Crooked House

In the Foreword to her mystery novel, Crooked House, Agatha Christie writes that of all she's written, this novel was one of her favorites. Having never heard of this novel before now, I wasn't quite sure how to take that statement.

However, after having read the novel, I have to agree with Ms. Christie. While I can hardly judge whether it is the best thing she had ever written, it is certainly very close to the top in my opinion.

Although my favorite Christie characters are nowhere to be found - no Hercule Poirot or Miss Marple - the novel was a great read. I don't understand why this novel isn't more well known among the general public or why it had never been made into a film until 2017. Of course, I wanted to watch the film before commenting on the novel.

Like every film ever adapted from a novel, there had to be changes made. That seems to be standard procedure in film making. There are changes in the film which aren't especially important to the story, so I'm not at all certain why these particular changes were made. One example is the change made regarding the two brothers, Phillip and Roger Leonides. In the novel, Roger is the older brother - in the film the birth order is switched. There doesn't appear to be any reason for that, as far as I can tell. In the novel, Brenda Leonides, the much younger widow of Aristide Leonides is British; in the film she is American. There's also an element of international intrigue in the film which isn't in the book.

Fortunately, the important elements of the story remains unchanged. The same people who are killed in the film are the same ones killed in the novel. The murderer is also the same.

Today, being the last day of July, it looks as if Crooked House will be the last item of July's reading list. The book list will appear in a later post. The Agatha Christie novel I began reading last night -(A Murder is Announced) will be the first book on the August reading list.