Crooked House, Agatha Christie

 

The Book

When Charles Hayward finally gets home from The War (WWII), he decides he definitely wants to marry Sophia Leonides. He's on the verge of proposing to her and has told her he definitely wants to, when her grandfather is murdered. Sophia needs to know for certain who murdered her grandfather among all of the ruthless members of her household. Charles doesn't know what to do. 

He gets roped into the official investigation by his father, Sir Arthur Hayward, because as Sophia's prospective fiancé, he has more access to the family. Charles, loving Sophia, agrees. 

As he gets to know the family, he finds out what Sophia means by ruthless. Her uncle is a business failure, while her grandfather was a success. What lengths would Uncle Roger, or his wife Clemency go to in order to protect Roger? And would his inheritance be enough to save Uncle Roger's neck? 

For that matter, would Sophia's weak father, Phillip, or her dramatic mother Magda kill for the money? Especially after Grandfather refused to invest in her next play? 

Would  Aunt Edith kill her grandfather because he married a much younger woman? 

Or would Brenda, old Aristide's young widow murder him because she's is having an affair with the family tutor, Laurence? 

Who know what happens in a Crooked House? 

My Thoughts

This book reads swiftly and is engaging enough. It's one of the titles Agatha Christie loosely based on the nursery rhyme There Was a Crooked Man. The crooked man, in this case, was the old Aristide Leonides, a Greek immigrant who made a lot of money in less than honest ways. 

We also have a famous plot twist in this novel. Amazing. I did know the plot twist before I came to this reading. I watched the 2017 movie of the same name, an adaptation of this novel, a few years ago. And yes, I did figure out the plot twist, but I did it late in the movie, far too late for my taste. 

I found the tone breezy and fun. The action moves swiftly, and the characters were really engaging. I read it in three days, and probably could have read it in one, if I had a free day to do nothing but read. I think it took me just over two hours of reading to finish the book. 

How Much My Library Card Saved Me

This book is one of the leatherette editions. I never know when the last one of these is going to pop up. We are now in the last half of Christie's works, and I know that Curtains, her last novel, is no longer available as a leatherette edition. I hope this isn't the last one, but you never know.  

This book is really showing it's age. I would guess this is in the second half of the leatherette editions. There was a set that was issued between 1984 and 1990 and another, newer set in the 1990s. This book's pages are whiter, the leatherette seems a bit cheaper, and the inside cover seems to be of slightly less quality than the earlier editions. Also, the insides are red and the originals were golden ish. But I digress. This still has the card holder for checkouts in it. As you can tell from the photo, the cardboard on the covers is popping through. I don't know how much longer these books will last, but I hope a it still has a few more reads in it. 

I received a separate receipt for this 215 page book, which says my library card saved me $25.01. I always wonder where the random penny comes from, but it's there. This is the number we will use.  

 This Book                                                    $25.01 

Items Reviewed this Year                           $235.92

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