Mrs. McGinty's Dead

What "improvements" have been made for the Berkley edition? There are already major differences in punctuation, word choices, and scene breaks between the original Collins and Dodd Mead editions of this novel. There are further differences between the Dodd Mead editions republished by Random House/Avenel and the Dodd Mead editions republished by Simon & Shuster/Pocket. There are further differences still in the Signet, Bantam, and Black Dog & Leventhal editions. For every publishing house putting out her works, there seem to be a new batch of editors altering Agatha Christie's words and the sound of her voice. What's the matter with these publishers? Whose voice do they think we want to hear when we sit down to a novel by Agatha Christie? And what will she sound like twenty years from now? It's frightening that her estate has failed to see the importance of guarding her words as she wrote them. Please tell me I'm not the only one here who senses that a crime has been committed.

Hercule Poirot is bored, so he is delighted when he is visited by his old friend Superintendent Spence of the Kilchester Police. Spence has recently conducted an investigation into the murder of an old charwoman Mrs McGinty, in the village of Broadhinny. her lodger, James Bentley has been convicted of the murder and is due to hang, but Spence is convinced Bentley is innocent, and wants Poirot to investigate. Poirot goes to stay in the village of Broadhinny, and soon begins to uncover reasons why other people might have wanted Mrs McGinty dead. While investigating the murder, he has to cope with staying at the dreadful guest house run by the Summerhayes, a couple who have no idea of how to keep house or cook an edible meal. The scenes where the sufferings of Poirot at the guest house are described are among the most amusing in this very amusing book. There are many interesting characters, particularly the scatty but charming Maureen Summerhayes, whom Poirot likes in spite of her atrocious cooking. And there is the maddening James Bentley, the convicted murderer, whose unprepossesing character only makes Poirot more determined to prove him innocent. One of the most amusing exchanges in the book occurs near the end: ' "Mon Dieu, how stupid I have been," said Hercule Poirot, "The whole thing is simple, is it not?" It was after that remark that there was very nearly another murder - the murder of Hercule Poirot by Superintendent Spence.' Enjoy it.

You can always depend on Agatha Christie to give you a good, absorbing mystery. In Mrs. McGinty's Dead, Poirot is getting up in age, his feet hurt, and his greatest passion is breakfast, lunch and le dinner but an old housekeeper has been savagely killed and a completely unlikeable but innocent young man is standing in the shadow of the gallows. Poirot pulls himself out of semi retirement and puts his little grey cells to work at tackling secrets, lies and old sins that several people want desparately to keep hidden. This is a keeper.

James Bentley was condemned to death for the murder of his landlady, elderly charwoman Mrs. McGinty (whose Christian name, by the way, we never learn), bludgeoned to death in her cottage at a time when Bentley claimed to be out walking?yet why was blood found on his coat-sleeve, and why was Mrs. McGinty?s money found buried in the garden? Superintendent Spence, who arrested Bentley, does not feel that Bentley was guilty, and turns to Hercule Poirot for help. Poirot, aged and bored, jumps at Supt. Spence?s request for help, and travels to the village of Broadhinny (one of Christie?s few working-class backgrounds), going as himself, ?pretending that [he] know[s] a great deal ? [is] not satisfied about the verdict in the McGinty case ? [has] a very shrewd suspicion of what really happened [for] there is a circumstance that [he], alone, estimate[s] at its true value? And then, having made [his] effect, [he shall] observe the reactions. For there should be reactions.? Unfortunately, the most immediate reaction is that he is nearly pushed underneath a train?one of the few cases in Christie, outside of the execrable The Big Four, where Poirot himself is endangered. And to what avail? For Poirot, like the reader, has no sympathy for Bentley, ?a pathological case if ever there was one, a self-centred creature who had never thought much of anyone but himself. A man ungrateful for the efforts that were being made to save him?almost, one might say, uninterested in them.? Coupled with this unprepossessing suspect, Poirot also has to stay at an amusingly bad guesthouse, where he suffers ?the cooking of Mme. Summerhayes ? [which] is not cooking at all. And the draughts, the cold winds, the upset stomachs of the cats, the long hairs of the dogs, the broken legs of the chairs, the terrible, terrible bed in which [he] sleeps, the tepid water in the bathroom, the holes in the stair carpet, and the coffee?words cannot describe to you the fluid which they serve to you as coffee. It is an affront to the stomach.? Yet, despite the insult afforded him by Bentley and the horrible circumstances in which he finds himself, Poirot, working on the clue of a bottle of ink purchased by Mrs. McGinty two days before her murder in order to write a letter, is led to the conclusion that Mrs. McGinty was killed for recognising a photograph of one of four ?Women Victims of Bygone Tragedies??a blow to the desperate respectability of the middle-class inhabitants of Broadhinny, who ?are all very nice people? That has been, before now, a motive for murder.? The suspects (including the tiresomely invalid Mrs. Wetherby) and dialogue are entertaining and well observed?this is Christie at her liveliest. Among the best characters is Christie?s self-parody, Mrs. Ariadne Oliver, in her first appearance since Cards on the Table 16 years before?used by her real-life counterpart to comment on the adaptation of her plays:?So far it?s pure agony. Why I ever let myself in for it I don?t

Mrs. McGinty is an elderly cleaning woman whose brutal murder in her village of Broadhinny leads to the arrest of her lodger, James Bentley. The motive appears to be robbery as her small cache of savings is found hidden near her cottage and her blood and hair are found on Bentley's coat. But Superintendent Spence(whom we met in Taken At The Flood) suspects something is not quite right and calls in Hercule Poirot to investigate this crime. Poirot is most unhappy at the Summerhayes family home where Mrs. McGinty had been the domestic help. Without Mrs. McGinty the home is a disaster, and Poirot's love of order, method, and delicious food suffers greatly. Poirot persists in his investigation, however, and discovers an old newspaper with cut-out pages. The discovery of the missing article leads him to investigate the homes Mrs. McGinty cleaned, and he finds guilty secrets in each one. With the help of Ariadne Oliver who adds much comic relief, Poirot finds the person with a shameful past who feared exposure by Mrs. McGinty. In 1964 this novel was adapted to the big screen. Poirot was replaced by Miss Marple (Margaret Rutherford) in the screen version known as "Murder Most Foul." The substitution is understandable since Miss Marple is the noted authority on village crime, but the result was less than pleasing. The plot was changed to such an incredible degree that there is very little resemblance to Christie's outstanding novel.