Hours later, Josephine was badly injured when a doorstop fell on her, what police believed was a booby trap the real killer had prepared in an attempt to silence the child.

She mentioned that it was about time for another murder. Josephine said the police were too stupid for her to help them. She said she knew who killed Aristide, but she refused to give the name to Charles. There seemed to be no reason that others in the family would want him dead.ĭuring the course of his investigation, Charles met Josephine, Sophia’s younger sister who claimed to be working on solving the murder on her own. Though Brenda, Aristide’s young wife, gave him his injection before he died, Brenda said that she was innocent. The investigation into the murder did not go well since there was not really much condemning evidence against any family member who knew about the eye drops. Someone had emptied an insulin bottle and refilled it with the eye drops. It was at this point that Charles had the opportunity to get to know Sophia’s family because he was investigating the murder of her grandfather.Īristide had been poisoned with his eye drops, a substance all members of the family knew was lethal if taken internally. Then, two years later they were reunited in London. Charles and Sophia made no serious plans. When Charles Hayward decided he wanted to marry Sophia Leonides, he knew little about her except that she had told him that she and her extended family “all lived together in a little crooked house” (4). The family was stymied with its own doubts because if Brenda and Laurence were innocent, then one of their own had committed the crime. Although evidence pointed in their direction, no one seemed to believe Brenda and Laurence were the real killers. However, there was doubt that the real murderer had been caught. Leonides' wife (Brenda) and her lover (Laurence Brown) were arrested for the murder.

Yet, it was hard for the family to believe that one of its own was so morally bankrupt that they murdered Aristide Leonides, the elderly patriarch.

In the novel Crooked House by Agatha Christie, one member of the Leonides family inherited all of the clan's worst traits. William Morrow Paperbacks, February 10, 2010. The following version of the novel was used to create this study guide: Christie, Agatha.

The crooked house agatha christie book