Crooked House

Reading Check and Short Answer questions on key points are designed for guided reading assignments, in-class review, formative assessment, quizzes, and more.

Chapters 1-5

Reading Check

1. How is Aristide related to Sophia?

2. How is Sir Arthur Hayward related to Charles?

3. Who calls Aristide an “ugly little common foreigner” (27)?

Short Answer

Answer each question in at least 1 complete sentence. Incorporate details from the text to support your response.

1. What reason does Sophia give Charles for refusing to follow through on their plan to marry after the war ends?

2. What distinction does Arthur draw between Aristide and a common criminal?

3. What are the two meanings—literal and figurative—of “Crooked House”?

Paired Resource

“Crooked House: Official Trailer”

• This 2-minute video is the official trailer for the 2017 film version of Crooked House.
• This resource relates to the theme of Toxic Familial Relationships.
• How does the filmmakers’ interpretation of Crooked House measure up to your own initial impressions of the book? Are the settings and characters as you picture them? Is the atmosphere in this trailer consistent with the atmosphere of Christie’s novel? What point does the trailer seem to be making about the Leonides family? Is their family dysfunction as apparent in the book or is Christie more subtle in her approach?

Chapters 6-11

Reading Check

1. What is Magda’s profession?

2. What illness has Eustace struggled with?

3. What does Mr. Gaitskill come to Three Gables in search of?

Short Answer

Answer each question in at least 1 complete sentence. Incorporate details from the text to support your response.

1. When Charles questions them in Chapter 7, what obvious difference is there between Roger’s and Clemency’s temperaments?

2. How does Sophia respond when Charles expresses sympathy for Brenda after hearing Brenda’s story about how she and Aristides met?

3. What do the investigators learn that causes them to decide that Roger had no motive to kill Aristides?

Paired Resource

“The High Price of Affluence”

• This journal article, by Suniya S. Luthar and Chris C. Sexton, explores the developmental pressures on children of wealthy families.
• This resource relates to the themes of Toxic Familial Relationships and The Importance of Reputation.
• According to this journal article, what problems can children of wealthy families face? Which of these pressures seem to have impacted the Leonides family? What evidence do you see—in their thinking about one another, about Brenda, and about themselves—that these pressures have warped their characters? Does Christie seem to be pointing to wealth alone as the cause of the Leonides’s less desirable character traits?

Chapters 12-15

Reading Check

1. According to Arthur, what character trait do all murderers share?

2. In Chapter 13, who tells Charles that they are sure they know who the murderer is?

3. Which Leonides family member tries to convince the rest of the family to bail out Associated Catering in order to preserve the family’s reputation?

Short Answer

Answer each question in at least 1 complete sentence. Incorporate details from the text to support your response.

1. According to Arthur, why are most murders committed against loved ones?

2. How does Clemency explain to Charles her reaction to learning that Associated Catering is going to be allowed to go bankrupt?

3. What does Sophia blame for the “crooked” growth of her family members?

Paired Resource

“A Stanford Scientist on the Biology of Human Evil”

• This Vox article by Sean Illing features an interview with biologist Robert Sapolsky on the genetic underpinnings of human behavior.
• This resource relates to the theme of Inherited Morality and The Bad Seed.
• What would Robert Sapolsky say about Sophia’s concerns about wickedness being inherited in her family? Does Christie provide evidence that Sophia’s concerns may be warranted? Does the novel as a whole seem to agree with Sophia’s beliefs about inherited evil or does it offer a more nuanced view? What do you imagine Sopolsky might have to say about the moral structure of most Golden Age crime fiction, in general?

Chapters 16-20

Reading Check

1. In Chapter 16, who tells Charles that it is time for another murder?

2. In his secret will, whom does Aristides name as his sole beneficiary, aside from Brenda?

3. What clue does Charles spot on a chair near where Josephine was attacked?

Short Answer

Answer each question in at least 1 complete sentence. Incorporate details from the text to support your response.

1. In Chapter 16, who does Charles find himself wishing would turn out to be the murderer, and what does he realize about this wish?

2. Why does Taverner believe the methods of Aristides’s murder and the attempt on Josephine’s life point to Laurence as a suspect?

3. What is Philip’s reaction to learning the terms of his father’s will?

Paired Resource

“The Small Assassin”

• This Ray Bradbury short story relates the darkly absurd tale of a baby genuinely born evil.
• This resource relates to the theme of Inherited Morality and The Bad Seed.
• The Leonides family clearly believes that there are people who are born especially good and people who are born especially evil. Is Bradbury making the same claim in this short story, or is he satirizing the idea? When you see the idea of inherent evil carried to such an extreme, how does it impact your thinking about the possibility that some people are born evil?

Chapters 21-26

Reading Check

1. Who approaches Charles with concerns about getting Brenda effective legal representation?

2. When he is talking with Taverner, what does Charles realize the person who searched Josephine’s room was likely looking for?

3. Who falsely confesses to murdering Janet and Aristide?

Short Answer

Answer each question in at least 1 complete sentence. Incorporate details from the text to support your response.

1. What information does Charles learn when he tells Sophia that they can get married now that Brenda and Laurence have been arrested?

2. How is Janet murdered?

3. Who actually killed Aristide, and what was their motive?

Recommended Next Reads 

The Murder of Roger Ackroyd by Agatha Christie

• This highly regarded Christie novel features her beloved detective Hercule Poirot investigating a murder within the Ackroyd family, a complicated family with many secrets.
• Shared themes include Toxic Familial Relationships and The Importance of Reputation.
• Shared topics include Golden Age detective fiction, English country house murder, greed and corruption, and manipulation and deceit.
• The Murder of Roger Ackroyd on SuperSummary

Not a Happy Family by Sherry Lapena

• This modern take on the classic country house mystery follows the attempt to solve the murder of a wealthy couple whose three adult children all have very good reasons to want them dead.
• Shared themes include Inherited Morality and The Bad Seed, Toxic Familial Relationships, and The Importance of Reputation.
• Shared topics include country house murder, greed and corruption, and manipulation and deceit.
• Not a Happy Family on SuperSummary