Mrs. McGinty's Dead in Reading the Detectives

Feb 04, 2019 Christine PNW rated it liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: read-my-hoard-2024, 2024

This was only my second time reading this book - the first time I read it, I remember being extremely underwhelmed. Like other Christie's, this one improved the second time I read it. This makes me wonder if rereading Passenger to Frankfurt will somehow turn it into The ABC Murders (kidding, kidding). I attribute this to the fact that I'm less concerned with Christie's high-wire mystery act, and rather I allow myself to be absorbed into her world.

Mrs. McGinty's dead has several wonderful side ch ...more

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Mar 12, 2021 Grisette rated it liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: 3rd-pers-narration, my-kind-of-detective-thriller

This review has been hidden because it contains spoilers. To view it, click here.
3.5 stars

⏳ [Re-read project #3 of 2023, 1st proper review, rating maintained]

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🔹️ Number of death/s: 2
🔹️ Motive for the crime: Money
🔹️ Method of crime: Blow on the head and Strangulation
🔹️ Main location: England
🔹️ Notable element: The solving of a cold-scent murder when the accused has already been found guilty, though the time gap is nowhere near as big as in Five Little Pigs or Elephants Can Remember. And again, like in Sad Cypress, Poirot has to make do with an uncooperative a

3.5 stars

⏳ [Re-read project #3 of 2023, 1st proper review, rating maintained]

==================

🔹️ Number of death/s: 2
🔹️ Motive for the crime: Money
🔹️ Method of crime: Blow on the head and Strangulation
🔹️ Main location: England
🔹️ Notable element: The solving of a cold-scent murder when the accused has already been found guilty, though the time gap is nowhere near as big as in Five Little Pigs or Elephants Can Remember. And again, like in Sad Cypress, Poirot has to make do with an uncooperative and apathetic accused.
🔹️ Book type: Novel, H. Poirot
🔹️ Reference to SH: Two references, one direct and the other about cigarette ash and foot prints 😁

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For the little story, I had planned to re-read this book for the February prompt of Blunt Object for the #readchristie2023 challenge. One third way through, I realised that the murder weapon was not blunt at all though the first victim was thumped on the head with it. Serves me good trying to get a little ahead of the challenge! I have already found the correct book for the challenge, but since I started this one, I thought I might as well finish it and review it.

Due to the absence of Hastings, or other acolyte, the 3rd person narrative style for this book, took a different angle by promoting quite closely the inner thoughts of Poirot while dealing with his case. Thus, we get as privy as possible to the step by step thought process of our Belgian detective as he pieces elements together to solve the mystery. And by the same, we get very close to the self-assumed conceitness of dear Poirot that we already know he is not shy at all to admit 😅. It makes for nice bits of humour à la Poirot.

‘My first friend in this country—and still to me the dearest friend I have. True, often and often did he enrage me. But do I remember that now? No. I remember only his incredulous wonder, his open-mouthed appreciation of my talents—the ease with which I misled him without uttering an untrue word, his bafflement, his stupendous astonishment when he at last perceived the truth that had been clear to me all along. Ce cher, cher ami! It is my weakness, it has always been my weakness, to desire to show off. That weakness, Hastings could never understand. But indeed it is very necessary for a man of my abilities to admire himself—and for that one needs stimulation from outside. I cannot, truly I cannot, sit in a chair all day reflecting how truly admirable I am. One needs the human touch. One needs—as they say nowadays—the stooge.’

The mystery itself was quite engrossing to follow as it touched deeply about the mentalities of the well-to-do ordinary Brits at that time. Which is of course one of the favourite themes of AC in her books and which she excels at writing their psychology.

‘It depends on a lot of family circumstances we do not know. But the passion for respectability is very strong. These are not artists or Bohemians. Very nice people live in Broadhinny. My postmistress said so. And nice people like to preserve their niceness. Years of happy married life, maybe, no suspicion that you were once a notorious figure in one of the most sensational murder trials, no suspicion that your child is the child of a famous murderer. One might say “I would rather die than have my husband know!” Or “I would rather die than have my daughter discover who she is!” And then you would go on to reflect that it would be better, perhaps, if Mrs McGinty died…’

I was very entertained by the story, even if the quite high number of red herrings was quite unbelievable for so small a village as Broadhinny is. E.g. all these women of the right age, the suspicious attitude of all these women and their shady secrets, the play on Eve/Eva/Evelyn names and widespread assignation to more than one character etc. Also, I am normally not a big fan of Ariadne Oliver, but in this book, her presence was less marked thankfully. That said, her complaints about her detective were very funny and denotes the self-humour that AC had on herself.

