
Mrs McGinty's Dead by Agatha Christie
The gruesome death of Mrs McGinty provokes Superintendent Spence to seek the help of his old ally Hercule Poirot. The victim's young lodger has been found guilty and is due to hang. But Spence is not convinced by the circumstantial evidence which influenced the verdict. So, at considerable personal discomfort, Poirot goes down to the sleepy village where the old lady lived and where, by chance, his good friend Ariadne Oliver is also staying. There he alights upon his first and most crucial clue - a newspaper article on the present whereabouts of women implicated in notorious murder cases. Did Mrs McGinty have to die because she had identified one of her neighbours as a brutal killer? Is that killer still at large, and can Poirot and Ariadne act swiftly enough to save an innocent man from the gallows? Agatha Christie's intriguing mystery is dramatised with a full cast including Julia McKenzie and George Baker. John Moffatt stars as Hercule Poirot. 2 CDs. 2 hrs 20 mins.
Agatha Christie, the acknowledged ‘Queen of Crime' (The Observer) was born in Torquay in 1890. During the First World War she worked as a hospital dispenser, and it was here that she gleaned the working knowledge of various poisons that was to prove so useful in her detective stories. Her first novel was The Mysterious Affair at Styles, which introduced Hercule Poirot to the world. This was published in 1920 (although in fact she had written it during the war) and was followed over the next six years by four more detective novels and a short story collection. However, it was not until the publication of The Murder of Roger Ackroyd that Agatha Christie’s reputation was firmly established. This novel, with its complex plot and genuinely shocking conclusion, attracted considerable public attention and has since been acknowledged by many experts as a masterpiece. In 1930 the sharp-witted spinster sleuth Miss Marple made her first appearance in The Murder at the Vicarage. In all, Agatha Christie published over 80 novels and short story collections. The brilliance of Christie’s plots, and her enduring appeal, have led to several dramatisations of her work on radio, television and film. In 1930 she was one of a number of crime writers asked to contribute a chapter to a mystery, Behind the Screen, that was broadcast on BBC radio on 21st June that year. More recently, June Whitfield portrayed Miss Marple on BBC Radio 4, whilst John Moffat starred as Hercule Poirot. On screen, Peter Ustinov, David Suchet, Margaret Rutherford, Joan Hickson, Geraldine McEwan and Julia McKenzie have all memorably played Agatha Christie’s famous sleuths. As her play The Mousetrap (the longest-running play in the history of theatre) testifies, Agatha Christie’s detective stories are likely to appeal for a long time to come. Agatha Christie was awarded a CBE in 1956 and was made a Dame of the British Empire in 1971. She died in 1976.
SKU | Unavailable |
EAN | 9780563510215 |
Title | Mrs McGinty's Dead |
Release date | 2006-04-03 |
Format | Audiobook |
Studio | BBC Physical Audio |
Condition | Unavailable |
Note | Unavailable |
By (author) | Agatha Christie |
Read by | Full Cast |
Read by | George Baker |