An old widow is brutally killed in the parlour of her cottage... Mrs McGinty died from a brutal blow to the back of her head. Suspicion fell immediately on her shifty lodger, James Bentley, whose clothes revealed traces of the victim's blood and hair. Yet something was amiss: Bentley just didn't look like a murderer. Poirot believed he could save the man from the gallows -- what he didn't realise was that his own life was now in great danger! / A new series of Agatha Christie mass market editions, stylishly repackaged based on new market research, and designed to bring the books to a wider readership. / Market research shows that two out of three of all fiction readers have read an Agatha Christie book, and more than half want to read her again / Major marketing campaign behind these new Agatha Christie editions.

'So simple, so economical, so completely baffling. Every clue scrupulously given, with superb sleight of hand.' Sunday Times 'The plot is perfect and the characters are wonderful.' San Francisco Chronicle 'The best Poirot since such pre-war classics as Cards on the Table.' New York Times