The edition published 13th March 2014.
From the cover of the book:
An old widow is brutally killed in the parlour of her cottage…‘Mrs McGinty’s dead!’
‘How did she die?’
‘Down on one knee, just like I!’
The old children’s game now seemed rather tasteless. The real Mrs McGinty was killed by a crushing blow to the back of the head and her pitifully small savings were stolen.
Suspicion falls immediately on her lodger, hard up and out of a job. Hercule Poirot has other ideas – unaware that his own life is now in great danger…
***********
The murder of an old char lady, called Mrs McGinty, might seem a case with little to attract the celebrated Hercule Poirot, especially when it seems the culprit has already been tried and found guilty. However, Poirot's interest is piqued when Superintendent Spence of the Kilchester police pays him a visit and confesses that he is not sure that the man they arrested is actually guilty of the crime, despite the evidence against him.
Poirot sets off to the quiet village of Broadhinny to look into the case himself, even though the interview he has recently had with the condemned man, James Bentley, was rather unsatisfactory on a number of levels. He begins his investigation by visiting the 'very nice' people who employed Mrs McGinty to scrub their floors and black their grates, to discover whether anyone else could have had a motive for killing the nosy old woman. His little grey cells are hampered by the uncomfortable surroundings he finds himself in as a paying guest of the chaotic Summerhayes family, but he begins to make headway when it comes to light that Mrs McGinty had cut out an article from the racy Sunday Comet about murder cases from the past involving four different women. Why was she so interested in this article, and was her interest in it the reason for her murder?
With the help of his friend, novelist Ariande Oliver, who is coincidentally also in Broadhinny working with the playwright Robin Upward on an adaptation of one of her novels, Poirot begins to see the light, but he does not realise that he is putting his own life in danger in the process.
Mrs McGinty's Dead is an unusual case for Poirot, as a village setting of this kind is normally the province of Miss Marple. It is a remarkable one for my favourite little Belgian detective to solve for another reason too, as he actually rather dislikes the man he is trying to save from the gallows.
The village setting allows Christie to have a lot of well observed fun with the families who live in Broadhinny - all purportedly 'very nice' people, many of whom have intimate secrets they would rather keep from the knowledge of their friends and neighbours. This proves to be a goldmine for red herrings, which Christie exploits with her usual flair to misdirect you about the real reason for Mrs McGinty's untimely end, until one of Poirot's classic gatherings at the end of the book, when all is revealed.
I adore the way Christie uses four previous crimes to muddy the waters in this story, and this has to be one of her most deviously complex plots. The way she draws you in, completely fools you, and knocks you sideways with her genius is astonishing. I defy you to guess the murderer in this story, if you do not already know, as this really is deliciously complicated, with a lot of layers to unpick before the final, earth-shattering reveal.
It is a joy to see Poirot and the glorious Ariadne teaming up again in this book, as their partnerships are always so entertaining. There is so much humour to be derived from their interactions with each other, and with the other characters in the story - especially in Ariadne's frustration with Robin Upward's depiction of her problematic fictional detective, Sven Hjerson, and in Poirot's obvious horror at the conditions he experiences as a guest of the Summerhayes family.
This is my first reading of this particular Poirot mystery, and it has earned a place as one of my favourites. I listened to the wonderful audio book narrated by Hugh Fraser alongside reading the physical book, as I often do, and can highly recommend both methods for consuming Agatha Christie's work.
This is also the first book I have read as February's choice for the #ReadChristie2023 challenge, which explores the use of a blunt instrument as the murder weapon. I am now moving on to adventures with Tommy and Tuppence Beresford in Partners in Crime, which is the 'official' pick for this month, in a double whammy of February bludgeonings. I cannot wait!
Mrs McGinty's Dead is available to buy now in multiple formats.
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