Lord Edgware Dies by Agatha Christie

Poirot had been present when Jane bragged of her plan to ‘get rid of’ her estranged husband. Now the monstrous man was dead. And yet the great Belgian detective couldn’t help feeling that he was being taken for a ride. After all, how could Jane have stabbed Lord Edgware to death in his library at exactly the same time she was seen dining with friends? And what could be her motive now that the aristocrat had finally granted her a divorce?

Each one of us is a dark mystery, a maze of conflicting passions and desires and attitudes?... One makes one's judgements - but nine times out of ten one is wrong.
Hercule Poirot, Lord Edgware Dies

More about this story

Christie wrote much of this novel while on an excavation with her archaeologist husband, Max Mallowan, in Nimrud. In fact, she was so engrossed in writing that a recovered skeleton on the dig was swiftly christened Lord Edgware (whether or not he was murdered was a mystery for Max to solve).

Lord Edgware Dies was among the first of Christie’s works to be adapted for film. In 1934 Austin Trevor took on the role of Poirot for the third time, directed by Henry Edwards. Peter Ustinov also starred in this story in 1985, under the original US title Thirteen at Dinner. The version was modernised and brought out of the 1930s. It also featured an appearance from David Suchet as Chief Inspector Japp. David Suchet would himself star as Poirot in the 2000 adaptation for TV, which added the character of Miss Lemon (Pauline Moran). In 2005, John Moffatt again voiced Poirot in the BBC Radio 4 dramatised version of the story.

Did you know?

Christie drew inspiration for the story after seeing a performance by Ruth Draper, an American dramatist. In Christie's autobiography she says 'I thought how clever she was and how good her impersonations were...thinking about her led me to the book Lord Edgware Dies.'