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Murder at the Manor

by Agatha Christie

Murder at the Manor, by the first lady of mystery, Agatha Christie, is a large print home library edition consisting of two lost classics – Crooked House and Ordeal by Innocence. Both murder mystery settings are located in manor homes – those stately English houses where there seems to be all kinds of room – and plenty of modern inconveniences! Agatha Christie needs no introduction to the mystery fan, and both stories are typical of this fantastic author.

The first offering, Crooked House, begins when the protagonist Charles meets his love, Sophia Leonides after the first World War and discovers her beloved grandfather has been poisoned. Sophia won't marry Charles until everything is cleared up and the family is free of suspicion. Charles' father, the 'Old Man', is connected to Scotland Yard, and when Charles travels to Swinly Dean, where the manor is situated, he finds not only Sophie with the grandfather's very young wife and her insipid boyfriend, but several other family members and two children, as well as an aunt, Edith de Haviland.

In the Christie manner, anyone could have committed the crime, which was accomplished by placing something other than insulin in the bottles so marked – and the diabetic grandfather himself had even given the family the idea for the murder. Of course, after being led merrily down the usual garden path, the reader is presented with the real killer, and it's as shocking a revelation as anyone could wish.

The second book, Ordeal by Innocence gives the reader insight as to what can happen when a convicted culprit is cleared of a murder. Instead of gratitude, the family is faced suddenly with the possibility that one of them committed the atrocity. Everybody wants it to be someone outside the family – although everyone in the family has been adopted, and the murdered woman herself was somewhat overly intense with her 'duties' as a mother.

Dr. Arthur Calgary was the gentleman responsible for giving an alibi to the convicted man – and he then feels responsible for helping the family to discover who the actual murderer is. Agatha Christie is able to focus suspicion on first one, then another of the family members until the killer is shown to be someone completely unexpected.

Both Christie novels have lost none of their appeal over the years, and I dare say that all authors who base their plots on her work (which is to say, most of them!) will never go wrong. The majority of the Christie novels belong in the 'cozy' category, of course, but even authors using modern forensic or hard-boiled settings still utilize the basic Christie formulae. Murder at the Manor remains an excellent read.

Alan Paul Curtis

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