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Mrs. McGinty’s Dead
Image:Mrs McGinty's Dead US First Edition Cover 1952.jpg
Dust-jacket illustration of the US (true first) edition. See Publication history (below) for UK first edition jacket image. Mrs McGinty's Dead is a work of Detective fiction by Agatha Christie first published in the US by Dodd Mead and Company in February 1952
Author Agatha Christie
Cover artist Not known
Country United States
Language English
Genre(s) Crime novel
Publisher Dodd, Mead and Company
Publication date February 1952
Media type Print (Hardback & Paperback)
Pages 243 pp (first edition, hardback)
ISBN NA
Preceded by The Under Dog and Other Stories
Followed by They Do It with Mirrors

Mrs. Agatha Mary Clarissa Lady Mallowan, DBE (née Miller; 15 September 1890 &ndash 12 January 1976 commonly known as Agatha Christie, was an English The United States of America —commonly referred to as the English is a West Germanic language originating in England and is the First language for most people in the United Kingdom, the United States Crime fiction is the Genre of Fiction that deals with Crimes their detection criminals and their motives It is usually distinguished from Publishing is the process of production and dissemination of Literature or Information &ndash the activity of making information available for public view Dodd Mead and Company was a publishing company in New York City. The year 1952 in literature involved some significant events and new books A hardcover (or hardback or hardbound) is a Book bound with rigid protective covers (typically of cardboard covered with Cloth Paperback, softback, or softcover describe and refer to a Book by the nature of its binding. The Under Dog and Other Stories is a short story collection written by Agatha Christie and first published in in the US by Dodd Mead and Company For the novel of the same name see Robert A Heinlein They Do It With Mirrors is a work of Detective fiction by Agatha Christie and first McGinty's Dead is a work of detective fiction by Agatha Christie first published in the US by Dodd, Mead and Company in February 1952[1] and in the UK by the Collins Crime Club on March 3 of the same year[2]. Detective fiction is a branch of Crime fiction in which a Detective (or detectives either professional or amateur investigate a crime usually Murder Agatha Mary Clarissa Lady Mallowan, DBE (née Miller; 15 September 1890 &ndash 12 January 1976 commonly known as Agatha Christie, was an English Dodd Mead and Company was a publishing company in New York City. The year 1952 in literature involved some significant events and new books The Collins Crime Club was an imprint of UK book publishers William Collins & Co Ltd and ran from May 6 1930 to April 1994. The US edition retailed at $2. 50[1] and the UK edition nine shillings and sixpence (9/6)[2]. The shilling is a unit of Currency used in current and former Commonwealth countries and was continued to be used in countries that left the commonwealth See also Sixpence (disambiguation The sixpence, known colloquially as the tanner or half-shilling also sprarzi was a British The Detective Book Club issued an edition, also in 1952, with the title Blood Will Tell.

The novel features the characters Hercule Poirot and Ariadne Oliver. Ariadne Oliver is a Fictional character in the novels of Agatha Christie. The story is a “village mystery”, a sub-genre of whodunit which Christie usually reserved for Miss Marple. A whodunit or whodunnit (for "Who done it?" is a complex plot-driven variety of the detective story in which the puzzle is the main feature of interest Jane Marple, usually known as Miss Marple, is a Fictional character appearing in twelve of Agatha Christie The novel is notable for its wit and comic detail: something that had been little in evidence in the Poirot novels of the thirties and forties. Poirot's misery in the run-down Guest House, and Mrs. Oliver's observations on the life of a detective novelist, provide considerable entertainment in the early part of the novel.

The publication of Mrs. McGinty’s Dead may be considered as marking the start of Poirot’s final phase, in which Ariadne Oliver plays a large part. Although she had appeared in Cards on the Table in 1936, Mrs. Cards on the Table is a work of Detective fiction by Agatha Christie and first published in the UK by the Collins Crime Club on November Oliver’s most significant appearances in Christie’s work begin here. She appears in five out of the last nine Poirot novels to be written, and has her own novel as detective: The Pale Horse (1961). The Pale Horse is a work of Detective fiction by Agatha Christie and first published in the UK by the Collins Crime Club on November 6 1961 It is likely, given Christie’s frequent complaints about the character of Poirot, that she regarded Mrs. Oliver as a means of renewing her own enthusiasm for her most popular creation.

