It suited him to have that sort of a companion, so in a way he created his own happily ever after. It just so happens that this obstacle is murder… Brenda Leonides, Aristide’s second wife and now widow, describes their meeting and subsequent relationship ‘as quite like a fairy tale.’ Yet interestingly, Sophia, later on in the book questions this rosy way of describing things and implies that their union had little to do with coincidence and fate and that Aristides went into this relationship with his eyes open, being perfectly aware of his wife’s little deceptions. In this earlier novel Christie gives the relationship between Sophia and Charles a fairy tale sheen, as the very crux of the plot is them removing an obstacle which is impending their romance.
I’ve talked about how Ordeal by Innocence does this in my review of last year, so I’ll try not to repeat myself too much and will start with Crooked House.
Then both of them play around with the concept of the fairy tale. There is of course the setting of the relatively isolated family home, from within there is a tight knit community, with its own specific quirky and dysfunctional nature. This is Christie’s 4 th (?) mystery novel with a nursery rhyme and this re-read has definitely left me with the impression that this is a precursor to Ordeal by Innocence (1958). While Scotland Yard struggles to find clues, the murderer has not anticipated the determination of Charles Hayward, fiancé of the millionaire’s granddaughter, to solve the crime from the inside…’ Suspicion naturally falls on the old man’s young widow, fifty years his junior and suspected of having an illicit affair. At least they were, until the wealthy grandfather, Aristide, is murdered with a fatal injection of barbiturates. ‘The Leonides are one big happy family living in a sprawling, ramshackle mansion. It seems like I am in good company as well, as Christie remarks in the foreword to the book that it is ‘one of my own special favourites.’ Like many a fan I would love to know why she found it a ‘pure pleasure’ to write and why it required more thinking time than many of her other books.įor those new to the book, here is a quick summary: *sighs* Where does all the time go? This is a title which I have a lot of fond memories of and would probably feature in my favourite Christies list. It is another re-read and another book I haven’t read for 6 years. Just managed to slip this final review in before the close of the month.
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