Crooked House

 

Author:  Agatha Christie

Begun: March 19th 2025

Finished: March 21st 2025

Type: Audiobook on Libby

Narrator: Hugh Fraser

Rating: 6/10

The same crap, really freaking irritating.  Servants looked down on, lower classes blamed and disregarded, as usual in Christie's novels.  It shines a really ugly light on her own biases and snobbery. 

Christie wrote the main characters as though she loved and supported them, but actually every one of them was absolutely awful. The only human ones were the ones those main characters despised.  I was rooting for one particular character to be the murderer as it would have made things much more interesting, but no such luck.  The twist was at least moderately satisfying, and I figured it out from the second (attempted) murder. It was pretty irritating at the end where it was revealed as though it were a shocking revelation - but no, it was just a bloody relief that they finally all got it. 

The audiobook came with two stories: Crooked House and Endless Night.  I'm so disgusted with Crooked House that I'm not bothering with the second one.  

SPOILER AHEAD!!!!!  DO NOT READ AHEAD IF YOU DON'T WANT IT SPOILED!!!

What was SO appalling was how the main female protagonist was given control of the whole family and then at the end her fiancee was all, "And now you're going to come with me far away and leave everyone behind and concentrate on ME."

And I'm all, "WTH you talking about?  She is literally in control of all the business interests! She can't be going off to focus on you, you nasty little narcissist, she's got work to do!"

Honestly, I can't be doing with this crap.  I'm so horrified that this was the "happy" ending.  It was like that in Evil under the Sun too: in the "happy ending", the successful business woman gave up her business to focus on her husband.  WTAH?  

Things ain't great for women now, but it's better than it was 100 years ago that's for sure.