A classic must-read for Poirot fans though not among my favourites.

Edit 03 Feb 2023: so according to the official website, this book counts for the 2nd prompt. Therefore, #readchristie2023, blunt object ...more

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Jan 26, 2019 Shabbeer Hassan rated it really liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: 2020, brit-lit, 2019, mystery

A neatly plotted mystery in which Poirot is asked to investigate not just the murder of a charwoman, Mrs McGinty, but also save the life of an innocent chap awaiting trial for the same. A rather good read indeed!

My rating - 4/5

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Dec 30, 2017 Teri-K rated it really liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: z-own-audio, amusing-to-funny, mystery-golden-age

A policeman friend comes to Poirot and asks for his help investigating a case. His appeal is unusual because he has already investigated and someone has been convicted of the murder. Despite this fact, the officer isn't certain that the accused is guilty and worries that an innocent man may be hanged. Poirot agrees to look into the case and goes to Broadhinny to investigate the murder of an insignificant char woman. I really enjoy the way we get to know Mrs. McGinty as the story unfolds - she be ...more

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Sep 25, 2025 Bev rated it really liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: vintage-mystery, mount-tbr-2025, mystery, british-mystery, bought-1994

Mrs. McGinty's dead!
How did she die?
Down on one knee, just like I!
The old children's rhyme comes to life (or rather death...) when Mrs. McGinty, a woman who made her living cleaning for others (down on her knees, as it were) is found killed. She was hit over the head by an unknown weapon and apparently for her small savings of about thirty pounds. All signs point to her lodger, James Bentley. Bentley is an ineffectual man who had recently lost his job and was badly in need of money. But would a Mrs. McGinty's dead!
How did she die?
Down on one knee, just like I!
The old children's rhyme comes to life (or rather death...) when Mrs. McGinty, a woman who made her living cleaning for others (down on her knees, as it were) is found killed. She was hit over the head by an unknown weapon and apparently for her small savings of about thirty pounds. All signs point to her lodger, James Bentley. Bentley is an ineffectual man who had recently lost his job and was badly in need of money. But would a man hide the money under a rock in the backyard?

Even though the evidence pointed to Bentley and a jury of his peers found him guilty and the man has already been sentence to hang in a very short time, Superintendent Spence isn't happy about the verdict. He can't say why exactly, but he doesn't think Bentley did it. So, he calls on his old friend Hercule Poirot and puts the case before him. Poirot is interested enough to go stay in the village of Broadhinny to see if he can spot anything that Spence missed. The detective's attention is drawn to two things: the bottle of ink that Mrs. McGinty bought two days before her death and a newspaper article cut out of the paper used to wrap her shoes. When he discovers that the article featured four women who were involved with old murder mysteries, he's sure he has found a trail to follow. And when a second woman, who had said she recognized one of the photographs associated with the article, is killed, Poirot knows he's on the right track. But he won't be able to name the killer until he can figure out which photograph both Mrs. McGinty and Mrs. Upward recognized.

I had a good time reading the book and then also listening to Hugh Fraser narrate it on Hoopla. He does excellent voice work and manages to give everyone their own vocal qualities. Given how large the cast of characters is, this is quite a feat. It's always fun to listen to "Captain Hastings" narrate an Agatha Christie story. The novel was a palate cleanser after the Beeding I just finished. It was so nice to sink into a nice straightforward detective story after Beeding's spy-thriller. Christie does it again--clues strewn about in such a way that you don't necessarily pick up on the right ones...or, if you do, you don't look at them the right way. We've got four women from the past, one of whom just might be hanging out in Broadhinny, and we've got to figure out where she's hiding. Or do we? Somebody killed Mrs. McGinty for her money. Or did they? She recognized a photograph and if we find the right photograph, we'll know who the killer is. Or will we? Christie managed to keep me in the dark (mostly) until the reveal. I had my suspicions, but couldn't quite put the clues together properly.

While I enjoyed the scenes with Mrs. Oliver and Robin Upward wrangling over his adaptation of her book to the stage, I'm not sure she fits in well to the story. I mean, yes, she does provide one of the means (can't be more specific without a spoiler) by which Poirot begins to see daylight, but otherwise she really doesn't add to the investigation. In other appearances, she provides more information and data that Poirot needs and she seems a little more integral to the plot. But overall another great outing with Poirot.

First posted on my blog My Reader's Block. ...more

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