Mrs McGinty's Dead

Did You Know?

• The US edition of Mrs McGinty's Dead retailed at $2.50 and the UK edition at nine shillings and sixpence.
• The Detective Book Club issued an edition in 1952 under the title Blood Will Tell.
• Mrs Oliver appears in five of the last nine Christie novels featuring Poirot, and appears without Poirot in The Pale Horse.

Plot summary

Superintendent Spence asks Poirot to find evidence to prevent the execution of James Bentley, convicted of killing his landlady Mrs McGinty for £30. Poirot agrees and takes a room at the Summerhayes' guest house in Broadhinny. He learns that Mrs McGinty worked as a charwoman and that most villagers believe Bentley guilty. Three days before the murder, Mrs McGinty sent a newspaper clipping to a Sunday paper, claiming she could identify a neighbor as one of four women who disappeared after old criminal cases.

The paper dismissed her due to poor spelling. Poirot and Spence deduce that someone in the village is either Lily Gamboll, who committed murder at age 12, or Eva Kane, a governess who had an affair with her employer Arthur Craig. Poirot finds a blood-stained sugar cutter in the Summerhayes' house, accessible to anyone. He claims to know more than he does, and someone tries to push him under a train.

At a gathering at Mrs Laura Upward's house, Poirot shows original photos from the article; Mrs Upward says she saw Lily Gamboll's photo but will not say where.

Characters

The famous Belgian detective Hercule Poirot gets involved when his old friend Superintendent Spence, who is close to retirement, asks for help. Ariadne Oliver, a mystery novelist and Poirot’s acquaintance, also joins the case. The victim is Mrs McGinty, a charwoman who worked for several households and enjoyed gossip. Her lodger, James Gordon Bentley, is apathetic.

Bentley’s former employer is Mr Scuttle, and his former co-worker is Maude Craig, who also uses the alias Williams. Mrs McGinty’s niece is Bessie Burch, married to the unfriendly Joe Burch. The body was discovered by her neighbor, Mrs Elliott. The story moves to Broadhinny, where the Summerhayes run the guest house Long Meadows.

Maureen Summerhayes is an adopted orphan and inept owner; her husband Major Johnnie Summerhayes stays due to family history despite not managing the estate well. Wealthy businessman Guy Carpenter is running for Parliament; his new wife Eve Carpenter previously employed Mrs McGinty as Mrs Selkirk. Playwright Robin Upward works with Oliver on a dramatization; his wealthy adoptive mother Laura Upward uses a wheelchair. Local doctor Dr Rendell has a forced friendliness; his nervous second wife Shelagh Rendell suspects Poirot is investigating her husband.

The Wetherby household includes overbearing stepfather Roger, his wife Edith who exaggerates her infirmity, and her unhappy stepdaughter Deirdre Henderson. Postmistress Mrs Sweetiman loves gossip, as does her rabbit-like assistant Edna, who is having an affair with a married man. Pamela Horsefall wrote a newspaper article after Mrs McGinty wrote to her about photographs. Actor Michael West, an old friend of Robin Upward, knows secrets about Upward’s past. Village constable Albert “Bert” Hayling is the local officer.

References to other works

Superintendent Spence's visit to Poirot suggests it has been many years since their last case together, Taken at the Flood, set in 1946. Poirot refers to a case involving a client's resemblance to a soap manufacturer, from The Nemean Lion, first published in the Strand Magazine in November 1939. Mrs Oliver, a caricature of Christie, mentions a gaffe in her novel Death in the Clouds, where she made a blowpipe one foot long instead of six. The name Evelyn Hope comes from a Robert Browning poem; in Taken at the Flood, Christie used the alias Enoch Arden from a Tennyson poem.

Adaptations

The novel was adapted by MGM in 1964 as the film Murder Most Foul, replacing Poirot with Miss Marple, who comes onto the case as a juror. The film is loosely based on the novel, altering characters, subplots, and deaths, with a more playful tone. A 2007 television adaptation for ITV's Agatha Christie's Poirot starred David Suchet as Poirot, Zoë Wanamaker as Ariadne Oliver, and Richard Hope as Superintendent Spence, first broadcast on 14 September 2008. This adaptation is reasonably faithful, deleting a few characters and focusing only on Lily Gamboll and Eva Kane. The characters of Deirdre Henderson and Maude Williams are merged, and Dr Rendall's secret involves mercy killing rather than suspicion of killing his wife. The novel was also adapted as a 2015 episode of the French series Les Petits Meurtres d'Agatha Christie, and for BBC Radio 4 in 2006 with John Moffatt as Poirot.