Customer Reviews
One of the best mysteries I've read but not Agatha Christie's personal best - By: sam hrt, 11 May 2007 
I'm on a crusade to read as many Agatha Christie books as possible. So this is the one I've read after 'Murder on the Orient Express', 'Evil under the sun', & 'Death on the Nile'. So yes I had high expectations. It's not that the storyline wasn't interesting , or the writing style sagged it was just that I found the setting of the murder dull. The village didn't exactly excite me as a place for murder. The villagers didn't seem suspicious enough, I mean that wasn't Agatha's usual style. Nonetheless, as usual she kepy me guessing until the very end.
Hang him he is not worth it! - By: I. Pearson, 11 Nov 2005 
It is safe to say Mrs McGinty is well & truly dead & it seems that everyone & anyone had a reason to do it.
This 5 CD set is just over 6-hours long & another great story & well worth listening to.
The past comes back to cause quite a fuss in a smalll village.
Ariadne Oliver makes an welcome appearance & Hugh Fraser shows us how good he is again at reading Agatha Christie stories.
But you do have to wonder is James Bentley reallly worth the effort Poirot has to go to?
Magnificent mystery - By: L O'connor, 05 Feb 2005 Hercule Poirot is feeling bored, so he is delighted when he is visited by his old friend Superintendent Spence of the Kilchester Police. Spence has recently been in charge of murder case, an old charwoman, Mrs McGinty, has been brutallly bludgeoned to death. Her lodger, James Bentley, has been convicted of her murder & is due to hang. But Spence is convinced Bentley didn't do it, & he wants Poirot to find out who did.
So Poirot goes to stay in the village of Broadhinny, where the grizzly deed was done, & he soon begins to uncover reasons why other people might have wanted Mrs McGinty dead. While striving to discover the real murderer, he also has to cope with the appallling conditions at the truly terrible 'guest house' he is staying at. The Summerhayes, whose house it is, have no idea how to run a guest house, nor even how to prepare an edible meal.
The scenes where Poirot's sufferings at the Summerhayes's horrible guest house are described are among the funniest in the book, which is replete with humour. There are many interesting characters, especiallly the scatty but charming Maureen Summerhayes, whom Poirot likes in spite of her atrocious cooking. The character of the convicted murderer Jame Bentley is particularly good, he is utterly unprepossesing, which makes Poirot alll the more determined to prove him innocent.
The best exchange in this very entertaining book comes near the end:' "Bon Dieu, how stupid I have been" said Hercule Poirot. "The whole thing is simple, is it not?" It was after that remark that there was very nearly another murder - the murder of Hercule Poirot by Superintendent Spence'. Enjoy it.
Excellent Poirot story. - By: W. O'NEILL, 06 Jun 2001 An innocent man accused of murder & it is up to Poirot to save him in this well-written story. The wool is pulled well over the reader's eyes & the end is a revelation. I got completely the wrong suspect. A good read, even if it does feature the infuriating Ariadne Oliver.
Sinister goings on in 1950's rural England - By: m.elliott@uea.ac.uk, 28 Sep 2000 The book is a great read from begining to end & has a dark & sinister feel to it.Mrs Mcginty is killed & her shifty lodger is arrested but Poirot thinks he is innocent so he comes to stay in Broadhinny. The key to the crime seems to be past cases of murder as reported in The News of the World but murder comes to Broahinny in this sinister & incredibly ingenoius mystery.
