Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #30518 in Books
• Published on: 2002-07-01
• Binding: Paperback
• 240 pages

Synopsis
An old widow is brutally killed in the parlour of her cottage...Mrs McGinty died from a brutal blow to the back of her head. Suspicion fell immediately on her shifty lodger, James Bentley, whose clothes revealed traces of the victim's blood and hair. Yet something was amiss: Bentley just didn't look like a murderer. Poirot believed he could save the man from the gallows -- what he didn't realise was that his own life was now in great danger!

Customer Reviews

One of the best mysteries I've read but not Agatha Christie's personal best
I'm on a crusade to read as many Agatha Christie books as possible. So this is the one I've read after 'Murder on the Orient Express', 'Evil under the sun', and 'Death on the Nile'. So yes I had high expectations. It's not that the storyline wasn't interesting , or the writing style sagged it was just that I found the setting of the murder dull. The village didn't exactly excite me as a place for murder. The villagers didn't seem suspicious enough, I mean that wasn't Agatha's usual style. Nonetheless, as usual she kepy me guessing until the very end.

Hang him he is not worth it!
It is safe to say Mrs McGinty is well and truly dead and it seems that everyone and anyone had a reason to do it.
This 5 CD set is just over 6-hours long and another great story and well worth listening to.
The past comes back to cause quite a fuss in a small village.
Ariadne Oliver makes an welcome appearance and Hugh Fraser shows us how good he is again at reading Agatha Christie stories.
But you do have to wonder is James Bentley really worth the effort Poirot has to go to?

Magnificent mystery
Hercule Poirot is feeling bored, so he is delighted when he is visited by his old friend Superintendent Spence of the Kilchester Police. Spence has recently been in charge of murder case, an old charwoman, Mrs McGinty, has been brutally bludgeoned to death. Her lodger, James Bentley, has been convicted of her murder and is due to hang. But Spence is convinced Bentley didn't do it, and he wants Poirot to find out who did.

So Poirot goes to stay in the village of Broadhinny, where the grizzly deed was done, and he soon begins to uncover reasons why other people might have wanted Mrs McGinty dead. While striving to discover the real murderer, he also has to cope with the appalling conditions at the truly terrible 'guest house' he is staying at. The Summerhayes, whose house it is, have no idea how to run a guest house, nor even how to prepare an edible meal.

The scenes where Poirot's sufferings at the Summerhayes's horrible guest house are described are among the funniest in the book, which is replete with humour. There are many interesting characters, especially the scatty but charming Maureen Summerhayes, whom Poirot likes in spite of her atrocious cooking. The character of the convicted murderer Jame Bentley is particularly good, he is utterly unprepossesing, which makes Poirot all the more determined to prove him innocent.

The best exchange in this very entertaining book comes near the end:' "Bon Dieu, how stupid I have been" said Hercule Poirot. "The whole thing is simple, is it not?" It was after that remark that there was very nearly another murder - the murder of Hercule Poirot by Superintendent Spence'. Enjoy it.