Emily push her around, and in that way, she was actually able to get close to her. But Alfred Inglethorp ruined all that by murdering her.

After speaking with Evelyn Howard, Poirot and Hastings meet up with John Cavendish and Mr. Wells again. They go to Mrs. Inglethorp’s bedroom to look through her purple dispatch case. Poirot pulls out the key that he took, explaining that he locked the case earlier that morning. However, Cavendish points out that the case isn’t locked. Poirot is shocked—he, after all, has both of the keys that open the dispatch case, meaning that somebody entered the room and forced the dispatch case’s lock within the last hour. Poirot thinks the person could have unlocked the room itself with almost any of the keys intended for the other bedrooms, since the locks are fairly generic.

Thinking out loud, Poirot straightens out the objects sitting on the mantelpiece. Hastings notices that his friend’s hands are shaking as he suggests that there must have been some kind of evidence in the dispatch case—a piece of evidence so crucial that the murderer thought it was worth taking the risk of breaking into the bedroom while everyone was home and forcing the case’s lock open. Frantic with the idea of trying to find whatever document was taken from the case, Poirot rushes out of the room.

Hastings runs into Mary Cavendish outside the room and asks if Alfred and Evelyn have interacted. She, for her part, doesn’t care if they encounter each other—in fact, she’d like to see them argue things out, since everyone is keeping their thoughts and feelings pent up. Hastings points out that John, Mary’s husband, feels differently and doesn’t want Alfred and Evelyn to cross paths, but Mary dismisses this with a disparaging few words about her husband. Hastings finds that her comment annoys him, so he stands up for John, eventually insinuating that Mary spends too much time with Dr. Bauerstein—a comment he instantly regrets. Without a word, Mary walks away.

Hastings hears Poirot speaking loudly to everyone in the house. He goes downstairs and pulls his friend aside, asking if it’s a good idea to tell the whole household that somebody broke into Emily Inglethorp’s bedroom and forced open the dispatch case. Poirot agrees that maybe it’s not the best idea, but it’s too late now. They then decide to return to Poirot’s lodgings in town. On their way out of the house, Poirot stops Cynthia and asks if she’s the one who mixed Mrs. Inglethorp’s sleeping powders. Cynthia tentatively says that she did, explaining that they’re made of bromide. 

On the way back to town, Poirot explains that Mr. Wells and John Cavendish opened Emily Inglethorp’s writing desk and found yet another will, this one from just before her marriage. The will left everything to Alfred Inglethorp, who claims to have been unaware of its existence. Poirot then tells Hastings how he knew that Mrs. Inglethorp had written a new will yesterday. The scrap of paper with the word “possessed” written on it is what tipped him off, since he could tell that Mrs. Inglethorp was trying to figure out how to spell the word. Plus, the word itself is something frequently used in a will.

What’s more, Poirot explains, there was a little bit of garden soil on the floor of her boudoir, suggesting that the gardeners had come inside. Because the begonias right outside the boudoir were newly planted, he knew Mrs. Inglethorp must have summoned the gardeners yesterday afternoon. When Hastings admires his friend and admits that he himself had let his mind run wild with ideas after seeing the scrap paper with the word “possessed” on it, Poirot says that Hastings let his imagination have too much power. “Imagination is a good servant,” he says, “and a bad master.”

Still answering Hastings’s questions, Poirot says he didn’t actually know that one of the dispatch case’s keys was missing—it was just a guess. The key on Mrs. Inglethorp’s keyring that opened the dispatch case was very shiny, suggesting to him that it was a replacement, not the original. Hastings insists that Alfred Inglethorp must have stolen the original key, but Poirot expresses doubt: he isn’t so sure that Alfred is guilty. Turning to another aspect of the case, he asks Hastings what he thinks about the argument he overhead between Mary Cavendish and Mrs. Inglethorp, but Hastings says it’s probably unimportant—a comment that annoys Poirot, since nothing should be written off as trivial.

Poirot invites Hastings into his apartment, where they sit and think about the case. Eventually, they look down into the street and see a pharmacist named Mr. Mace sprinting toward the building. When he arrives, he frantically asks if Mrs. Inglethorp was poisoned by strychnine. Poirot answers in a low voice that Hastings can’t hear, and then Mr. Mace leaves. Poirot notes that the man will certainly have evidence to present at the inquest.

Hastings tries to get Poirot to tell him what he’s thinking, but his friend demands silence. He needs a moment to collect his thoughts, since everything is out of order. Finally, he emerges from contemplation feeling a bit better. He says that there are two important things to consider: first, that the weather yesterday was extremely warm and pleasant, and second, that Mr. Inglethorp has a black beard and wears distinctive clothes and glasses. Hastings is bewildered, but Poirot won’t tell him why these things are important, noting that Hastings should be able to come to his own conclusions.

For his part, Poirot says he owes a lot to Mrs. Inglethorp, since she was kind to Belgian refugees like himself. With this in mind, he will intervene if it seems like her husband is about to be arrested. “She would never forgive me if I let Alfred Inglethorp, her husband, be arrested now—when a word from me could save him!” he declares.