Mrs. McGinty's Dead (Hercule Poirot Series)

by Agatha Christie

Overview

In Mrs. McGinty’s Dead, one of Agatha Christie’s most ingenious mysteries, the intrepid Hercule Poirot must look into the case of a brutally murdered landlady.

Mrs. McGinty died from a brutal blow to the back of her head. Suspicion falls immediately on her shifty lodger, James Bentley, whose clothes reveal traces of the victim’s blood and hair. Yet something is amiss: Bentley just doesn’t seem like a murderer.

Could the answer lie in an article clipped from a newspaper two days before the death? With a desperate killer still free, Hercule Poirot will have to stay alive long enough to find out. . . .

 

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780061749865
Publisher:	HarperCollins
Publication date:	03/17/2009
Series:	Hercule Poirot Series
Sold by:	HARPERCOLLINS
Format:	eBook
Pages:	272
Sales rank:	681
Lexile:	660L (what's this?)
File size:	3 MB

About the Author

Agatha Christie is the most widely published author of all time, outsold only by the Bible and Shakespeare. Her books have sold more than a billion copies in English and another billion in a hundred foreign languages. She died in 1976, after a prolific career spanning six decades.

Date of Birth:

September 15, 1890

Date of Death:

January 12, 1976

Place of Birth:

Torquay, Devon, England

Education:

Home schooling

Website:

http://www.agathachristie.com

Editorial Reviews

The plot is perfect and the characters are wonderful.

The plot is perfect and the characters are wonderful.

San Francisco Chronicle

Who could be better reading this recording of Christie's 1952 classic than Hugh Fraser, who not only has done several audio versions of her novels but who also plays Captain Hastings in those lovely TV adaptations starring David Suchet as Hercule Poirot? Fraser uses his own British accent to narrate, then switches impressively to a perfect Belgian tinge as he lets the master detective ramble on about French food, suspicious deaths and how hard it is to handle both in the cities and villages of his adopted England. When Mrs. McGinty, a sweet-natured widow, is found bludgeoned to death, suspicion falls on James Bentley, her somewhat dodgy lodger. Bentley's trial looks like a guaranteed guilty verdict, but a leading policeman is suspicious enough to ask for Poirot's help. As the story begins to explode into a complex web of lies and hidden identities, novelist Ariadne Oliver (much more like the real Christie than the cute Miss Marple) joins the hunt to find the real murderer. Even fans familiar with the novel will enjoy this classic Christie audio. (Mar.)

Copyright 2007 Reed Business Information

Publishers Weekly

The best Poirot since such prewar classics as Cards on the Table.” — New York Times

“The plot is perfect and the characters are wonderful.” — San Francisco Chronicle

From the Publisher

The plot is perfect and the characters are wonderful.

San Francisco Chronicle

The best Poirot since such prewar classics as Cards on the Table.

New York Times

Poor Hercule Poirot. Now that he’s retired, there’s only food to look forward to—too bad there are only three meals in a day. Poirot is rejuvenated when Superintendent Spence approaches him about Mrs. McGinty's murder. It SEEMS straightforward, but Spence, and then Poirot, have doubts. Narrator Hugh Fraser is particularly compelling as author Ariadne Oliver, who is said to be Christie's alter ego in her mysteries. The wide range of suspects includes a most convenient one, Mrs. McGinty's lodger. There are some funny moments while Poirot boards with one of the worst cooks in England. The story closes with Poirot teaching her to make a proper omelet. S.G.B. © AudioFile 2007, Portland, Maine

DEC 07/ JAN 08 - AudioFile

Poor Hercule Poirot. Now that he’s retired, there’s only food to look forward to—too bad there are only three meals in a day. Poirot is rejuvenated when Superintendent Spence approaches him about Mrs. McGinty's murder. It SEEMS straightforward, but Spence, and then Poirot, have doubts. Narrator Hugh Fraser is particularly compelling as author Ariadne Oliver, who is said to be Christie's alter ego in her mysteries. The wide range of suspects includes a most convenient one, Mrs. McGinty's lodger. There are some funny moments while Poirot boards with one of the worst cooks in England. The story closes with Poirot teaching her to make a proper omelet. S.G.B. © AudioFile 2007, Portland, Maine

DEC 07/JAN 08 - AudioFile