13 at Dinner

Agatha Christie enters the world of the London theater in this novel, making most of the characters actors and actresses. Jane Wilkinson, a beautiful and popular actress, is in private life the wife of Lord Edgware. The marriage has never been happy, and now Jane wants to divorce Edgware and marry another man. She asks Poirot to intercede for her with her husband and get him to agree to the divorce. When Poirot meets with Lord Edgware he finds the baron very agreeable and says he has informed his wife of this previously in a letter. Jane insists she never received the letter, but is thrilled at the news.A problem arises when Lord Edgware is killed that very evening and several witnesses testify that Jane was present at the home at the time of the murder. Twelve other reliable witnesses can attest to the fact that she was with them at a dinner party that evening and could not possibly have killed her husband. Add to this plot a visiting American actress who does impersonations, a letter with a torn page, a pair of pince-nez, a chance remark by two strangers, a luncheon conversation about Paris, and Poirot solves the case in brilliant form proving his genius and why Agatha Christie is the undisputed mistress of mystery

I've yet to read or audit all of Christie's Poirot novels, but of the ones I've enjoyed, "Thirteen at Dinner" proved the greatest departure from Christie's tried-and-true formula for Poirot novels. Lady Edgeware is estranged from her husband and wants a divorce. If she can't have a divorce, she says she'll just drive up to her husband's house in a cab and walk in and murder him. Shortly after making this pronouncement, Lord Edgeware is murdered. Lord Edgeware's servants testify that Lady Edgeware drove up to the home in a cab, walked into Lord Edgeware's study, and left after a brief period of time in the study. Shortly afterward, the servants find Lord Edgeware dead in his study. This is as true-to-life a murder scenario as ever came from the pen of Agatha Christie. In 27 years of prosecuting and defending murder cases, I've had several that followed this plotline.But Christie isn't going to allow things to be that simple. It seems that twelve unimpeachable witnesses are all prepared to testify that Lady Edgeware was with them at a formal dinner at exactly the time of the murder. The cast of suspects is smaller than in most other Poirot novels, and the clues just cannot be made to fit together to prove guilt against any one of them. Poirot finally unravels the mystery, and in the denouement provides sudden surprises as the murderer is revealed. Unlike several of Christie's other Poirot novels, the prosecutors have a winnable case without an unlikely confession from the killer.

Thirteen at dinner is an excellent book that young adults and adults would especially enjoy. I found it hard to put this book down. It is about the famous detective Hercule Poirot (a very popular character in the Agatha Christie series) who helps his friend Detective Japp on a very strange murder case. It seems that the wealthy Lord Edgware of well-known Regent Gate has been murdered and all evidence is apparently pointing to his wife, actress Jane Wilkinson. Poirot sets out to find out what has happened and finds the surprising truth. He asks himself questions (Who suppressed the letter? What induced Lord Edgware to change his mind about divorce? Who rang Jane Wilkinson up while at dinner at Chiswick?), which help him solve this and all of his cases. In the last few pages, Poirot describes step by step what really has happened. The resolution is both surprising and clever. Agatha Christie has done a great job both making the plot interesting and making people love and look up to the amazing Hercule Poirot. His character has obviously been thought out carefully as was the rest of the book. This book really shows the genius on Christie's part, and I have no idea how she came up with this smart and well put together plot. This book has made me want to read all of her books about Hercule Poirot. I also thought it was smart to make Poirot's assistant, Captain Hastings, the main voice. This made Poirot seem much more mysterious since the reader doesn't know what is going on inside his head. I would recommend this book to anybody who even just likes mysteries because it is one of the better books I have ever read.

The epitome of an Agatha Christie mystery and one of her five finest books. Hercule Poirot is at his most brilliant, along with sidekick Arthur "Dr. Watson" Hastings and a colorful assortment of suspects. An excellent choice as a first Christie book -- or as a second, or a third....

Lord Edgware Dies is considered what is called a 'classic Christie mystery'--meaning that is has a nice manor house with a body and no limit of suspects. There's no exotic twist or fleeing of the heroine to some faraway island. This is just a cut, dried, and hung plot.Agatha puts you in the position of suspecting a few certain people. You become positive that you've at last unmasked the ending, but it just isn't so. In fact, Christie reverses the rule of the least-suspected person being the murderer. After all, if you immediately suspect the inconspicuous person, doesn't that then make them conspicuous? Enough. But anyway, Lord Edgware Dies is a good mystery and has a nice ending. It's all you can ask for in that department.