Described by the queen of mystery herself as one of her favorites of her published work, Crooked House is a classic Agatha Christie thriller revolving around a devastating family mystery.
The Leonides are one big happy family living in a sprawling, ramshackle mansion. That is until the head of the household, Aristide, is murdered with a fatal barbiturate injection.
MY THOUGHTS:
Thumbs up for this one.
Three generations of the Leonides clan live at Three Gables, a rambling, crooked old house. Aristide Leonides, the 88-year-old patriarch, dies suddenly. His killer has ruthlessly swapped insulin with the old man's own eserine eye-drops, which gets injected straight into his blood stream. Agatha Christie has stated poisons to be among her favourite murder weapons, and this callous case takes particular advantage of the victim's vulnerability.
Aristides' blood relatives comprise two sons and their wives, an elderly sister-in-law, and three grandchildren. They hope the culprit turns out to be Brenda, Aristides' much younger second wife, or Laurence Brown, the timid tutor of the two youngest family members. But they can't help fearing it might be one of themselves, although everyone supposedly loved the old man.
However, a bit of probing reveals that Aristide has annoyed or strained his relationships with several of them for various reasons.
The story is narrated by Charles Hayward, the son of Scotland Yard's Assistant Commissioner. Charles is engaged to Aristide's granddaughter Sophia, a pretty girl who refuses to marry him until the family mess gets sorted out. Hence, it's in Charles' best interests to tag along with the investigation team, although this sets him up for some awkwardness with his potential in-laws.
The unruly family begins to remind Charles strongly of the Crooked Man nursery rhyme, with old Aristide as the lead character. It occurs to him that some of them may be crooked not in a criminal sense, but because they are so tied up with each other that it's hard to untangle themselves as individuals.
I found myself disliking Aristide mainly because of one questionable decision he made regarding his will, which is bound to create intense family disunity after his death. I sympathize with a couple of family members specifically, for their heated reactions when they discover how their elderly relative left his money.
The revelation of the murderer is a bit of a shocker, and I can imagine Dame Agatha smirking. She provides fairly decent clues that she counts on readers overlooking. My feelings toward the eventual denouement include horror, especially that one other character would take it upon themselves to play God, so to speak.
The book was published in 1949, during that post-war, mid-20th century era when everyone seemed to smoke like chimneys. As a true sign of the times, Charles notices the peculiar absence of a familiar smell when he's ushered into Sophia's dad's library. It strikes him that the missing element is tobacco, for Philip Leonides is one of those 'rare beings', a non-smoker. Thankfully times have changed and he's now among the majority of people I know.
I like this story. The characters are strong and vital, and I find myself wondering what the future will hold for some of them, who I can't mention by name and thereby indicate their innocence. My temptation to flirt with spoilers must signify the compelling quality of this story. It is up among my favourites so far.
🌟🌟🌟🌟
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