46. Crooked House by Agatha Christie (Mystery) 235 p.

This novel was not at all what I was expecting. A young man, Charles Hayward, meets and falls in love with Sophia Leonides in Egypt during the war. When he returns to England two years later, he finds that her grandfather has been murdered, and her entire family is under suspicion.

Charles’s father is the Assistant Commissioner of Scotland Yard, and as Sophia’s unofficial fiancé, Charles has access to the house and the people involved in the case. For Sophia’s sake, and his own, he investigates the case. On the surface, it looks simple: Aristide Leonides was 85 years old, and his wife, Brenda, only 34. A young tutor living in the house, Laurence Brown, is just Brenda’s age, and may have been her lover. It seems obvious that one or other or both of them must be guilty—except that there are several circumstances that don’t fit that theory.

The police are baffled, especially since no other member of the family seems to have an adequate motive. Charles, encouraged by his father and Sophia, hangs around the house, searching for clues to the mystery in his conversations with everyone involved, but not really getting anywhere. The only person who seems to have any ideas about the crime at all is 12-year-old Josephine, Sophia’s younger sister. She claims that she knows who did it, and that she only lacks a few final pieces of evidence—a claim that is only believed after she twice escapes being murdered herself.

Aside from being a very entertaining read, Crooked House was quite surprising. I really didn’t seen the ending coming at all, and although I had several vague theories about the case, not one of them turned out to be correct. I thought I knew Christie really well, but this challenge is teaching me how many wonderful things I’ve missed!

This was one of Christie’s two favourites among her own works. The other, Ordeal by Innocence, is coincidentally my next pick for the challenge. I’m quite excited!

Pages read: 12,795

Tags: 50 Book Challenge 2008, 888 Challenge, Agatha Christie, Anything Agatha Challenge