麦金堤太太之死 (1952)

《清洁女工之死》（英语：Mrs McGinty's Dead）是英国作家阿加莎·克里斯蒂所著的推理小说，1952年2月在美国出版，同年3月3日在英国出版。

情节简介

基尔切斯特警局的刑事主任史彭斯先生造访比利时侦探赫尔克里·波洛的公寓，向波洛讲述了清洁女工麦金蒂太太遇害的命案，并认为警方认定的嫌犯詹姆斯·本特利可能并非真凶。波洛前往命案发生地布罗欣尼村，住在萨默海夫妻开设的小旅舍，展开了调查，逐一走访麦金蒂太太生前工作过的人家。很快他发现麦金蒂太太的死是跟多年前四起不同谋杀案四名涉案女性（伊娃·凯恩、贾妮斯·斯考兰、莉莉·甘博尔和维拉·布雷克）的其中之一有关——麦金蒂太太生前读过叙述这四起谋杀案的报纸，并认出了其中一人，她可能因此遭到灭口。

波洛伺机将这四张照片拿给嫌疑犯们（麦金蒂太太生前的雇主们）看，其中厄普沃太太声称她曾经在某处看过同样的相片。不久后，厄普沃太太便在家中被人勒死。当波洛找出了重要线索后，便招集涉案人物，当众揭示两起命案的真凶是罗宾·厄普沃。罗宾实际上并非厄普沃太太的亲生儿子，而是伊娃·凯恩的儿子，因向厄普沃太太谎报经历才被其收养，当麦金蒂太太无意中见到罗宾所保存的生母伊娃·凯恩的相片后，罗宾生怕秘密泄露，便将麦金蒂太太杀死。后来由于厄普沃太太对此也开始有所怀疑，罗宾亦伺机将其勒死，这样一来可获得养母留下的财产。

改编作品

1964年，被米高梅改编为电影《艳尸奇案》。该片里玛波小姐替代了原作里波洛的戏份，她是法庭十二名陪审员之一，唯一相信嫌犯詹姆斯·本特利无罪，于是法官给玛波小姐七天时间来找出真凶。

2007年，被改编为ITV电视剧《大侦探波洛》第十一季的第一集。

Mrs McGinty's Dead is a mystery novel by English writer Agatha Christie, first published in the US by Dodd, Mead and Company in February 1952 and in the UK by the Collins Crime Club on 3 March the same year. The US edition retailed at $2.50 and the UK edition at nine shillings and sixpence (9/6). The Detective Book Club issued an edition, also in 1952, as Blood Will Tell.

The novel features the characters Hercule Poirot and Ariadne Oliver. The story is a "village mystery", a subgenre of whodunit which Christie usually reserved for Miss Marple. The novel is notable for its wit and comic detail, something that had been little in evidence in the Poirot novels of the 1930s and 1940s. Poirot's misery in the run-down guesthouse, Mrs Oliver's observations on the life of a detective novelist and her growing frustration at artistic liberties taken during adaptions of her characters into plays, provide considerable entertainment in the early part of the novel. The publication of Mrs McGinty's Dead may be considered as marking the start of Poirot's final phase, in which Ariadne Oliver plays a large part. Although she had appeared in Cards on the Table in 1936, Mrs Oliver's most significant appearances in Christie's work begin here. She appears in five of the last nine Christie novels featuring Poirot, and appears on her own without Poirot at all in The Pale Horse (1961).

Plot summary

Superintendent Spence visits Poirot to ask him to find evidence that would forestall the execution of James Bentley, recently convicted of killing his elderly landlady, Mrs McGinty, for a meagre £30. All evidence points to his guilt, but something about Bentley's dreary acceptance of his fate just doesn't sit right with the experienced Spence. Poirot agrees to go to the village of Broadhinny and investigate the murder. Taking a room in the Summerhayes' guest house, Poirot finds that Mrs McGinty often worked as a charwoman at various village houses. He also discovers that most of the townsfolk believe that Bentley is guilty.

During the course of his investigations, Poirot discovers that, three days before the murder, Mrs McGinty took a clipping from a notorious Sunday newspaper. The clipping showed photos of four females who had disappeared after having been involved in decades-old criminal cases. Mrs McGinty wrote to the paper, claiming to have found a similar photo, proving one of her neighbors was really one of the women in the article. However, her terrible spelling had caused the paper to dismiss her as a simple fame-seeker.

Poirot and Spence, going by the ages of the people in the town, conclude that someone is either Lily Gamboll, who committed murder with a meat cleaver at 12 years of age, or Eva Kane, a governess who'd had an affair with her employer, Arthur Craig. Craig was later convicted and executed for killing his wife, though the police believed it was actually Eva's doing. After being acquitted as an accessory, a pregnant Eva had changed her surname to "Hope" and left the country. Some sources claim she had a child named Evelyn, and several women in the town are the right age to be Evelyn, as well.

Shortly afterwards, Poirot discovers an old sugar cutter with traces of blood on it in the Summerhayes' house; the house is untidy and never locked, and the hammer was accessible to anyone. In an attempt to flush out the murderer, Poirot claims to know more than he does; later, someone tries to push him under an oncoming train, proving that the guilty party is still at large. Having acquired originals of the photos used in the article, Poirot shows them to the villagers at a gathering at elderly, wealthy Mrs Laura Upward's house. Mrs Upward claims to have seen the photo of Lily Gamboll, but refuses to say where.