Ordeal by Innocence was originally published in 1958 and is only the second Agatha book I’ve read. I’ve only had the Caribbean Mystery for comparison, so cannot judge if this is standard fare or one of Agatha’s more mediocre efforts. It’s meandering plot is certainly lackluster compared to the sizzle and intrigue of the aforementioned book. In Ordeal, the novelist ponders the ethics of letting sleeping dogs lie and if doing so would be the best course of action when coming forward would disrupt and disturb many people’s lives. The book opens with a fellow coming forward with an alibi that clears a murderer after he’s already been convicted and died in custody. Our protagonist Dr. Calgary, gives the murderer a ride during the time of the murder, but afterwards suffers a concussion and then ships off to the Arctic for a two year expedition. He doesn’t hear anything about the sensational case until after he returns to England. The victim was the supposedly sainted mother of many adopted children. The accused was the delinquent son, Jack, who was never quite right in the head. Dr. Calgary’s coming forward clears the now deceased miscreant, but throws the family into turmoil because if Jack didn’t do it……who did? Dr. Calgary then virtually disappears from the novel, but shows up here and there pondering the mystery and eventually solving it in the end. There are many possibilities for the real murderer, including the widower and his secretary who are in love, the young beautiful but flighty daughter, the disaffected and angry younger son with a chip on his shoulder, the quiet and kind librarian daughter, the oldest daughter with the husband paralyzed by polio and the former nanny, now housekeeper. No one really seems to have a motive on the surface, but as we learn each and every one’s back story we discover that everyone hated the mother and wanted her dead. The book also reveals Agatha’s antipathy towards adoption as she mentions over and over how you can’t expect adopted children to really be family or to ever bond with their adopted parents. There are the usual red herrings, twists and turns, a slightly disturbing sibling romance, but according to Agatha since they weren’t really brother and sister it’s fine! I had suspicions about the real murderer from the beginning, but the motive ended up surprising me and there is a complete surprise romance thrown in on the very last page that made me laugh out loud in its randomness. Overall, a pleasant, if desultory read. I would give it about a five. Two murders: one stabbing in the back of the neck, one poker on the back of the head and one attempted murder by stabbing in the back.
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