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Loading... Ordeal by Innocence (original 1958; edition 2002)by Agatha Christie
Work InformationOrdeal by Innocence by Agatha Christie (1958)
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Sign up for LibraryThing to find out whether you'll like this book. No current Talk conversations about this book. Good read, well constructed. Some good old anachronistic sexism & racism. Was mostly reading to compare with the BBC series. This was much more cleverly constructed — I didn't guess the murderer, but had to take my hat off to Ms Christie for having laid all the clues there (though there were a couple of incidents which really stretch credulity). All that said, I think as written it would have been a slightly dull tv show. Soooo... let's call that one a draw. Ordeal by Innocence does not follow the standard Agatha Christie format. This novel presents the psychology of the suspects in a murder of a domineering woman. Rachel Argyle, a wealthy and generous woman falls victim to death by a poker. Her adopted son, Jacko, falls prey to a conviction for her murder and dies in prison from pneumonia. He had claimed his innocence by stating a man gave him a ride. The man, Dr. Calgary, meets with obstacles and does not confirm Jacko’s plea until two years later. Dr. Calgary goes to the Argyle family to explain the situation that only opens old wounds. Each of the adopted children, the husband, the husband’s secretary, and a nurse explore their relationship with Rachel. A wonderful approach to murder and how each individual involved might be the killer. The story reminds me of the novels of Elizabeth George and her Inspector Lynley series. Too often, the why tends to be omitted. Two years ago a man was found guilty of killing his mother, sent to prison, then died while incarcerated. Now a man has come forward with solid evidence to clear the son’s name, but he doesn’t at all get the reaction from the family that he expected. Because now, of course, the case is once again wide open, and any of them could be the murderer… I think this is likely my least favorite of Christie’s novels I’ve read so far. It’s an interesting premise, and by the end I was interested to see who’d dunnit, but the beginning and middle seemed really to drag along at a snail’s pace, and then when the killer was revealed, I was disappointed that the answer wasn’t more clever. *shrug* no reviews | add a review
Belongs to Publisher SeriesIs contained inAgatha Christie Crime Collection: Ordeal by Innocence / One, Two Buckle My Shoe / Adventure of the Christmas Pudding by Agatha Christie 1950s Omnibus: They Came to Baghdad, Destination Unknown, Ordeal by Innocence, The Pale Horse by Agatha Christie Murder at the Manor: The Seven Dials Mystery / Crooked House / Ordeal by Innocence by Agatha Christie Has the adaptation
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HTML: Considered by critics the one of the best of Agatha Christie's later novels, and a personal favorite for Christie herself, Ordeal by Innocence is a psychological thriller involving crimes from both past and present. According to the courts, Jacko Argyle bludgeoned his mother to death with a poker. The sentence was life imprisonment. But when Dr. Arthur Calgary arrives with the proof that confirms Jacko's innocence, it is too lateâ??Jacko died behind bars following a bout of pneumonia. Worse still, the doctor's revelations reopen old wounds in the family, increasing the likelihood that the real murderer will strike again. No library descriptions found. |
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Google Books — Loading... GenresMelvil Decimal System (DDC)823.912Literature English & Old English literatures English fiction Modern Period 1901-1999 1901-1945LC ClassificationRatingAverage:
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This novel is very similar to many of Poirot’s cases, and I think it would have worked better as a Poirot mystery. It suffers from lack of an easily identifiable protagonist/detective. Sometimes Arthur Calgary works on the puzzle. Sometimes the local police superintendent works on it. Sometimes Philip Durant, the murder victim’s disabled son-in-law, fancies he can solve the mystery. Christie excelled at revealing character through conversation, and her dialogue carries her best novels. This novel focuses more on what various characters are thinking to themselves, and there isn’t a lot of dialogue. I think that’s why the pace seems to drag. ( )