Crooked House

Location & Checkout Length	Call Number	Checkout Length	Item Status
Downtown 2nd Floor 4-week checkout	Mystery / Christie, Agatha	4-week checkout	Due 05-22-2024

Originally published: London : Collins, 1949.
"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. Suspicion naturally falls on the old man?s young widow, fifty years his junior. But the murderer has reckoned without the tenacity of Charles Hayward, fianc? of the late millionaire?s granddaughter." -- from the publisher.

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crooked family? submitted by camelsamba on August 1, 2017, 8:17pm This is a stand-alone Agatha Christie mystery (it does not rely on any of her well known detectives). The plot, in a nutshell, is this: Charles and Sophia fall in love as they work in Egypt. Sophia returns to England first; after Charles returns he plans to propose to her - but then he reads in the newspaper of her grandfather’s death. Turns out, it was under suspicious circumstances, and everyone in the Leonides house (the entire extended family lives there, the “Crooked House” of the title) is under suspicion. Charles’ father is assistant commissioner for Scotland Yard, and Charles somehow gets roped into (or volunteers to?) unofficially helping with the investigation. The wealthy Leonides family is more likely to open up to him, since he is of similar social class and courting Sophia.

The characters in this book are each unique and fascinating – and none entirely likable. Each in turn is presented as a suspect and then tentatively eliminated. The tension to find the culprit mounts as the story progresses and a second attempt at murder occurs. The final plot twist and revelation of the perpetrator completely threw me for a loop – I did not see it coming!