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    Ordeal by Innocence
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    Ordeal by Innocence
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    Ordeal by Innocence
    Audiobook7 hours

    Ordeal by Innocence

    Written by Agatha Christie

    Narrated by Hugh Fraser

    4/5

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    About this audiobook

    The Argyle family is far from pleased to discover one of its number has been post-humously pardoned for murder – if Jacko Argyle didn’t kill his mother, who did? The front door of the family home was locked…

    According to the courts, Jacko Argyle bludgeoned his mother to death with a poker. The sentence was life imprisonment

    But when Dr Arthur Calgary turns up a year later with the proof that confirms Jacko’s innocence, he is too late – Jacko died behind bars from a bout of pneumonia.

    Worse still, the doctor’s revelations re-open old wounds in the family, increasing the likelihood that the real murderer will strike again…

    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherHarperCollins
    Release dateMay 1, 2007
    ISBN9780007250257
    Author

    Agatha Christie

    Agatha Christie is the most widely published author of all time, outsold only by the Bible and Shakespeare. Her books have sold more than a billion copies in English and another billion in a hundred foreign languages. She died in 1976, after a prolific career spanning six decades.

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    Reviews for Ordeal by Innocence

    4/5

    68 ratings19 reviews

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    • 4/5
      After their family member dies in prison for a murder he didn’t commit, the rest of the family must turn against each other.

