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3.68 AVERAGE
3.68 AVERAGE
When Dr. Arthur Calgary returns home from a research expedition in the arctic, so too return his memories from a cataclysmic night two years prior. Now well-recovered from the concussion he suffered that night, Dr. Calgary realizes he has something to confess. While he was preparing for his journey, Mrs. Rachel Louise Argyle was murdered. In the ensuing weeks, her alleged killer, adopted son "Jacko" Argyle, was arrested and given a life sentence only to die of pneumonia six months later. For two years, the Argyle family felt satisfied that justice had ruled the day, but Calgary must let them all know that they did not find the true killer. He was, after all, Jacko's missing alibi.
Having upturned the Argyle family's relative sense of peace, Calgary makes himself responsible for discovering the true killer before they can strike again. But the thing is, everyone appears guilty. For all Mrs. Argyle's generosity, seeds of resentment towards her took hold in each household member. But whose hatred turned so violent so as to turn to murder?
Queen of Mystery Agatha Christie, for me, makes such a formidable foe with her whodunnits that I hardly even bother sitting down to play against her in this, the chess match between reader and writer. Her casts are so full, so suspicious, especially in this one, that I can only hope that my "maybe they all did it?" theory will win a second time.
It doesn't, of course, as that trick can only happen once. Still, Christie twists your balls real hard on this one. For me, the reveal of the real murderer and the real detective (the victim's son-in-law makes a compelling investigation only for it to be dashed pages away from the denouement) eased a tension that I didn't know I was carrying around the three days it took for me to start and finish the book.
I would be remiss, though, to not acknowledge a hideous aspect of the book's presumptions about human nature. Throughout, Christie's rational characters (all men) allude to the idea that genetics is destiny, that criminality is born within a person and environment can do nothing to change nature. It's an insidious concept, and while I haven't read other reviews, I hope we are picking up on it. Ordeal by Innocence was published in 1958, but the psychological concepts that sit a hop and a skip away from the Nazi persecution of Jews remain. Because of that, and Christie's insistence on it, I didn't enjoy the novel half as much as I might have.
