Mrs McGinty's Dead by Agatha Christie

 

Mrs McGinty's Dead by Agatha Christie.

This edition published 18th July 2019 by Harper Collins.

Originally published 1952.

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 recent murder of an old char lady, Mrs McGinty, was not a case interesting enough to attract the attention of celebrated detective Hercule Poirot. However, his interest is piqued when Superintendent Spence of the Kilchester force confesses to him that he is not sure that the man who stands condemned of murder is actually guilty of the crime. Poirot pays a visit to Mrs McGinty's lodger, James Bentley, on death row. Although failing to find the man at all personable, he is intrigued enough to head to the quiet village of Broadhinny to look into the case.

He begins his investigation by visiting the employers of nosy Mrs McGinty to discover whether anyone else could have had a motive for killing her. His little grey cells are hampered by the uncomfortable surroundings he finds himself in as a paying guest of the chaotic Summerhayes family, but then he uncovers an important clue - Mrs McGinty had cut out an article from the racy Sunday Comet about murder cases from the past involving four different women. Was her interest in it the reason for her murder?

In a small village setting, that is usually more the province of Miss Marple, Christie has a lot of well-observed fun with Poirot amongst the 'very nice' people of Broadhinny in this mystery. And he has a helper in the delightful Ariadne Oliver, who is co-incidentally in the village working with the playwright Robin Upward on an adaptation of one of her novels - much to her frustration!

Christie uses four infamous historic crimes to muddy the waters in this story. As the layers of the complex mystery peel back under Poirot's razor-sharp gaze, intriguing motives for murder are explored by delving into the secrets, lies and potentially murderous backgrounds of the villagers, especially its female residents - with lashings of psychological depth, in the way Christie does so well. The red herrings keep you guessing right until the very moment of a final classic Poirot 'show-and-tell' in front of the suspects - when he ponders on lipstick, adoption, reputation, and the tempting charms of good old filthy lucre. Ah, so satisfying!

This month's #ReadChristie2026 prompt of Favourite Characters was always going to be a difficult choice when so many of them have a place in my affections, but this Poirot-Oliver partnership proved to be just the ticket. They are always great fun when they team up for some sleuthing, as their interactions are full of gentle humour.  In this instalment, Ariadne's frustration with Robin Upward's depiction of her problematic fictional detective, Sven Hjerson, and Poirot's obvious horror at the conditions he experiences as a guest of the Summerhayes family provide a goldmine of guffaws. Perfection!

I very much enjoyed revisiting this mystery via the audio book narrated by another of my favourites, good old Captain Hastings himself, Hugh Fraser.

Mrs McGinty's Dead is available to buy now in multiple formats.

About the author:

Agatha Christie is known throughout the world as the Queen of Crime. Her books have sold over a billion copies in English with another billion in over 70 foreign languages. She is the most widely published author of all time and in any language, outsold only by the Bible and Shakespeare. She is the author of 80 crime novels and short story collections, 20 plays, and six novels written under the name of Mary Westmacott.