Four women and one murder
Four women and a murder (original title: Mrs. McGinty's Dead ) is the 42nd detective novel by Agatha Christie . It first appeared in the US at Dodd, Mead and Company in February 1952 and in the UK at the Collins Crime Club on March 3 of the same year. The Detective Book Club also published an edition in 1952 under the different title Blood Will Tell . The German first edition was published in 1956 by Scherz Verlag (Bern) in the translation by George S. Martin, which is still used today.
It is determined by Hercule Poirot in his 24th novel and Ariadne Oliver in her second novel.
The publication of this novel marks the beginning of a new phase in Christie's relationship with her hero. From now on he appears almost exclusively with Ariadne Oliver, a character with strong autobiographical traits.
Explanation of the title of the novel
The original title comes from a children's dance, which is explained in the course of the plot.
action
Superintendent Spence briefs Belgian detective Hercule Poirot on the case of Mrs. McGinty, an elderly lady who was murdered by Bentley, her lodger, for £ 30 hidden under the floorboards. Bentley is soon to be executed for this crime. But he protests his innocence. Poirot takes over the investigation and goes to Broadhinny. There he finds out that Mrs. McGinty had worked as a cleaning lady in several houses, but nobody wants to talk to him and most think Bentley is the killer.
He quartered himself in the local inn. Then a letter from Mrs. McGinty, written shortly before she died, gets it all rolling. In it, she writes about a newspaper report in which the stories of four women were told, each directly involved in crimes long ago. Mrs. McGinty had looked very familiar to one of the newspaper photos.
Because of the newspaper article, Poirot and Spence are now looking for suitable villagers (especially in terms of age). They are looking for Lily Gamboll, who committed a murder with a butcher knife as a child, or Eva Kane, who instigated a man to murder his wife and bury her in the basement. Another possibility is that someone is Evelyn Hope, Eva Kane's daughter.
Poirot discovers the murder weapon, a sugar hammer that hangs on the wall in his guesthouse, accessible to everyone. When he tries to lure the killer from his reserve, he is almost pushed under a train.
He then decides to show the pictures from the newspaper at a party. Mrs. Upward explains that she's seen the picture of Lily Gamboll before, but can't remember where. Soon she is found murdered. She had apparently had coffee with her killer and the traces of lipstick and the touch of perfume in the air suggest that she was murdered by a woman. Mrs. Upward invited three people over: Eve Carpenter, Deirdre Henderson, and Shelagh Rendell. Either of the three could be the woman in the newspaper.
Also, the assistant to the local post office worker, Edna, testifies that she saw someone with blonde hair walk into the house - Henderson is not blonde. Confusion is also caused by a book in Mrs. Upward's house with Evelyn Hope's name in it, from which one could conclude that Mrs. Upward is Eva Kane.
But Poirot fits in the last piece of the puzzle when he finally finds the picture Mrs. McGinty had seen in Maureen Summerhaye's house. There is a picture of Eva Kane with "my mother" written on the back. Poirot gathers the suspects to present them the killer: Robin Upward, Mrs. Upward's adopted son.
Robin is Eva Kane's son. The child in the photo was a boy, not a girl. Mrs. Upward hadn't known who Robin's mother was. But he knew that any scandal could only harm him. Mrs. McGinty saw the picture of Eva Kane at work in the Upwards house and thought it was of Mrs. Upward as a young girl. Robin killed her to keep her from telling anyone about it. When Mrs. Upward saw this connection too, he killed her too.
people
- Hercule Poirot , the famous Belgian detective
- Ariadne Oliver, a famous crime writer
- Superintendent Spence, the investigating officer
- James Bentley, Mrs. McGinty's lodger
- Mr. Scuttle, a real estate agent
- Maude Williams, a secretary at Breather & Scuttle
- Maureen Summerhayes, landlady of the "Long Meadows" inn
- Major Johnnie Summerhayes, her husband
- Guy Carpenter, a candidate for parliament
- Eve Carpenter, his wife
- Robin Upward, a young playwright
- Mrs. Upward, Robin's adoptive mother
- Dr. Rendell, a doctor
- Shelagh Rendell, his wife
- Mr. Wetherby
- Mrs. Wetherby
- Deirdre Henderson, Mrs. Wetherby's daughter
- Mrs. Sweetiman, the local postal worker
- Edna, Mrs. Sweetiman's assistant
- Mrs. Burch, Mrs. McGinty's niece
- Joe Burch, her husband
Film adaptations
The novel was adapted by MGM in 1964 under the title Four Women and One Murder . Instead, the role of Hercule Poirot was replaced by Miss Marple, Christie's other famous detective.
For the television series Agatha Christie's Poirot , the novel was filmed in 2008 with David Suchet as Poirot under the title Mrs. McGinty is dead .
Major expenses
- 1952 Dodd Mead and Company (New York), February 1952
- 1952 Collins Crime Club (London), March 3, 1952
- 1956 German first edition by Scherz Verlag (Bern) in the translation by George S. Martin
Audio books
Four women and one murder. Read by Oliver Kalkofe. Abridged reading 3 CDs. The Hörverlag, Munich 2012. ISBN 978-3867178358
Web links
- Mrs McGinty's Dead on the official Agatha Christie website
Individual evidence
- ↑ American Tribute to Agatha Christie
- ↑ Chris Peers, Ralph Spurrier and Jamie Sturgeon. Collins Crime Club - A checklist of First Editions . Dragonby Press (Second Edition) March 1999 (Page 15)
- ↑ a b German first edition in the catalog of the German National Library