Crooked House by Agatha ChristieSynopsis: “The Leonides were one big happy family living in a sprawling, ramshackle mansion. That was until the head of the household, Aristide, was murdered with a fatal barbiturate injection.

Suspicion naturally falls on the old man’s young widow, fifty years his junior. But the murderer has reckoned without the tenacity of Charles Hayward, fiance of the late millionaire’s granddaughter…”

My Review

I loved this very clever murder mystery from the Queen of Crime, which according to the introduction, was one of her personal favourites. 

It was told from Charles Hayward’s point of view, as he gets involved in solving the case for Sophia Leonides, his very new finance.

This was a classic Christie, full of unlikeable characters. There were so many suspects that it made my head spin as I kept changing my mind about who was guilty.  As usual I fell for quite a few of the red herrings along the way, even though there was a really good clue about halfway through the story, which the main character missed as well. There was a police detective in this story, but it was somebody different which made a nice change, from Poirot and Miss Marple.

The narration by Hugh Fraser was superb, as I expected it to be, making it a very enjoyable listen. Highly recommended espeically if you enjoy classic murder mysteries on audio.

Book 11 of 20 Books of Summer 2025

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