A top-notch detective story by an author who is very good at detective stories! The titular Crooked House is an oddly-designed house holding the multi-generational family of Aristide Leonides, an immigrant to England from Greece who built his restaurant into a web of businesses that were never illegal, but definitely a bit crooked. His two grown sons and their families, as well as the sister of his deceased wife live in the house with him, along with his much younger second wife and a handsome tutor for his son Philip's younger children. Before the action of the novel, Aristide has died after the insulin his wife injected into him was replaced with eserine (from his eye drops).

Our narrator, Charles, enters the scene as the fiancée of Sophia, Philip's oldest child, who he met overseas during the war. Sophia refuses to marry him until the question of who killed her grandfather is settled, since any hint of impropriety could hurt his prospects. Lucky for Charles, his dad is a big wig at Scotland Yard, and he gets sent to the Leonides home with our old friend Chief Inspector Taverner to see what he can learn about the family. Everyone suspects Brenda, the young wife, who had been having an affair with the handsome tutor, but, oddly, everyone in the family had their own reasons why they may want their beloved patriarch to be killed, and they all kind of suspect each other too.

Christie leads us through a mountain of twists and turns and red herrings, wrapping things up with an unsuspected and very satisfyingly dark ending that proves that anyone in this crooked family really could be capable of murder. This was Christie's 49th book, published in 1949, and is frequently put in her top ten by critics and fans. I have to say that I am in agreement there. ( )

Charles Hayward investigates the murder of his fiancee's grandfather as she refuses to marry him while she is still a possible suspect.

A stand-alone novel where my little grey cells failed me completely. ( )

I guess I never added this book when I read it years ago.
With some mystery novels, eventually you forget whodunnit. You can reread and it'll be fresh because it wasn't that memorable the first time around.
This is not that book.
You'll remember. ( )

This book was solid. Great quirky characters and a fine plot line. The reason for the murder was mind blowing and troubling for me. ( )

Another delightful Agatha Christie novel which keeps you guessing right until the end. ( )