Contents

Plot introduction

Poirot, disillusioned by the “senseless cruel brutality” of modern crime, pays no attention to the sad case of Mrs. McGinty, an old woman apparently struck dead by her lodger for thirty pounds that she kept under a floorboard. When, however, he is asked by the investigating officer to take another look at the case in order to stop an innocent man going to the gallows, he realises that things may not be as simple as they first appear to be.

Explanation of the novel's title

The novel is named after a children’s game – a sort of follow-the-leader type of verse somewhat like the Hokey-Cokey - that is explained in the course of the novel. The Hokey Cokey, Hokey Pokey or Hokey Tokey is a Participation dance with a distinctive accompanying tune and lyric structure

Plot summary

Mrs. McGinty has been killed by a blow to the head with an unidentified weapon. James Bentley has been convicted of murder and awaits execution. Poirot, however, discovers that Mrs. McGinty bought a bottle of ink shortly before her death, and must have had a reason to write a letter. Examining her possessions, he finds her shoes wrapped in a Sunday newspaper that was published in the week before her death. It is missing an article inquiring about the whereabouts of four women connected with famous crimes of the distant past. Soon it is certain that Mrs. McGinty believed that she had seen one of the photographs in the house of one of the people in the village. Poirot and Inspector Spence narrow down the options to one of two cases.

Mrs McGinty has either seen a photo of Lily Gamboll, who committed murder with a meat cleaver as a child; or of Eva Kane, who had been the love interest who inspired a man to murder his wife and bury her in the cellar (a case clearly based heavily on Dr Crippen). Hawley Harvey Crippen (11 September 1862 – 23 November 1910 usually known as Dr Eva Kane is believed to have had a daughter, who took the name Evelyn Hope. So is one of the younger women in the village Lily Gamboll grown up, or Eva Kane's daughter? Or is one of the older women Eva Kane herself?

Poirot discovers the murder weapon, a sugar hammer, on open display at Long Meadows and accessible to all the suspects. In an attempt to flush out the murderer, Poirot claims to know more than he does, but when he is almost pushed under a train he uses a different tactic. He shows the four photographs at a party attended by most of the suspects, and Mrs. Upward reacts, so it seems, to the picture of Lily Gamboll. She refuses to say where she has seen the picture, though.

Ariadne Oliver arrives at the village to collaborate with Robin Upward on a stage version of a story featuring her famous Finnish detective, Sven Hjerson. Finland, officially the Republic of Finland ( is a Nordic country situated in the Fennoscandian region of northern Europe. Sven Hjerson is a fictional fictional Detective in several books by Agatha Christie. She does not investigate the crime directly, instead serving as a means for Christie gently to parody Poirot himself, but when she and Robin return from an evening at the theatre, they discover that Mrs. A parody (ˈpɛɹədiː US, [ˈpaɹədiː] UK) in contemporary usage is a work created to mock comment on or poke fun at an original work its subject Upward has been strangled to death. She has evidently taken coffee with her murderer, and the evidence of lipstick on a coffee-cup and perfume in the air points towards one of three suspects - Eve Carpenter, Deirdre Henderson or Shelagh Rendell – each of whom had been invited at different times to visit her. Only Deirdre Henderson will admit to visiting, but the house was dark when she arrived and she went away without discovering the body. Who, however, was the blonde seen entering the house by Edna, Mrs. Sweetiman’s assistant?

Poirot seems baffled. He focuses on why anyone would keep a photograph. Vanity seems unlikely (none of the photographs is of a pretty young woman) but either sentiment or hatred might serve as motives. Perhaps the killer is not the woman in the picture, but someone who wished to be avenged on the person in the picture … one of the children whose father had murdered their mother, incited by Eva Kane? When Poirot discovers the photograph itself in Long Meadows, he has the final piece of the puzzle.

In the denouement Poirot seems about to accuse, first, Eve Carpenter, and then Maureen Summerhayes. The detective dénouement is a variant on the literary Dénouement common to Mystery stories The photograph, with “My mother” written on the back, has been discovered in her house, but by chance Poirot has checked the same drawer of photographs minutes before. The photograph has been planted … by Robin Upward.

Robin is Eva Kane’s son, Evelyn; the child was a boy, not a girl. As an adopted son of Mrs. Upward, he knew that any scandal might upset his position in her household, and the murder of Mrs. McGinty was a logical step when she discovered the photograph. In fact, Mrs. McGinty thought that Mrs. Upward herself was Eva Kane, not having heard that Robin was adopted; she hinted as much to James Bentley. As it happened, her misapprehension made no difference.

