"Mrs. McGinty's Dead" is a great entry into the Poirot series.
Poirot has been asked to save an innocent man, James Bentley, from the hangman's noose, as the inspector in charge of the case thinks his conviction for the murder of his landlady, Mrs. McGinty, is a mistake.
Poirot goes to the village where the murder took place and runs into Ariadne Oliver (Zoe Wanamaker), who is in the same village, Broadhinny, to work on an adaptation of one of her novels as a play. with a dramatist, Robin Upward.
Mrs. McGinty did housekeeping work in the village, so she had access to several homes. While searching through her belongings, Poirot finds an edition of a newspaper dated not long before the woman's death. Two photographs had been removed, but Poirot tracks down a full edition. The paper has a Where Are They Now featuring two women who, many years earlier, had been involved in murders: Lily Gamboll, who committed murder with a meat cleaver as a child, and Eva Kane, who had been the love interest who inspired a man to murder his wife and bury her in a cellar.
The question is, did Mrs. McGinty realize that a woman in the village was connected to one of these women? Was one of them Lily Gamboll, or perhaps the child of Eva Kane? There is another murder, and as Poirot draws closer to the solution, he realizes that blackmail and subterfuge are involved. The murderer is clever, but no one is cleverer as Poirot.
Really excellent episode with some lively and interesting characters throughout, all of whom seem to have something going on, be it a secret love affair or something else.
Mrs. McGinty's dead is darker than some of the earlier Poirots but no less entertaining.
Poirot has been asked to save an innocent man, James Bentley, from the hangman's noose, as the inspector in charge of the case thinks his conviction for the murder of his landlady, Mrs. McGinty, is a mistake.
Poirot goes to the village where the murder took place and runs into Ariadne Oliver (Zoe Wanamaker), who is in the same village, Broadhinny, to work on an adaptation of one of her novels as a play. with a dramatist, Robin Upward.
Mrs. McGinty did housekeeping work in the village, so she had access to several homes. While searching through her belongings, Poirot finds an edition of a newspaper dated not long before the woman's death. Two photographs had been removed, but Poirot tracks down a full edition. The paper has a Where Are They Now featuring two women who, many years earlier, had been involved in murders: Lily Gamboll, who committed murder with a meat cleaver as a child, and Eva Kane, who had been the love interest who inspired a man to murder his wife and bury her in a cellar.
The question is, did Mrs. McGinty realize that a woman in the village was connected to one of these women? Was one of them Lily Gamboll, or perhaps the child of Eva Kane? There is another murder, and as Poirot draws closer to the solution, he realizes that blackmail and subterfuge are involved. The murderer is clever, but no one is cleverer as Poirot.
Really excellent episode with some lively and interesting characters throughout, all of whom seem to have something going on, be it a secret love affair or something else.
Mrs. McGinty's dead is darker than some of the earlier Poirots but no less entertaining.