      "Ordeal by Innocence" is certainly a strong novel: this is not your typical detective story, as most of the time is spent with the respective family members coming to terms with Jacko’s death, and the resulting fact that one of them committed the crime. Still, the revelations and insights are solid, and the book is truly haunting. It’s unrelentingly bleak but very strongly written.
    • 4/5
      This was a case of watching the BBC series before reading the book and many of the details/the ending was entirely different. Threw me for a loop. This was very good, not a favorite though.
    • 5/5
      Aww Calgary got his happy ending. Normally would have been a bit annoyed with how it ended but it was just so sweet. And the mystery made a lot of sense. Rounded up from 4.5 stars because of some weird ideas about adoption but that was the time period I guess.
    • 5/5
      Way, way better than the telemovie. Every character was intelligent, and there were unexpected twists and turns a,on the way.
    • 5/5
      I always enjoy Agatha Christie: she’s like a particularly erudite old friend. Hugh Fraser reads extremely well. He doesn’t overdramatise and is an absolute pleasure to listen to.
    • 3/5
      Having seen many AC adaptations to television and film the plot was somewhat predictable. Christie's use of language is still admirable.
    • 3/5
      Agatha Christie delighted in throwing old, unsolved mysteries into her mix, and seeing if her detectives/cops/busybodies could solve them. In this case, the two year lag between the murder and the story is not as far as some of her time lapses, but still far enough to make a trail grow cold. Fun, easy reading, not too challenging, at least not for someone who has read Christie for many years (my first perp turned out to be right, and I never found any of the others terribly satisfying or convincing, so I stuck with it, but it was almost too neat).
    • 4/5
      I started reading this on a plane and thought how much more appropriate it would have been to read "Death in the Clouds".... the book started off in a style which to me as an avid Christie fan was unfamiliar. Nevertheless the book did contain a good deal of the wit and humour that is expected in Christie's novels and presented an interesting "closed room" murder mystery. The problem was the room was too tightly closed and everyone had an alibi as tight as a drum. Backed into a corner many second rate writers resort to the device of deus ex machina to resolve the unresolvable.I was disapponited that Christie fell back on this unsatisfying method of storytelling. The evidence of a child came out of the blue and was so nebulous as to signify very little in the unfolding of the tale, whilst the reader does not get to share in the detections of Dr. Calgary, and the ending of the novel was rather dubious. As an entertainment this was a perfect piece of airport reading.
    • 3/5
      For me this book is not one of Agatha Christie's better books but still a good read.
    • 4/5
      This is one of the last Christie's I'll be reviewing for the Cool Down With AC challenge this summer. I fell a little behind schedule when I needed a break from the Christie a week schedule I was on. This is one of the stand alone novels and was one Agatha Christie's top ten personal favorites making a must read. In this novel we have Dr. Arthur Calgary, who after having suffered a concussion, suddenly remembers an important piece of information in a murder case. Unfortunately by the time he delivers the news, the son of the family has died in prison after being accused of the murder of his adopted mother. Dr. Calgary swears that he can provide an alibi for the son Jacko for the time of the murder and is somewhat mystified when no one in the family seems very happy to hear the news. It turns out, the mother Rachel was a somewhat polarizing figure in the family. She adopted many children during the war but it seems that it was to fulfill a need in her rather than a need in them. You would think that the largely poor and abandoned children would feel only happiness at being adopted into a wealthy loving family but this is not the case for all of them. Things aren't what they seem in typical Christie fashion and the hunt is on for Rachel Argyle's true killer before the victim count stacks up. I enjoyed this book very much. I don't usually figure out the killer but I have read so many of her books now that I am starting to hone in on the who done it. This was a very interesting commentary on adoption. i love how Christie is able to take something you assume and flip it. This is another recommended read from the queen of crime.
    • 4/5
      Told from the point of view (though not in first person) of man who is hit by a lorry (truck) and forgets a chance encounter which happens to prove an alibi for a young man accused of murdering his mother. By the time the witness remembers, the young man has been convicted and has died in prison. But when the witness comes forward, it creates a new danger for (and from) the real murderer. It also gives the opportunity for a romance between the witness and a member of the victim's household.
    • 4/5
      Two years after Jacko was convicted of murdering his mother & dying in prison of pneumonia a man comes forward and corroborates Jacko's alibi... Dr. Calgary had indeed picked the hitchhiking Jacko up (so that he was nowhere near the house at the time of his mother's murder). But then Dr. Calgary has a nasty bump & a bit of amnesia then takes off for the South Pole.When Dr. Calgary returns he happens upon a two year old newspaper and immediately sets out to make amends to the Argyle family:The "family" are all adopted children, housekeeper, & secretary of Rachel & Leo Argyle (who had altruistically taken in children during the war, then adopted several of them):Mary: Calm, controlling of her husband Phil (a victim of polio and the one to stir the pot) who convinced Rachel to become her "Mother"Michael (Micky): Angry at his "Mother" for not being allowed to return to his mother & familyHester: Young frightened and repressed by "Mother" who knows bestTina: Quiet, unassuming, loving, & grateful to "Mother" for the comforts of her new lifeJack (Jacko): A cunning malicious miscreant whom "Mother" always bailed out, until that fateful night.Kirsten (Kirsty): Housekeeper always looking out for & protecting the childrenGwenda: Leo's secretary, now his fianceeNow that Jacko has been proven innocent, there is a murderer among the family, all who were perfectly happy & willing to let the past die with him.... But now the murderer is running scared and will kill againI did figure out "who done it"..... It was a good story of suspense, the characters were not overly odious, some were even likable.
    • 5/5
      There is something quite theatrical about this novel, almost as it was written for the stage with a voice-over.The two voices we mainly hear are those of Dr Calgary who arrives with the tidings that Jacko must have been innocent, and Mr Marshall, the lawyer who provides legal advice. We see the Argyle family/household through their eyes as they assess each member for their possible guilt or innocence. Others assess each of the family members too.ORDEAL BY INNOCENCE appears to be a version of a locked room mystery, that is, one of those people with entry to the house must be the murderer. This person need not have been obviously present in the house, but could have been admitted freely by the victim, without the others knowing he/she was there. Jacko, the black sheep of the family, was such a convenient culprit because he was such a conniving and unpleasant character and because therefore the real murderer could regard himself/herself as safe from suspicion.Once Jacko is cleared posthumously then it becomes clear that another family member is guilty and so the innocence of all is tainted. No-one is free from suspicion as in a sense they all alibi each other.As Jacko has died in prison two years earlier this is now a "cold case" and almost every member of the Argyle family wishes that the case had not been re-opened. Members of the family wish the whole thing would go away and the effective investigation is carried on independently by three outsiders: the police inspector Huish, Phillip who is Mary's husband, and Dr. Calgary.What I really liked about ORDEAL BY INNOCENCE was the ending. After some dramatic events, Dr. Calgary finishes what he started. The final denouement is very similar to Poirot's method of pulling the threads together.Originally published in 1958 as a book, it was also serialised in both UK and the US.ORDEAL BY INNOCENCE was originally a stand alone, but in 2007, with the script changed heavily from the original novel, it became a "Miss Marple" in the British ITV series, with Geraldine McEwan playing the leading role.
    • 4/5
      Two years ago Jack Argyle was convicted of the murder of his adoptive mother, Rachel Argyle, despite protesting his innocence, and subsequently died in prison. Now a stranger arrives to tell the Argyles he can prove Jack was innocent and is surprised to find that they are distressed by this news rather than overjoyed. But if Jack is innocent, someone else in the house must have been guilty of the murder....Unusually for Christie this is light on murders and more focused on the psychological (and social) issues of this portrait of a very unhappy family. Like Streatfeild's [Saplings], I thought this was a very astute look at the effects of disruption and displacement on Rachel Argyle's five adopted children.
    • 4/5
      Another of her books without Poirot or Miss Marple. Jacko Argyle died in prison having been convicted for killing his mother, except he is innocent and Dr Calgary, the man who proves Jacko innocent, is stunned by how disturbed Jacko's family are by his revelation as this means that one of them must be guilty. Lots of twists and turns to this plot and, of course, more death, but the revelation of the murderer and the motive is satisfactory.
    • 4/5
      Ordeal by Innocence is one of Agatha Christie’s later ‘stand-alone’ novels, i.e. it features neither Poirot nor Miss Marple. The setup is quite simple: the wealthy, do-gooder matriarch of a family of adopted children has been murdered, it seems, by one of her now-adult charges, who’s been duly convicted, and has died in prison. But then an unexpected witness shows up with an iron-clad alibi for the unfortunate convict, and the whole case is opened up again, sowing doubt and discord amongst the widower and his surviving children.This is not an unflawed effort – it’s longer than it needs to be, with too much dialogue spent recapping the facts of the case.But it’s an interesting read. I’m particularly fond of Christie’s recurring theme – worked out in detail here – of nature vs. nurture in the development of personality and temperament. Christie critically examines the blank-slate theory of development (although she would not have known it by that name) and finds it sorely lacking. Recommended.
    • 3/5
      Amusing aggie, oddly enough it was filmed as a Miss Marple and she's not in it!
    • 5/5
      Brilliant, brilliant, brilliant! Will listen to it for the second time.
    • 3/5
      This is one of Christie's "stand alone" mysteries, of which there are *far* more than I had previously realized. I read this as a buddy read with an old friend, and the discussion of the book was by far the most interesting aspect of this reading experience as a whole. The book isn't bad, exactly, but the pacing was odd (it dragged *a lot* in the middle), and there were little to no clues or detecting that a reader could follow. Add in some period-appropriate and largely not malicious but still (at best) quite distasteful attitudes towards race, and this Christie falls pretty far down my list of favorites from her.