May 18, 2004 10:15 AM
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(Updated May 18, 2004 10:16 AM)
Dame of the British Empire:
Agatha Christie is a name not unheard of but being such an ardent admirer, I must mention a few things about her writing style. The dilemma is that I don?t know which is better - her style or her plots ? I think both.
The ?Queen of Crimes? always presents a psychological picture of any murder ? her characteristic remark being ?Murder always starts with the Character of the person who is murdered ?. Another interesting thing to note is that though most of her books are about Murder and death ?there is nothing sordid 'bout it.
Her focus is more on the human behaviour of the people involved around the murder ? I think it is this aspect that appeals to one n all.
The book ?Crooked House:
For a change this is a not a Hercule Poirot or a Jane Marple mystery instead we have the narrator who also does a bit of investigation.
It is another of her books based on nursery rhymes (like Ten Little Pigs and Pocket Full of Rye) ?the verses go like this:
There was a crooked man and he went a crooked mile
He found a crooked sixpence beside a crooked stile
He had a crooked cat, which caught a crooked mouse
And they all lived together in a little crooked house.
Charles Hayward first met Sophia Leonides in Egypt where she worked in the Foreign Office Department.Charles was always delighted in her company but only when he got summons to proceed to the East at the close of the European War, he realized that she was the woman he wanted to marry.
After two long years he returns to England all set for the wedding bells but there is a problem. Sophia?s grandfather, millionaire Aristide Leonides dies of poisoning and Sophia cannot marry Charles until she finds the truth about who killed her grandfather.
Charles visits Three Gables, the Crooked House where Sophia?s large family lives -Sophia?s young step-grandmother, her parents, her Aunt and Uncle, her grand aunt and her own brother and sister.
As soon as he sees the house he realizes why it is called so - a huge cottage built out of proportion which had a strange air of distortion.
As Charles comes to know the family intimately, his suspicions also rise.
Anyone could have done it ?it was only a mixup where the eye drops was injected instead of the insulin.
The young stepmother Brenda has a soft corner for the children?s tutor, Charles and was the obvious suspect.
Sophia?s parents, Magda and Philips were an odd couple ? while Magda was dramatic, Philips was an introvert.
Her uncle Roger has a bad temper and his wife Clemency seemed like a very cold woman.
Aunt Edith was queer in the sense that she was devoted to Aristide and still hated his ways.
Sophia?s 12-year-old sister Josephine has a habit of playing detective to prove that she was smarter than others.
Charles seems close to discovering the truth with the help of Josephine?s revelations when an attempt is made to kill Josephine.(Read it to find out who dun it!)
The background and settings are simple but the plot thickens until it reaches a crescendo that we are left gasping for breath.
This is what Agatha had to say about this book in her autobiography
?Of my detective books, I think that the two that satisfy me best are Crooked House and Ordeal by Innocence.? -Agatha Christie, An Autobiography, 1977.
I had started reading her books more than a decade back but still continue to read them whenever I want to read something light and engrossing.
Pick it up if u like to read Mystery.
