Philip tries to find the guilty one among them and his efforts spur the killer to strike again.Īt Philip’s request, Tina comes to Sunny Point. Mary Argyle and her husband Philip Durrant stay at Sunny Point during this period of upset. Mickey plans to meet with Tina, to learn what she did the night of the murder and tell her of his new job out of England. The police gather new information from family members as they seek the murderer. Calgary meets with one older woman who had fallen for Jacko’s compliments and given him money. Hester visits Calgary in London, as she cannot take the tension at home. Calgary speaks to Maureen, who reveals Jacko's persuasive ways with older women: initiating affairs and then taking money from them. He sees Jacko as one too cowardly to kill another instead, he would direct an accomplice. MacMaster was surprised when Jacko was convicted for killing Rachel, not because murder was outside Jacko's 'moral range'. Calgary feels his duty to justice to come forward late, and the police accept his reasons for not appearing earlier.Ĭalgary next visits retired local doctor, Dr MacMaster, to ask him about Jacko. Jacko’s photo jogs his memory upon Calgary’s return to England he recalls conversing with Jacko. He left the country on a lengthy polar expedition when police were seeking the driver of the car. Calgary feels he must now assist the family in the new situation.ĭr Calgary was unaware of the trial because he was hit by a truck within hours after meeting Jacko, and a concussion blocked Calgary's recent memory. Calgary visits the defense lawyer, who gives him more details of the event and some insights into the family, and the position in which the news puts them. As the new police investigations proceed, they suspect in turn Jacko's father Leo, his brother Mickey, his sisters Mary, Tina and Hester, his father’s secretary Gwenda, and the long-time housekeeper Kirsten. Brother Mickey Argyle realises immediately that there is a murderer among them still, and visits Calgary in his hotel room to tell him. It had been difficult to face them with his failure to appear by the time of the trial, yet no one is pleased at his effort for justice. Calgary is confused by the family’s reaction to his news. Calgary is the man who gave Jacko a ride to town and talked with him, when the murder was known to happen. Calgary explains that Jacko is innocent of murder, because his alibi was true. Her son Jacko was tried and imprisoned, and he died after 6 months in prison. Geologist Arthur Calgary appears at the Argyle home Sunny Point two years after Rachel Argyle, wife and mother of five adopted children, was bludgeoned to death. A later review considered it one of the better Christie novels of the 1950s, and noted that the author sometimes called it her own favourite. Sympathy is evoked for too many characters, "but the unravelling is sound and the story well told." Another said there is ingenuity and a good ending, but the plot "lacks a central focus" and it appears that the "serious socio-psychological approach doesn't suit" Christie's writing. The plot had her "customary ingenuity" but lacked "blitheness" and was "much too like an attempt at psychological fiction". This novel received mixed reviews at the time of publication, as reviewers were not generally comfortable with the psychological aspects of the story. When he realizes the information he holds, he re-opens the pain of loss in a family, and re-opens the question of who was the murderer two years ago. Ī crucial witness is unaware of his role as such until two years after a man is found guilty of a murder. The UK edition retailed at twelve shillings and sixpence (12/6) and the US edition at $2.95. Ordeal by Innocence is a work of detective fiction by British writer Agatha Christie, first published in the UK by the Collins Crime Club on 3 November 1958 and in the US by Dodd, Mead and Company the following year.
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