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. ( )

First published in 1952, the novel was adapted by MGM in 1964, and released as 'Murder Most Foul'. The character of Hercule Poirot was replaced by Jane Marple, played by Margaret Rutherford. In 2008 David Suchet starred as Poirt and Zoë Wanamaker as Ariadne Oliver in the ITV production.

After our discussion we will watch the David Suchet ITV production.

I am re-reading this for my U3A Agatha Christie Group, so the main feature of this review are the discussion questions I have written.

Who is the narrator?
The book opens with Poirot reflecting on his previous investigations and the role that his good friend Hastings played in them as "the stooge". What do you understand that to mean?
Why does Superintendent Spence come to Poirot?
Even though James Bentley has been convicted of the murder by a jury why does he doubt that he is guilty?
There seem to be conflicting descriptions of Bentley. He is said to have the mind of a 12 year old, to be a bit screwy, to be shy and awkward, daft, lacking in confidence, although others said he was educated. Which do you think is correct? Could he plead insanity?
Poirot contrasts himself with Inspector Spence. "he is a good and painstaking police officer.... But it should be different for me" Why? What disappoints him?
What was the significance of Mrs McGinty buying a bottle of ink?
Why did Mrs McGinty cut the picture out of the Sunday Comet?
An interesting phrase: from him she takes the Greenwich time - what does it mean? (Shelagh Rendell is looking at her husband)
Why does Christie bring Mrs Oliver into the story?
What did her employers have to say about Mrs McGinty? There were a number of reasons why people disliked her.
An interesting comment on the effects of World War II on English communities:
the war has complicated things. Records destroyed—endless opportunities for people who
want to cover their traces doing so by means of other people’s identity cards, etc., especially after “incidents” when nobody could know which corpse was which! If we could concentrate on just one lot, but you’ve got so many possibles, M. Poirot.
This is a comment that Christie has made elsewhere. What does it mean? What effect does it have on an investigation?
Who attempted to push Poirot under the train?
What is the irony of Mrs Upward ringing 3 women to come to visit her? What did she think she knew? What did she intend to do with her knowledge?
In the last pages Poirot gets the remaining characters together and says he knows what the motive for the murders was - money. Was he right? Can you explain the plot?
Why did Maude Williams get involved?
How was the identity of the murderer finally discovered?

I think this is an easy novel to underestimate. In fact the plot is quite complex. And there are comments about the social and economic effects of World War II that are valuable. ( )

I neglected my chronological read of the Poirot novels for too long, but now that I'm back on track I hope I can polish them off in good time. And this one's kind of a hybrid of Christie's most enduring series, with Poirot plopped down into the middle of a Miss Marple-esque setting (small village where everyone knows everyone else's business).

Here we've got an old cleaning woman (that's Mrs. McGinty to you) who's murdered in her cottage, and the lodger who shared her home who's convicted of the crime. But Superintendent Spence has doubts about the man's guilt, even though it was the evidence Spence gathered that clinched the case. So he enlists his old friend Hercule to nose around to uncover the truth, which the little Belgian does, eventually, but only after more bodies pile up.

I liked but didn't love this one but it provided a nice array of suspects and a satisfying ending — who among us would ask for more?

As an aside, the title is apparently a play on a common children's game in the UK (according to Wikipedia, it's similar to the Hokey-Cokey/Hokey-Pokey). I had to look it up because it was completely unfamiliar to me and I was curious whether it was an actual thing or something Christie invented for the purposes of her plot. ( )

An unusual set-up. The police, Superintendent Spence, who successfully prosecutes Bentley, the lodger, for the murder of his landlord, Mrs McGinty (who also works as a cleaner, approaches Poirot, asking him to re-look at the situation as Spence thinks that Bentley is innocent.

Bentley does little to clear his name, and there are a number of diversions.

The resolution by Poirot is not in my view entirely fair, but nevertheless enjoyable.

Big Ship

1 December 2022 ( )