'Mrs. McGinty's Dead' was described to me as "A lesser Christie" and I think that sums it up. It's good enough to read to the end but it's not going to linger in the memory or be a book I'd want to re-read.

The plot is twisty in a way that stretches credibility. It's one of those Christie books that is all puzzle and no personality. The mystery is a sort of 'Find The Lady' card trick. There is a very limited pool of suspects who are all, like the cards, hidden face down and any one of whom could the murderer. Like the card trick, Christie keeps switching attention around from card to card and like the card trick the whole purpose is to distract and tempt. It was fun in its way but I felt that it plodded a little and that too much time was spent discussing which card hid the Lady without turning any of them over.

I've never liked Poirot and, at the start of 'Mrs. McGinty's Dead' it seemed to me that Agatha Christie no longer liked him much either. He came across as a sad little old man who missed Hastings because he now has no one to show off to or belittle, whose main regret in life was that one can only eat three times a day, who was blind to his declining celebrity and who had no compunction about lying to everyone he meets. Unexpectedly, Christie's depiction of the dissonance between Poirot's faded fame and his self-perception made me feel sorry for him for the first time.

For me, the most enjoyable and memorable thing about the book was the crime novelist, Mrs. Oliver, a recurring character who seems to be an avatar for Christie herself. I loved how Chrisie used Mrs. Oliver to voice her own frustrations about screen adaptations of her novels that largely ignore the original text. My favourite part was when Mrs. Oliver was talking about the central character in her books Sven Hjerson, a Finn who loves crudités, cold winter baths and solving murder mysteries and who is clearly meant to be an avatar for Poirot. She declares that she regrets ever creating him and wonders why she made him a Finn when she knew nothing about Finland and why she made him so odd. Her ambivalent relationship with him is summed up when she says, "Of course he’s idiotic, but people like him".

I listened to Hugh Fraser narrating the audiobook. He did his usual solid job but even he couldn't stop the prose from feeling mechanical at times. Click on the SoundCloud link below to hear a sample.

https://soundcloud.com/harpercollinspublishers/mrs-mcgintys-dead-by-agatha ( )

I think this is one of my top 10 favorite Christie novels, though it is hard to pick my top favorites. I love the grumbly Poirot, suffering in his miserable rented room to investigate this already solved murder to find the real murderer and save an innocent man. Poirot is so funny, always just a bit flustered at how few people in this backwards small town have ever heard of him, and not sure how to react when people don't believe he is a famous detective. Without Hastings along to help him deal with people, his personality really stands out. ( )

Superintendent Spence shook his head sadly at Poirot. “You do like to make it difficult, don’t you, M. Poirot?” he said.

Christie, Agatha. Mrs. McGinty's Dead: Hercule Poirot Investigates (Hercule Poirot series Book 28) (p. 221). HarperCollins. Kindle Edition.

Superintendent Spence has investigated, trialled and convicted James Bentley of murder. All the evidence points to Bentley. The only problem is - Spence doesn't think he did it. So he pays Hercule Poirot a visit to ask a favour - see if he can prove it one way or another.

Superintendent Spence appeared in the last novel, Taken at the Flood and seems to be a no nonsense sort and a decent detective - even if he isn't quite in Poirot's class. Ariadne Oliver, the mystery writer and amateur sleuth who prides herself on her women's intuition also appears. I didn't really like Ariadne in this - she's kind of ridiculous with her flighty nature and faulty women's intuition. But I'm quite fond of Superintendent Spence and I hope to see more of him in the future, so that was good.

As for Poirot, he is busy integrating himself into the community and ruffling feathers of those who have things to hide. I enjoyed this one for the most part but I was kind of lost for a lot of it. Too much going on with kind of bland characters. I didn't like James Bentley and it was hard to care about proving his innocence. I really didn't understand why Maude or Deidre liked him, he was lame.

So not my favourite Poirot but enjoyable nonetheless. 3 stars. ( )

Agatha Christie again shines with her tale of mistaken identity that leads to murder. A convicted killer will soon hang for his crime of killing an old woman. Superintendent Spence believes that James Bentley did not commit the crime, so Spence encourages Hercule Poirot to aid in finding the actual killer. The clue to the real killer rests with decades old criminal cases and the photographs of four women. The dead woman, Mrs. McGinty, had seen a photograph during her cleaning of some lady’s house and mentioned this to her lodger. Another person overheard the conversation and decided Mrs. McGinty must die. As usual, Christie weaves a wonderful story with such marvelous names. What a surprise at the end to discover the real criminal. In the end, Poirot must have a turn in playing Cupid to two young people. ( )

Despite a guilty verdict and a death sentence, the police officer in charge of the investigation into the murder of Mrs McGinty is not convinced they've got the real culprit and asks Poirot to check before the execution.

I caught at least some of the little discrepancies which served as clues but still couldn't put them together. ( )