by Maria K.

Created on: August 19, 2011   Last Updated: February 01, 2012

"The Crooked House" is unusual in that it is one of the novels where Agatha Christie practically tells the reader who the culprit is very early in the story, but the culprit does not appear until well into the second half. During Charles' conversation with his father a detailed description of the murderer is given: it is someone who is a child or very child-like, who kills on a whim with never a notion that it is wrong to do so. Someone who feels superior to others and is dying to talk. Enter Josephine Leonides.

Readers cannot relate to her. In fact, the author does not intend for them to relate to Josephine, which is obvious from how the girl is portrayed. She is consistently described as something altogether inhuman: a goblin, an elf, an imp, a troll foundling. The not-quite-human effect is enhanced by Josephine's seemingly preternatural ability to appear out of nowhere and to interpret facts and foresee events that leave other people stumped.

Josephine is the character readers love to hate. She is ruthless and cruel as only a child can be, but also fiercely intelligent and completely fearless. Her "little girl playing detective" mask is flawless and her strategy and planning would put Professor Moriarty to shame. One cannot blame her for believing all grownups in general, and policemen in particular, to be stupid, because they continuously supply proof of their inferior insight. As the narrative unfolds, at least half of the adult characters acknowledge as much in one form or another: "We did not see it", "We were all very stupid then", "It should have been obvious". At times, Josephine appears as surprised at not being discovered as she is delighted by it.

Ironically, people who end up being Josephine's victims are those who understand her best - and fear most of the implications of her mind's strange workings: her grandfather Aristide Leonides, who recognizes in the girl the combination of the most dangerous qualities from the two lines of ancestors; the old nanny, who knows nothing of psychology but has plenty of life experience to feel in her gut how odd this child really is and how much "looking after" she needs; and finally aunt Edith de Haviland. For all her dislike toward Aristide Leonides, Edith shares some traits with him and with Josephine: intelligence, insight, decisiveness and a kind of ruthlessness. It is only fitting that Edith and Josephine perish together - one of them having taken upon herself the guilt for the committed crimes, and the other - a true culprit.

While the conclusion is shocking and profoundly unsettling - after all, who could be comfortable with the death of a child - readers come to realize the same thing Aristide and Edith did: there really is no good outcome for Josephine. No amount of society of her peers, no sports, no games could ever straighten the unique and crooked mind at the center of the tragedy at the Crooked House.

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