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Crooked House

Agatha Christie

Start date: June 1, 2025

Finish date: June 30, 2025

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Jun 04, 2025 Brina rated it really liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: agatha-christie, crime, mystery, thriller

Read Christie Challenge 2025 book for June. This is my second year participating in the Read Christie Chsllenge. Last year I charted my own reading because I noticed the challenge to be heavy on Poirot, who is my favorite. This year the theme is professions and includes a variety of Dame Christie’s books including stand alones and a memoir. Crooked House, the Queen of Crime once noted, was one of her favorite books to write. She mentioned that in the course of one’s career a person might be luck Read Christie Challenge 2025 book for June. This is my second year participating in the Read Christie Chsllenge. Last year I charted my own reading because I noticed the challenge to be heavy on Poirot, who is my favorite. This year the theme is professions and includes a variety of Dame Christie’s books including stand alones and a memoir. Crooked House, the Queen of Crime once noted, was one of her favorite books to write. She mentioned that in the course of one’s career a person might be lucky enough to write five books that they really enjoyed. By the time of Crooked House’s publication in 1949, Dame Christie had long grown tired of Poirot; however, he was her primary money maker, so she continued writing about the Belgian sleuth until her death. From time to time, Christie wrote gothic tales, romances, and stand alone stories to refresh her career. Crooked House is one of these stand alone tales, which might not feature her two familiar sleuths but still pokes fun at England’s upper classes, which at times appears to be Christie’s impetus for writing.

Charles Hayward served his country in Egypt during the war. While stationed in North Africa, Charles fell for Sophia Leónides and knew he would want to marry her on his return to England. Charles’ father worked in Scotland Yard and was well connected should Charles want to leave the service. One not so minor barrier prevented Sophia from marrying Charles even though from first glance she appeared to want to marry him as he did her. The barrier is the sudden death of Sophia’s grandfather Aristide Leónides, the eighty seven year old patriarch of the family. Three generations of the family lived together in three wings of Crooked House, a house that Aristide Leónides built to keep his family under one roof. Every family member would be suspect until the murder is solved. Until then, Sophia would be unwilling to wed Charles Hayward. It was in Hayward’s best interest to utilize his father’s contacts at Scotland Yard in order to solve this case sooner than later.

Christie notes that anyone can be a suspect in a murder and that anyone can commit a murder if all things fall into place accordingly. Even Sophia thinks that the most likely suspect is her step grandmother Brenda who is fifty years younger than her husband. No one knows why he married her because he received affection from his late wife’s sister. It is obvious that she married Aristide for his money, and he endowed her with jewels and a fortune. It would not be a Christie case if Brenda and her would be lover Laurence Brown were the actual murderers. That would be too easy and appropriate for a beginner’s murder mystery. Not so Dame Christie although the police believed these two lovers to be the guilty parties due to lack of clues pointing at other members of the house. Each family member could have a motive to murder their patriarch if only the police dug deep on this case. That is why Charles Hayward is present at Crooked House, to offer assistance to Sophia and to see if he can solve the case before the police. Christie often had her sleuth solve cases before the police, who end up baffled by the whole ordeal. This is a narrative device that has been copied by private eye and mystery writers down through the decades. It is what makes Christie’s cases so intriguing.

Because anyone and everyone could be suspect in this case, Christie develops the character of Sofia’s twelve year old sister Josephine. Josephine is quite the character who kept a book of clues because she wanted to be a detective. By the time of Crooked House’s publication, Nancy Drew had been around for nearly twenty years. Girls solving mysteries was hardly a new thing and creates a new angle to this mystery. Part of Josephine’s detecting was listening at doors much to the chagrin of her Nannie. She heard things that other members of the household did not, things meant to be secret, and believed that she could solve the case before either Charles Hayward or Scotland Yard. Perhaps she could. Charles was taken by this girl who knew way more than she should and was warned by Scotland Yard that the girl was in danger and needed to be watched closely. She became the most intriguing character in the novel, more so than her actress mother and uncle with horrible business sense. The adults acted as mere caricatures of themselves, yet another instance of Christie poking fun at the lifestyles of the upper classes as she unravels a case.

In the end it is discovered whodunit. Both Hayward and his father seemed to know but did not deduct for sure. In the end, Aristide Leónides’ money is saved and Sophia is willing to wed Charles, who is now posted in the service to Persia. It would serve them well to leave Crooked House. Why this book might have been refreshing for Christie to write is that she initially did not know whodunit, only that any member of the family could have committed rhe murder at any time. In most of her Poirot cases and to a certain extent Miss Marple I believe that Christie must have crafted the case ahead of writing it. This is why she branched out to these stand alones so her bread and butter would not become to cut and dry. Like many of Christie’s more famous cases, Crooked House became a movie that had all viewers on edge. I would rather read and continue with this challenge to give myself a reason to read the Queen of Crime every four weeks or so. Each case provides a different measure of intrigue that proves that Dame Christie really is the Queen of Crime.

4 stars ...more

34 likes · Like · see review

Jun 16, 2025 Theresa rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

Shelves: classics-and-classic-redos, 2025-top-10, cozy-mysteries, highly-recommended-by-me, detective, christie, england

This was one of Agatha Christie's favorites, and she wrote a forward rather than a dedication talking about it and how it just came together so well and so completely. Which of course meant that I looked forward to reading this with even more eagerness than usual when I have a Christie in hand to read, or as is often the case, re-read. Here Christie once again uses a nursery rhyme to inform the plot and the characters - There was a Crooked Man = where crooked means more twisted or bent than outr ...more

4 likes · Like · see review

Oct 09, 2014 ˜”*°•.˜”*°• Sheri •°*”˜.•°*”˜ rated it it was amazing

Shelves: mystery, agatha-christie

Christie's work ages well. With a few minor changes (what's thought of as a lot of money for one) this story could have been written today.

The situation is that the wealthy father and grandfather of adult children has died under suspicious circumstances. He has a very young wife that the adult children don't like - no surprise here. His granddaughter, Sophia, who when asked about her grandfather, describes him "He's rather a person, my grandfather. He's over eighty, about four foot ten, and ever ...more

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Jun 11, 2025 debbicat *made of stardust* rated it really liked it · review of another edition

I enjoyed this. It’s not long. Very satisfying.

4 likes · Like · see review

Sep 04, 2012 Tasha rated it liked it

Shelves: thriller-mystery

2.5I'm sure listening to this on audio made this a less exciting read but I just wasn't all that impressed. Not sure I am as big a fan of Christie as many out there!

Reread: 4 stars this time around. Read print version, not audio, which is probably why I enjoyed it more. ...more

2 likes · Like · see review