Mrs McGinty's Dead (Poirot)

Description

An old widow is brutally killed in the parlour of her cottage... 'Mrs McGinty's dead!' 'How did she die?' 'Down on one knee, just like I!' The old children's game now seemed rather tasteless. The real Mrs McGinty was killed by a crushing blow to the back of the head and her pitifully small savings were stolen. Suspicion falls immediately on her lodger, hard up and out of a job. Hercule Poirot has other ideas - unaware that his own life is now in great danger...

Agatha Christie was born in Torquay in 1890 and became, quite simply, the best-selling novelist in history. Her first novel, The Mysterious Affair at Styles, written towards the end of the First World War, introduced us to Hercule Poirot, who was to become the most popular detective in crime fiction since Sherlock Holmes. She is known throughout the world as the Queen of Crime. Her books have sold over a billion copies in the English language and another billion in over 100 foreign countries. She is the author of 80 crime novels and short story collections, 19 plays, and six novels under the name of Mary Westmacott.

'So simple, so economical, so completely baffling. Every clue scrupulously given, with superb sleight of hand.' Sunday Times 'The plot is perfect and the characters are wonderful.' San Francisco Chronicle 'The best Poirot since such pre-war classics as Cards on the Table.' New York Times 'Highly ingenious - Christie is still able to vary the tricks she plays.' ROBERT BARNARD