Ordeal by Innocence by Agatha Christie – #ReadChristie2024

Two years ago, Jacko Argyle was convicted of murdering his adoptive mother, despite his denial. He died in prison. His family is still recovering from the horror of these events when they are visited by Dr. Calgary, a geophysicist who has just returned to England and explains that he was Jacko’s alibi: the young man was innocent! 

Instead of being relieved, the Argyles are disturbed – because they realize if Jacko was not the murderer, it must be one of them! And as the police renew their investigation, everyone in the household is on edge and one person may be sufficiently afraid to kill again.

My Impression: No Poirot or Miss Marple to solve this mystery as the Argyle household plunges into suspicion and fear, which is quite a surprise. Dr. Calgary thinks he is bringing good news to Jacko’s family, that he had given the young ne’er do well a ride at a time that proves he could not have murdered his mother. Instead, Hester, the youngest Argyle tells him,

“Going on so about justice! What does it matter to Jacko now? He’s dead. It’s not Jacko who matters. It’s us!”

“What do you man?”

“It’s not the guilty who matter. It’s the innocent.”

As the family’s stress mounts, Hester begs Dr. Calgary to return with her to end the suspicions by identifying the real killer.

Agatha Christie displays surprisingly strong and negative feelings about adoption in this book that I found very unpleasant. The murder victim’s desire to have a family caused her to adopt five children but although these children were brought up together and given every advantage from a young age, there is little affection among them and most of them resented their mother. But I found it shocking that the very fact of their adoption is disregarded:

“They weren’t her own children,” Calgary pointed out.

“No,” said MacMaster. “That’s just where the trouble came in, I imagine . . . . She wanted to treat them exactly as though they were hers and Leo Argyle’s own children. Only of course they weren’t hers and Leo Argyle’s own children. They had entirely different instincts, feelings, aptitudes and demands . . . .”

There are also distasteful descriptions of Tina, the middle Argyle daughter, who is repeatedly referred to as half-caste because her father was presumably black.

I realize that in the early part of the 20th century many adoptions had no legal basis so perhaps that is why Christie (1890-1976) or her characters discounted the emotional bonds of adoption but Mrs. Argyle made conscious choices to adopt children, one of whom she met in New York and others she took in temporarily during WWII.  Perhaps her affection was obsessive but she certainly considered them her children and provided for them in her will. My friends who were adopted or have adopted children themselves would be horrified to read the opinions of the men discussing the Argyle family or Leo Argyle’s concern that it is a risk to “make a family of one’s own by artificial means.” Leo, despite being a kind man who seems to care for his family, believes that the “seeds of weakness” (which seems to be a euphemism for illegitimacy) are in these adoptive children despite “[e]verything that environment could do was done for them.” That is why it was so easy for him to believe in Jacko’s guilt.

The Agatha Christie Companion says this was one of Christie’s personal favorites, which surprises me: there is no humor or energy in Ordeal by Innocence, just tension and a lot of repetitious conversation.  I am a fairly enthusiastic Christie fan but I won’t be recommending this one.

This is book 23 for Carol’s Cloak and Dagger Challenge and it is also the September choice for the #ReadChristie2024 Challenge. 

Publication: HarperCollins, paperback, originally published in 1958
Genre: Mystery
Setting: 20th century England
Source: Library