Book Review of Agatha Christies's "Crooked House"
My rating: 5 of 5 stars
Available on Amazon.com
Published by Arrangement with Dodd, Mead & Company, Inc.
Copyright: 1948, 1949
ISBN: 0-671-54321-0
"There was a crooked man and he went
a crooked mile
He found a crooked sixpence beside
a crooked stile
He had a crooked cat which caught
a crooked mouse
And they all lived together in a little
crooked house."
So the old nursery rhyme goes.
Charles Hayward is about to propose to the love of his life, Sophia Leonides when her grandfather, Aristides Leonides is suddenly poisoned.
Sophia hesitates to go further with their relationship, afraid that it will cast a deadly shade on their marriage. She tells Charles that she needs to know the truth behind the murder first or that they will be forever hunting shadows.
Charles goes undercover to Sophia's family house, Swinly Dean, as both a friend of the family and to (hopefully) learn the truth.
The murderer could be any one of the ten family members, from the young second wife of the grandfather, Brenda, who married Aristides, a man much older than herself, to the youngest, a little girl named Josephine.
Money doesn't appear to be a motivation. All of the family members are independently wealthy, if odd.
Who could be so "crooked" to murder the head of the family? It's up to Charles to find the truth before the murderer strikes again.
Yet another Christie book where Miss Marple or Hercule Poirot do not feature.
This book was a lot like her book, "Ordeal by Innocence". The same sort of idea where it's a family murder and everyone will view each other with suspicion until the suspect is caught.
The cast of characters was colorful and had me second guessing who it was that poisoned old Leonides. Among the family members was an actress who loved being dramatic and acting different parts, so I thought, that it was quite possible that it was her!
One of things I absolutely adore about Christie's books is the amount of red herrings that she tosses out. I haven't been able to discover the murderer in one of the books yet without it telling me.
If you like books that use misdirection, poisonings and have great, well developed characters, try picking up a Christie book. I doubt you'd be disappointed!
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