Ordeal by Innocence

Another title in the new and stylish Agatha Christie Signature Editions series. 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... Dr. Arthur Calgary takes a ferry across the Rubicon River to Sunny Point, the home of the Argyle family.A year before, the matriarch of the family was murdered and a son, Jack, was convicted and sentenced to spend the rest of his life in prison.Throughout the trial Jack had maintained his innocence, claiming he was hitchhiking on the night of the murder and he had been picked up by a middle-aged man in a dark car. Unable to locate this mystery man the police viewed Jack's as a lie. Calgary was the stranger in question, but he arrives to late for Jack – who succumbs to pneumonia after serving just six months of his sentence.Feeling a sense of duty to the Argyles, Calgary is surprised when his revelation has a disturbing effect on the family – it means one of the family is a murderer…

‘Family tensions and suspicions are adroitly handled, and the solution is characteristically surprising’
New York Times

‘Has the particular distinction of presenting a new temporary detective in place of Poirot or Miss Marple.’
New York Herald Tribune Book Review