With Read-Along Text
'Writing Crooked House was pure pleasure and I feel justified in my belief that it is one of my best.'
- Agatha Christie
Crooked House is a mystery novel by Agatha Christie. The action takes place in and near London in the autumn of 1947. Christie has said that this was one of her two favorites of her own works.
The first person narrator is Charles Hayward who, towards the end of the Second World War, occupies some post in Cairo. There he meets Sophia Leonides, who works for the Foreign Office there. They fall in love with each other but put off getting engaged until after the end of the war when they will be reunited back home in England.
When Charles Hayward arrives back home it is only to find an obituary in The Times: Sophia's grandfather, Aristide Leonides, has died, aged 87. Due to the war, the whole family has been living together under one roof, in a large house near London, among them Leonides' second wife, whom many in the family dislike and see as nothing more than a gold digger.
When the news is broken that Aristide Leonides has been poisoned, via a diabetic injection, Charles is unwittingly drawn into the case.
