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Charles Hayward is the main protagonist of Agatha Christie's novel Crooked House.
He was voiced by Rory Kinnear in the 2008 BBC Radio 4 broadcast adaptation, and was portrayed by Max Irons in the 2017 film adaptation.
Biography[]
Charles begins going on dates with his girlfriend, Sophia. However, World War II begins and Charles is forced to freeze his relationship with Sophia in order to go to war. He asks where he can find Sophia if he does return from the war and she explains to him. After the war he meets with her, but she is in mourning. Her grandfather Aristide died. But death is unusual. Someone injected him with vision medication instead of insulin. Sofia asks Charles to help figure out whether this incident is malicious in nature, since Charles' father is a police officer and can help. Charles's father asks him to secretly observe the family of the deceased Aristide, since they may not tell everything to strangers (even the police), but Charles is a potential member of this family and they can believe him. Charles’s father also warns his son that a murderer, having committed a crime and not been punished for it, will become more vain and begin to behave arrogantly, since he will not be able to talk about his crime directly, but will want attention to be paid to him. But none of the family members are inclined to murder. On the contrary, if someone had a conflict with Aristide, everyone was inclined to resolve it peacefully. The family is inclined to suspect Aristide's young wife Brenda and Aristide's grandchildren's tutor Lawrence in the incident. However, deep down, everyone understands that they may not be killers. Soon, Sofia's younger sister Josephine claims to know who the killer is. Soon an attempt is made on her life and she ends up in the hospital. In her room they find traces of a search, and in the attic (where Josephine was before the assassination attempt) they find letters proving a love affair between Brenda and Lawrence. However, Brenda and Lawrence did not develop their relationship, and they themselves hid their letters where they were found. This means that there was no point in searching Josephine’s room (unless they were looking for the notebook in which she wrote down everything that happened). Later, Josephine is given cocoa to drink, and she treats it to her nanny. But the cocoa contains poison and the nanny dies. Charles tries to find out from Josephine what she knows, but she remains silent. Josephine's great-aunt Edith takes her for a ride in the car, after which both disappear. Soon the corpses of Edith and Josephine are found (the car was involved in an accident). They also find a letter from Edith in which she accuses herself of both murders. Josephine's notebook is also found. It says "Today I killed my grandfather." Charles recalls that Josephine behaved exactly as his father said a murderer should behave. But Charles himself took this as childishness. Charles tells his father about his findings and his father says, “I knew it.”
Personality[]
He's shown to be a very kind man. Going to war, he does not insist on continuing the affair with Sofia, because he understands that he may not return from the war alive. When he does return from the war alive, the first thing he does is make inquiries about whether everything is okay with Sophia. After learning that her grandfather died a strange death, he asks his father's permission to help him in his investigation. He's also shown to be protective to Josephine, because he believes that there is a threat hanging over her head, without even suspecting that Josephine is the main threat.
Trivia[]
- He's somewhat similar to Luke Fitzwilliam from Murder is Easy. Both are accompanied by a female, who pretends to help them, but is the murderer herself.
