It has been a real pleasure to read my chosen book for June’s Read Christie Challenge, as I only have one clear winner in my mind for the book which fits this month’s remit of ‘my choice for best to read in one sitting’. That book is Crooked House.
I have lost count of the number of times I have re-read this book. It has been my go-to Christie choice for a story that commands my entire existence for consecutive hours in a day (and for days afterwards, I have to say, as the directions it takes pack a real punch). At a completely practical level, and in tune with the remit for this month’s challenge, its length (my 1985 Pan version is 160 pages) also makes it ideal to read in a day. I would love to be able to say that I read Crooked House in one sitting this time around. I can’t say that, as ongoing issues with my eyes mean that it is currently impossible for me to spend that length of time reading, to my absolute mortification. I can say from previous experiences of reading this book, however, that it is entirely possible to read it in one sitting, and that I truly believe that the experience of this particular story by doing so is thoroughly immersive and worth the time spent.
So, what is the book about, and what is its big draw for me? The books centres on the Leonides family, at the head of which is Aristide Leonides, in his late eighties, self-made and exceedingly wealthy, and surrounded in his house by all the immediate members of his family: his very young new wife who is detested by the family, his eldest son and his wife, his younger son and spouse, the sister of his first wife who sadly died, and his three grandchildren. It is the eldest grandchild, Sophia, with whom the narrator, Charles Hayward, is in love. With the war over, he now wants to marry her – but Sophia has a problem. Her grandfather has died, and she is certain that it wasn’t due to natural causes. This places suspicion firmly on members of the household, leaving Sophia unable to give Charles a definitive answer to the question of marriage until this has been cleared up. Because, of course, it means she is under suspicion, too.
Charles, son of a high ranking officer at Scotland Yard, is determined to work both alongside the police and also to get to the truth of the matter by pursuing his own independent investigations. But when he goes down to Three Gables (the ‘crooked house’ of the book’s title), there is little he finds which appeases him. Everyone wants to pin the blame on Brenda, the young wife, because that way the murderer wouldn’t be a blood member of the Leonides family. But was it Brenda? The more Charles talks to the family, the more he realises that all of them have reasons for wanting Aristide Leonides dead. Maybe he won’t want the truth at all…
The pacing of this novel is propulsive, so much so that it feels that all the events may well have happened in one day, although that is not the case. This propulsion is compounded, certainly for me, by the way in which every suspect falls under Charles’ investigative gaze with regard to means, motive and opportunity, and then, even when they have been ruled out, it’s often the case that they are ruled back in again with the discovery of a piece of evidence. Its effect is very much a roller-coaster of suspicion, the chances of who could have perpetrated the crime going up and down for each individual about as often as Charles goes up and down the stairs to speak to the different family groupings of the Leonides family!
But, despite this, the clues are laid out clearly, if only you know where to look – and towards whom. If ever there was a darkly unsettling psychological point around which this whole murder hinges, then this book claims it. Grievances in a family, as this novel shows, can run deep, and can be ignored by everyone. Murder brings them to the fore, where it is no longer impossible to dismiss feelings or look the other way, and someone has to do something.
If you are looking for a short read, yet still want to be immersed in a novel, and you love a limited cast confined by the house in which they live, and a myriad of motives for the murder which takes place, then I cannot recommend Crooked House highly enough. Just be prepared for a shock – and for it to live with you while you wrestle with it in your conscience. It certainly lived with me. Maybe I want the ending to be different; maybe I want it to turn out to be someone else; maybe the way it sits uneasily in me is the reason I return to Crooked House again and again.
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