When the family patriarch, old Aristide Leonides, a Greek businessman, is found poisoned by his own eye medicine, suspicion immediately falls on his second wife, the much younger Brenda.

The ‘crooked house’ of the title is a mansion in the quiet London suburb of Swinley Dean and the people who ‘all live together’ there are ten members of the Leonides family. He bought a crooked cat, which caught a crooked mouse,Īnd they all lived together in a little crooked house. He found a crooked sixpence against a crooked stile There was a crooked man, and he went a crooked mile, It’s one of her standalones – with no Poirot, Marple or other famous detective – and, like several of her other novels, has a title inspired by a children’s nursery rhyme: Now that I’ve read it, I can say that although it’s not one of my absolute favourites, it would definitely be in my top ten so far. Crooked House doesn’t involve an actual school, but it does fit the general theme as it features two children who are being home-schooled.įirst published in 1949, this was apparently one of Christie’s own favourites in the foreword, she says that ‘practically everybody has liked Crooked House, so I am justified in my own belief that it is one of my best’. I’ve already read the obvious choice, Cat Among the Pigeons, so I was grateful to the challenge hosts for providing a list of alternative suggestions. September’s topic for the Read Christie 2021 challenge is ‘a story featuring a school’.

Book crooked house