The Crooked House

If you’ve been reading my blog recently, you will be familiar with my recent love affair with Agatha Christie. I recently read the book, “The Crooked House”. The book opens with our naive narrator, Charles Hayward. He has returned to England to propose marriage to the woman he fell in love with abroad. Sophia Leonides meets him for dinner and explains that her grandfather is dead. She believes he has been murdered. I should mention that Mr. Hayward’s dad is a Scotland Yard investigator. Since his dad needs a set of ears and eyes on the inside, he recruits his son to spy on his lover’s family. Upon stepping foot in the house, such dysfunction he has never seen is on display.

It doesn’t take him long to figure out that the late man’s widow is in love with the tutor. The tutor has been employed to teach the grandchildren to keep the children at home. The whole book revolves around the whole family living in the same house. The grandfather, his two sons, and their families. Each family has their own wing of the house. At first, it appears that everyone gets along. As Charles investigates, he realizes that not everything is as it appears to be. The oldest son, who has been responsible for running the family catering empire, has run it into the ground. The second son is jealous of his older brother. Then there’s the intelligent granddaughter who is spying on everyone, Josephine. She and Charles form a deep relationship.

A big common complaint I have had when reading other works by Agatha Christie is that clues aren’t provided. When I arrived at the end, I could see the clues that were woven throughout the story. Charle’s father has to remind him that not every familial relationship remains uncorrupted. He reminds Charles that some mothers kill their children. Some children try to kill their siblings. Josephine is always saying that the events in her own home feel like a detective novel. She even says that it’s time for there to be a second murder, like in her detective novels.

The ending of the novel felt devastating but made sense. If you don’t want the ending to be ruined, please don’t read this last paragraph. The murderer is revealed to be Josephine. She killed her grandfather because he didn’t let her take ballet lessons. She kills the family nanny because she doesn’t feel as though the nanny takes her seriously. Her aunt discovers that Josephine is the killer, and ends up committing a murder-suicide. I liked that the narrator was taken in and didn’t believe a child could be the killer. The ending felt emotionally devastating and it made sense. In my mind, it hit like the perfect mystery story.