Christie, Agatha - Crooked House (1949)

Review by Nick Fuller

3/5

In this stock account of the poisoning of a Greek tycoon by a close family member, there is far more conversation than detection, far more discovery of possible motive than ratiocination. Indeed, the identity of the psychologically abnormal murderer dawns on the narrator-hero only after the murderer's diary falls into his hands. Not comparable to the best Christies.

Note similarities with Doyle's "The Sussex Vampire", Margery Allingham's The White Cottage Mystery, and Ellery Queen's appalling The Tragedy of Y.