- Title: Crooked House
- Author: Agatha Christie
- Published: 1949 (19th impression 1978)
- Publisher: Fontana / Collins
- ISBN: 000-613798-9
This book is one of my own special favorites. I saved it up for years, thinking about it, working it out… Five books are work to one that is real pleasure. Crooked House was pure pleasure.
Agatha Christie from Foreword
I always wonder how Agatha Christie’s mysteries can still be read in a modern context. Her mystery stories are about murders in the early- to mid-20th century, settings that could easily feel out-of-dated. However, what remains is not just the murder cases but the lives of people and their psychologies, which do not change.
In Crooked House, we do not meet our famous Poirot or Miss Marple. Instead, the story is narrated by a young man who is good-natured but does not have an intuition for crime. Well, he cannot use his “little grey cells” properly. This is a key point of the novel. There are no clear clues or progressions in the investigation; only conflicting testimonies and confusing evidence are given. With no mind of a genius, readers are drawn deep into the plot and conduct their own investigation.
If you have read other Agatha Christie’s novels, you will be surprised that all characters in “Crooked House” are so familiar to you, yet they are still fresh and have their own charm. This is a recurring theme of the author, especially in Miss Marple mysteries. Miss Marple always finds out the familiar type of people within her community. By understanding a small group of people, you can understand a whole society.
The author said “Crooked House” is one of her own special favorites. The book might not be well-known compared to her other works, but it shows her understanding of human psychology and her moral concept.
Scriptorium 