Crooked House (G. K. Hall's Agatha Christie Series)

SUMMARY: In a sprawling mansion in affluent Swinly Dean, Aristide Leonides lies dead from barbiturate poisoning. An accident? Not likely. In fact, suspicion has already fallen on his luscious widow, a cunning, much-younger beauty rumored to have been engaged in an illicit affair. But criminologist Charles Hayward, who' s in love with the dead man' s granddaughter Sophia, has his suspicions about the whole unsavory Leonides clan. Can he solve the puzzle without implicating Sophia? Christie considered this novel, dramatically read by Hugh Fraser, one of her best. Three generations of the Leonides family live together in a large, if somewhat crooked looking, house. Then the wealthy patriarch, Aristide, is murdered. Suspicion falls on the whole household, including Aristide's two sons, his widow – fifty years his junior – and even his three grandchildren. Could any member of this seemingly devoted family have had a hand in his death? Can Charles Hayward, fiance of the late millionaire's granddaughter, help the police find the killer and clear his loved one's name?Christie always acknowledged this novel as one of her favourites. She said in an interview in The Sunday Times that she enjoyed best writing the Crooked House type novel, "which depends on a family and the interplay of their lives." Aristide Leonides was elderly, rich, and in the way. He suffered from diabetes and what could be easier than substituting poison for his insulin? His aristocratic home, Three Gables, had always held many secrets, but now it held a murderer. Who was it? The answer seemed obvious - too obvious. The very young, very beautiful - and now very wealthy - widow had the most to gain. But what about the two sons cut off without a penny? Or the granddaughters who also stood to inherit? Or the handsome tutor with an eye for beauty and money? The truth was any one of the denizens of the vast, rambling crooked house could have killed the old man - and could stirke again In the sprawling, half-timbered mansion in the affluent suburb of Swinly Dean, Aristide Leonides lies dead from barbiturate poisoning. An accident? Not likely. In fact, suspicion has already fallen on his luscious widow, a cunning beauty fifty years his junior, set to inherit a sizeable fortune, and rumored to be carrying on with a strapping young tutor comfortably ensconced in the family estate. But criminologist Charles Hayward is casting his own doubts on the innocence of the entire Leonides brood. He knows them intimately. And he's certain that in a crooked house such as Three Gables, no one's on the level..