Christie, Agatha - Mrs McGinty's Dead / Blood Will Tell (1952)

Review by Nick Fuller

5/5

James Bentley was condemned to death for the murder of his landlady, elderly charwoman Mrs. McGinty; but Superintendent Spence, who arrested Bentley, does not believe him guilty, and turns to Poirot for help. Poirot, aged and bored, jumps at Spence's request, and travels to Broadhinny (one of Christie's few working-class backgrounds) to provoke a reaction in the murderer. Unfortunately, the reaction he provokes is that someone tries to push him under a train. Apart from the physical attempts on his life, there is a great deal of humour arising from the attempts on his digestion Poirot suffers at the ghastly inn at which he stays, and from the attempts on his morale caused by Bentley's lack of interest in his fate. Despite these calamities, Poirot shines, despite assistance from Mrs. Oliver; a bottle of ink leads him to the conclusion that Mrs. McGinty was killed for recognising one of four "Women Victims of Bygone Tragedies", any one of whom could still be alive. The suspects and dialogue are entertaining, and the management of suspicion superb. The book boasts one of Christie's best surprise solutions, in which she plays a devilishly ingenious trick with the reader's assumptions.