Crooked House

Title Crooked House
Author Agatha Christie
Published by Harper Collins
Edition eBook (also available in paperback)

(From the publishers website)
A wealthy Greek businessman is found dead at his London home…

The Leonides were one big happy family living in a sprawling, ramshackle mansion. That was until the head of the household, Aristide, was 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, fiance of the late millionare’s granddaughter…

My Review

Having finished two historical novels in a row, I decided a change was in order and an Agatha Christie was just the thing. But which one? Referring to Agatha Christies own personal top ten I decided on Crooked House.

I have a real soft spot for 'cosy' murder mystery's and 'who dunnits'. I am particularly fond of Agatha Christie and her work. I like the sharp, chicness of Poirot and the quaint, quintessentially British village life of Miss Marple. But for me some of the best examples of Christies' work are the stand alone novels.In my opinion, however, this is not one of her best. I was slightly disappointed.

Crooked House is a slow paced story. It's about a family living in close quarters while having to deal with the fact that one of them is a killer. Dealing with human behavior, family relations and the question of right or wrong reminded me of J.B Priestleys' 'An Inspector Calls'. All the ingredients were there for a great read however I found most of it somewhat lacking and at times I did become bored. In hindsight this was probably due to the fact that I was expecting a lot from this book. I wasn't able to just sit back, read and enjoy it for what it was.

One part I enjoyed was how Christie poked fun at murder mystery books. The character Josephine is an avid reader of murder stories and uses the skills she has learnt through reading to do her own sleuthing. About half way through the story Josephine observes to the hero Charles "isn't it about time for the second murder". This knowing nod to her readers was a lovely touch.

Without a doubt the best thing about this book was the ending, that alone made it worth the read. As with a lot of Christies stories, Crooked House had a few red herrings and subtle misdirection. These familiar techniques appearing in Crooked House wasn't surprising but nothing could prepare me for the shock ending and discovery of the real murderer.

If Crooked House is your first Agatha Christie book I would say it isn't the best example of her work. You may prefer to try the stand alone 'And then there were none' or Poirot 'Murder on the Orient Express'. It is, however, still an enjoyable read and for the ending alone well worth the money.