Mrs. McGinty’s Dead by Agatha Christie. Short summary

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Her lodger, James Bentley, is arrested on the charge of murdering Mrs. McGinty, an elderly woman. But Chief Inspector Spence is unsure of his guilt and asks for a private investigation by Hercule Poirot.

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A novel in the Hercule Poirot series. Chief Inspector Spence tells Hercule Poirot about the case of Mrs. McGinty, an elderly janitor who appears to have been murdered by her tenant James Bentley. The motive is the thirty pounds the old woman kept under the floorboards. Spence believes Bentley is innocent and wants to save him from the gallows. The famous detective takes up the case.

Poirot makes inquiries about Bentley and the murdered old lady. In the belongings of the deceased, Poirot discovers a newspaper from which the article is cut out. The detective finds a clipped article about four women, at one time involved in scandalous stories. Mrs. McGinty had written to the newspaper’s editorial office before her death that she knew important information and asked for money for it. Poirot understands that the old woman was murdered so that she would not reveal someone’s secrets.

In the end, the detective manages to prove that in the death of Mrs. McGinty and another victim to blame the theater director Robin Apworth, son of Eva Kane. He got rid of the women so that they would not give away his origins.