Crooked House by Agatha Christie
My rating: 5 of 5 stars
Crooked House was a joy to try to solve. I read it with a bunch of other people and we all tried like heck to figure it out. There were so many different theories, and honestly, all of them could have worked.
This is one of my favorites out of the Christie work that I have read. It’s pure entertainment and Agatha slayed her red herrings here. Everyone is a suspect!
I say it is one of my favorites, and it is, but the author herself also described it as such. She must have been feeling especially clever after she penned this exceptional work.
I love to think about Christie’s work in context to the time she wrote it. This novel has a twist, which now, reading it in 2024, I’ve read before. We’ve probably seen this twist multiple times across all different mediums at this point.
But it’s important to remember, it didn’t start with them, the other works we’ve watched and read, it started WITH HER. With Christie herself, who went on to inspire decades, nay generations of creatives.
This is a standalone for Christie, meaning it doesn’t include one of her two most famous characters, Hercule Poirot, or Miss Jane Marple. Shocking, I know.
I’ve recently been reading the Miss Marple works in order and loving them. I wasn’t sure if I would enjoy this as much, not having one of those iconic characters in it.
I’m happy to report, I didn’t think of that at all once I got into this story. It’s so interesting, so compelling, the plot so tight and engaging, I was hooked from the start, no matter who the characters were.
As far as content, if you require more to spur you to pick this up, this story involves a man whose love interest asks him to look into her Grandfather’s death. Her very wealthy Grandfather, who left behind a substantial inheritance.
He has to travel to the family estate, meet all of her family members and try to determine whether or not the old man’s death was natural, an accident, or murder. And if the latter were true, then whodunit!?
I absolutely recommend this one to any fan of Christie’s work, as well as anyone looking to try her work for the first time. If you love a closed circle mystery, an inheritance story, or just good old-fashioned mystery writing, you should absolutely pick this one up!
I’m looking forward to getting to more of Christie’s standalones after reading this. Christie is an absolute gift to the literary world and I shall continue to pick up her books for years and years to come!