Hallowe’en Party by Agatha Christie. Short summary

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At a Halloween party for children, thirteen-year-old Joyce is murdered, bragging about seeing the murder beforehand. Famous detective author Ariadne Oliver tells Hercule Poirot about the crime.

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A novel in the Hercule Poirot series. At a Halloween party at Mrs. Drake’s house, a teenage girl, Joyce, is murdered — she is found drowned in a tub of apples. Shortly before her death, Joyce tells everyone that she witnessed the murder. The writer Ariadne Oliver turns up at the feast and asks her acquaintance detective Hercule Poirot for help.

Poirot begins interviewing witnesses. The detective checks all the murders for the last year and a half and stumbles upon the suspicious death of Mrs. Llewellyn-Smith. Before her death, the old lady wanted to leave her entire fortune to her maid, Olga Semyonova.

In the end the detective manages to find out that Rowena Drake, daughter-in-law of the late Mrs. Llewellyn-Smith, and her lover Michael Garfield pulled off a scam — they made a false will for Olga, which was annulled and all the fortune went to Rowena. Olga was found murdered. Upon hearing from Joyce about the old murder, Rowena became tense and decided to get rid of the witness.