Crooked house: Criminologist Charles Hayward becomes a special assistant to Scotland Yard when his fianc?'s grandfather is murdered, and her entire family comes under suspicion. The first person narrator is Charles Hayward who, towards the end of the Second World War, occupies some post in Cairo. There he meets Sophia Leonides, who works for the Foreign Office there. They fall in love with each other but put off getting engaged until after the end of the war when they will be reunited back home in England. When Hayward arrives back home it is only to find an obituary in The Times: Sophia's grandfather, Aristide Leonides, has died, aged 87. Due to the war, the whole family has been living together under one roof, in a large house near London, among them Leonides' second wife, whom many in the family dislike and see as nothing more than a gold digger. When the news is broken that Aristide Leonides has been poisoned, via a diabetic injection, Charles is unwittingly drawn into the case.Ordeal by innocence: While serving a life sentence for killing his mother, Jacko Argyle dies. Two years later, a stranger shatters the peace of the Argyle household. Can Arthur Calgary provide the missing link in Jacko's defence? Was Jacko sentenced for a murder he didn't commit?