When Mrs. Upward recognised the photograph of Eva Kane, she consciously misled Poirot into thinking that it was the other photograph to which she had reacted. She wished to have time to confront Robin, but anticipating this he invited three convenient female suspects to her house that evening. He then killed her, planted evidence suggesting that the murderer was a woman, and staged the discovery of her body when he returned with Mrs. Oliver. Only when he realised that the false evidence had implicated no one did he try the desperate device of planting the photograph, and it is at this moment that he has been caught.

At the end of the novel, other secrets are discovered. Eve Carpenter had a sordid past that she wished to conceal. Maude Williams, the blonde seen at Mrs. Upward’s house by Edna, is indeed the daughter of Eva Kane's employer, who (drawing the same inference that Mrs. Upward was Eva Kane) actually came to the house to kill her but discovered that she had already been murdered and fled. Most sinister is Dr. Rendell, who had been suspected of having killed his first wife. Both he and Mrs. Rendell feared that Poirot had come to the village investigating this rumour, creating the suspicion in Poirot’s mind that the shove on the station platform had been given to him by Dr. Rendell.

Finally, Poirot reveals his plan to pair off Deirdre Henderson with James Bentley. It is a characteristic piece of matchmaking from the detective, setting a familiar seal on a confusing story.

Characters in "Mrs. McGinty’s Dead"

Literary significance and reception

Maurice Richardson of The Observer of March 23, 1952 thought that Poirot was, "slightly subdued" and summed up "Not one of A. The Observer is a British Newspaper published on Sundays In about the same place on the political spectrum as its daily sister paper The C's best-constructed jobs, yet far more readable than most other people's. "[3]

Robert Barnard: "This village murder begins among the rural proletariat (cf. Robert Barnard (born November 23, 1936) is a Mystery Writer, Critic and Lecturer. Death by Drowning in The Thirteen Problems and the excellent London working-class woman in The Hollow), but after a time it moves toward the better-spoken classes. The Thirteen Problems is a Short story collection written by Agatha Christie and first published in the UK by Collins Crime Club in June The Hollow is a work of Detective fiction by Agatha Christie and first published in the US by Dodd Mead and Company in 1946 Poirot suffers in a vividly awful country guesthouse in order to get in with the community and rescue a rather unsatisfactory young man from the gallows. Highly ingenious – at this point she is still able to vary the tricks she plays, not repeat them. "[4]

References to other works

Film, TV, or theatrical versions

The novel was adapted by MGM in 1964 as the film Murder Most Foul. Year 1964 ( MCMLXIV) was a Leap year starting on Wednesday (link will display full calendar of the 1964 Gregorian calendar. Murder Most Foul is the third of four Films, made by MGM, loosely based on novels by Agatha Christie and starring Margaret Rutherford However, in an unusual move, the character of Poirot was replaced with Christie's other most famous detective Miss Marple (portrayed by Margaret Rutherford). Jane Marple, usually known as Miss Marple, is a Fictional character appearing in twelve of Agatha Christie Dame Margaret Rutherford DBE ( May 11, 1892 &ndash May 22, 1972) was an Academy Award -winning English

Main article: Murder Most Foul

Publication history

Dustjacket illustration of the UK First Edition (Book was first published in the US)
Dustjacket illustration of the UK First Edition (Book was first published in the US)

In the US, the novel was serialised in the Chicago Tribune in its Sunday edition in thirteen parts from October 7 to December 30, 1951 under the title of Blood Will Tell. Pocket Books is a division of Simon & Schuster that primarily publishes Paperback books HarperCollins is a Publishing company owned by News Corporation. Pan Books is an Imprint which first became active in the 1940s and is now part of the British-based Macmillan Publishers owned by German publishers Large-print (also large-type or large-font) describes a type of book or other (paper online or otherwise published material in which the Typeface (or The Chicago Tribune is a major daily Newspaper based in Chicago, Illinois, United States, and owned by the Tribune Company

References

  1. ^ a b American Tribute to Agatha Christie
  2. ^ a b Chris Peers, Ralph Spurrier and Jamie Sturgeon. Collins Crime Club – A checklist of First Editions. Dragonby Press (Second Edition) March 1999 (Page 15)
  3. ^ The Observer March 4, 1951 (Page 7)
  4. ^ Barnard, Robert. A Talent to Deceive – an appreciation of Agatha Christie - Revised edition (Page 197). Fontana Books, 1990. ISBN 0006374743

External links


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