Crooked House

Crooked House like Dame Agatha Christie’s other favourite detective novel ‘Ordeal by Innocence’ does not feature either Hercule Poirot or Miss Marple.

It’s a very good murder mystery and when everything is explained, I am sure most first time readers will find they have once again been bamboozled.

Agatha Christie very often uses psychology to explain the behaviour of the people in her stories.And, together with other clues, it is quite often the personality of the murderer that confirms his or her guilt.. This is never more apparent than in this book and, yes, we really should have seen who was to blame very early on in the book.

‘Crooked House’ is a narrative, and the narrator is a man. I don’t know that this actually works too well – Agatha Christie uses the same technique in ‘The Murder of Roger Ackroyd’ to much more telling effect, I think.

In her autobiography, Dame Agatha comments ‘Authors are always said to be no judge of their own books.’ I think there is probably a lot of truth in this.

Although both Crooked-House and ‘Ordeal by Innocence’ are excellent, I would not rate either of them as my own particular favourite. Quite honestly, I miss having Hercule Poirot or Miss Marple putting together the pieces and I am quite sure I will not be alone in that.

However, it is an extremely clever murder mystery book and I would urge anyone who hasn’t yet read to obtain a copy. And if you guess whodunit, give yourself a pat on the back.

You can get hold of this Agatha Christie book via the following links.

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