Hallowe'en Party
An apple-bobbing bucket, a boastful girl and a murder she once saw.
Hallowe'en Party is a Hercule Poirot novel by Agatha Christie, first published in the United Kingdom in November 1969, featuring Poirot and the mystery novelist Ariadne Oliver. It was dedicated to P. G. Wodehouse and was most recently adapted as the film A Haunting in Venice (2023).
Quick Facts
- Author
- Agatha Christie
- Country
- United Kingdom
- Language
- English
- Genre
- Crime fiction
- Publisher
- Collins Crime Club
- Released
- November 1969
- Format
- Print (hardback & paperback)
- Pages
- 256 (first edition, hardcover)
Lore & Background
While visiting her friend Judith Butler in Woodleigh Common, Ariadne Oliver helps plan a children's Hallowe'en party at Rowena Drake's house. Thirteen-year-old Joyce Reynolds claims she once witnessed a murder; after the party she is found drowned in an apple-bobbing bucket, and Mrs Oliver summons Poirot. With retired Superintendent Spence he examines recent deaths in the area: Rowena's aunt Mrs Llewellyn-Smythe, her au pair Olga Seminoff, who disappeared after a codicil in her favour was found to be forged, and the clerk Leslie Ferrier.
Reader's Guide
Joyce's brother Leopold is found dead, and a search near the quarry finds Olga's body in an abandoned well. The garden designer Michael Garfield takes Judith's daughter Miranda to a sacrificial altar intending to poison her, but kills himself when two youths recruited by Poirot save her. Miranda reveals that she had seen Garfield and Rowena drag Olga's body through the quarry garden and had told Joyce.
More in Cases & Stories
Elsewhere in Hercule Poirot
Spotted an error? Know more?
Reader corrections go straight into our review queue. Suggest an edit · How this site is sourced