<P>In A sprawling, ramshackle mansion in the affluent suburb of Swindley Dean, Aristide Leonides lies dead from barbiturate poisoning. An accident? The police think it's unlikely, and suspicion immediately falls on Aristide's luscious widow, fifty years his junior, who is now set to inherit a fortune and is rumored to be cavorting with a strapping young tutor already ensconced in the family estate.</P><P></P><P>But criminologist Charles Hayward is taking a much harder look. He's casting about his own doubts on the innocence of the entire Leonides brood. He knows the family intimately. And he's certain that in such a crooked house such as the Three Gables, no one is on the level. Every member of the Leonides clan has a motive .</P><P>Despite the absence of either of Mrs. Christie's two famous detectives, Crooked House is clever, chilling, and cunning - a brilliant piece of detection from the queen of mystery.</P>