Mrs McGinty’s Dead

by Agatha Christie Book 28 in the Hercule Poirot series.

First published 1952

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James Bentley has been convicted of killing his landlady, Mrs McGinty, for a small amount of money, but the investigating officer remains uneasy and asks Poirot to review the case. In the village of Broadhinny, Poirot discovers that Mrs McGinty had recognised a face in an old newspaper photograph shortly before her death.

The inquiry connects post-war domestic service, concealed past identities and the village’s determination to preserve respectable appearances. Working from poor lodgings and fragmentary gossip, Poirot must identify which household fears the return of an old scandal more than it fears another murder.