Ordeal by Innocence

Agatha Christie considered Ordeal by Innocence one of her best books, and I agree.  Two years after  Jocko Argyle died of pneumonia while serving a life sentence for killing his mother, Arthur Calgary appears to confirm Argyle's alibi.  It's a tribute to Christie's puzzle-making skills that this isn't as contrived as it sounds - Carlyle is an archaeologist who suffered a concussion in an accident shortly after dropping Jocko (who'd been hitchhiking) off at his destination, and left on a two year expedition of Antartica immediately after being released from the hospital.  He only learned of the high-profile murder case while wrapping items for storage in old newspapers after his return.  Determined to right the wrong, he contacts the Argyle family and finds out (as is usual in Christie's novels, particularly the murder in retrospect ones) that everyone either has a motive or no alibi for Mrs. Argyle's murder. The solution is one of Christie's most clever, simultaneously well supported and surprising. The only problem is that I now want to see the absolutely horrible 1985 version starring Donald Sutherland.  It's deservedly obscure and while I could probably buy a DVD of it somewhere, I don't want to waste the money. Wasting two hours to determine how good of a book could have produced one of the worst A-list movies of the 1980s would be enough.