Collins Crooked House (ELT Reader) (English, P, Agatha Christie)

Crooked House is a mystery novel by Agatha Christie. This Collins English Readers version presents the abridged story for English language learners. It also includes supplementary notes and a CD containing a recording of the work.

Summary of the Book

The Leonides family have lived under their wealthy patriarch for three generations. After the passage of Aristide’s first wife, her sister Edith has taken care of the household. Aristide married again, choosing a young woman decades his junior. However, the lovely Brenda is an indolent woman, and the family suspects that she is having an affair with the grandchildren’s tutor. When Aristide is killed, poisoned with his own eye-medicine, the household is engulfed in the investigation. At the heart of the hunt for the murderer are Aristide’s granddaughter Sophia, her lover and fiancé Charles Hayward. Charles and Sophia cannot marry until the killer is apprehended, and desperate to seek him out, Charles asks his father, the Assistant Commissioner of Scotland Yard for help. The “Old Man” sends Charles one of his best detectives, Chief Inspector Taverner, to lend his son a helping hand.

About Agatha Christie

Agatha Christie was an English novelist best known for her murder mystery novels. She created several best-selling storylines centred around timeless characters such as Hercule Poirot, Miss Marple, Tommy and Tuppence and Parker Pyne. Some of her best known books are The Mysterious Affair at Styles, Curtain: Poirot’s Last Case, And Then There Were None and The Murder of Roger Ackroyd.

Series Reading Order

This book follows The Rose and the Yew Tree. If you’re interested in reading more Agatha Christie mysteries, pick up Three Blind Mice and Other Stories next!