UK Book of the Month
Book of the Month - Crooked House
About Crooked House
The Leonides are one big happy family living in a sprawling, ramshackle mansion. That is until the head of the household, Aristide, is 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, fiancé of the late millionaire’s granddaughter.
Published in the US in March 1949, the title of Crooked House refers to the nursery rhyme ‘There Was a Crooked Man.’ In the foreword of the book, Agatha Christie describes writing Crooked House as pure pleasure. Agatha Christie writes: ‘This book is one of my own special favourite. I saved it up for years, thinking about it, working it out, saying to myself: ‘One day, when I’ve plenty of time, and want to really enjoy myself – I’ll begin it.’
Crooked House is one of the only Christie crime novels not to be adapted for the screen, although in 2008 it was adapted for BBC Radio 4 in four weekly 30 minute episodes.
Did You Know?
The shocking ending in Crooked House is one of Agatha
Christie’s greatest. In fact, it was so shocking that her publishers tried to
convince her to change the ending, but she refused!
