Ordeal by Innocence / Agatha Christie

 

E

4 out of 5 stars 

Much more directly psychological than most of Christie's output, this novel explores the nature/nurture debate, human dynamics in the family, and the role of the mother of adoptive children. Mrs. Argyle, the victim of murder (presumably by her adoptive son, Jacko), was a force to be reckoned with. She supported the family, ran the house, mothered her children far too much, and sent her husband retreating into historical studies, where he could feel like he had some autonomy.

When Dr. Calgary appears on the scene, returned from the Antarctic and having newly heard about the case, he reveals that Jacko had an alibi for the night of the murder and has died in prison for a crime he could not have committed. Those remaining in the household quickly realize that there must be a murderer in their midst. Calgary and the police are both asking uncomfortable questions—even Philip Durrant, the wheelchair bound son in law, is amusing himself by investigating on his own.

At one point, someone describes Mrs. Argyle's parenting style as “smothering,” something which all of her many adoptive children would agree with, though some of them coped with it better than others. Mary, wife of Philip, seems to have chosen a similar possessive style to care for her disabled husband. He resents it as sharply, understandably saying his brain is just fine. Christie can lay all kinds of red herrings within this situation, where resentments seethe just beneath the surface.

I knew a man, adopted into a good family and raised with every advantage, who nevertheless felt hard done by. He couldn't have been more different from his adoptive brother if he'd tried. He eventually met his natural brothers and his behaviour was just like them—tetchy, quick to anger, grudge holding, and believing that everything was stacked against him. That's how powerful genetics can be. I was a friend of his mother and was dismayed by the way he treated her. She was kind without smothering (although perhaps with a tendency to “be right" too often, like Mrs. Argyle). I couldn't help but think about them while reading this.

I think that I'll be rereading this novel in the future, just to examine how Christie shaped it so deftly and to try to parse what she felt about being a child and being a mother.