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1933 Poirot novel by Agatha Christie

Lord Edgware Dies is a work of detective fiction by British writer Agatha Christie, published in the UK by the Collins Crime Club in September 1933 and in the US by Dodd, Mead and Company later in the same year under the title of Thirteen at Dinner. Before its book publication, the novel was serialised in six issues (March–August 1933) of The American Magazine as 13 For Dinner. The novel features Hercule Poirot, Arthur Hastings and Chief Inspector Japp. An American actress married to Lord Edgware asks Poirot to aid her in getting a divorce from her husband. Poirot agrees to help her, meeting her husband. That evening, the actress is seen at a dinner with thirteen guests, which has an associated superstition. By the next morning Lord Edgware and another American actress are found murdered, each at their own homes. Poirot investigates. The novel was well received at publication, in both London and New York, noting the clue that came from the chance remark of a stranger, calling it ingenious. A later review called it clever and unusual.

Attending a performance by impressionist Carlotta Adams, Hercule Poirot is approached by actress Jane Wilkinson. She requests his help in asking her husband, Lord Edgware, to divorce her. Although a Catholic, Poirot agrees but is surprised to learn Edgware has already agreed to a divorce and sent a letter to his wife confirming this; Wilkinson denies receiving it. The following morning, Inspector Japp informs Poirot and his friend Arthur Hastings that Edgware had been murdered at his home in Regent Gate the previous evening, stabbed in the neck. While Wilkinson was witnessed by Edgware's butler and his secretary visiting her husband that night, a morning newspaper reveals she attended a dinner party the same evening, and other guests confirm this. Poirot soon becomes concerned for Adams' safety, recalling she could impersonate Wilkinson. Adams is found dead that same morning from an overdose of Veronal. Seeking answers, Poirot notes a few facts: Bryan Martin, a former lover of Wilkinson before she met the wealthy Duke of Merton, bitterly describes her as an amoral person; Donald Ross, a guest at the party, witnessed her take a telephone call from someone that night; Adams possessed a pair of pince nez, along with a gold case that contained the drug, which has a puzzling inscription in it; Edgware's nephew, Ronald Marsh, had been cut off from his allowance by his uncle three months earlier; a sum of francs formerly in Edgware's possession has disappeared, along with the butler. Learning Adams had sent a letter to her sister in America before her death, Poirot makes a request for it. A copy is sent via telegram, revealing Adams was offered $10,000 for an undisclosed endeavour. Poirot suspects she was hired to impersonate Wilkinson. Japp soon arrests Marsh, based on this letter. Marsh denies hiring Adams or killing his uncle but states that he and his cousin Geraldine went to Regent Gates on the night of the murder, where he spotted Martin entering the house although Geraldine did not as she was retrieving something for him. Poirot later receives the original letter in the post and notes some oddities with it. Hastings attends a luncheon party along with Wilkinson and Ross, in which the guests talk about Paris of Troy. Wilkinson presumes they are talking of the French capital and begins discussing fashion. Ross, puzzled by this, considering how clever Wilkinson had been the last time he met her, confides his concerns to Hastings. He later telephones Poirot but is fatally stabbed before he can explain in detail. Seeking a theory, Poirot overhears a chance remark from a crowd leaving a theatre, which leads him to talk with Ellis, Wilkinson's maid. Gathering the suspects together, Poirot reveals that the killer in all three murders is Jane Wilkinson. Her motive in killing Lord Edgware is that the devout Duke of Merton would not marry a divorced woman. A widow, however, is a different matter. She recruited Adams to impersonate her at the dinner party, while she killed her husband and then killed Adams afterwards with a fatal dose of Veronal. The women met at a hotel to exchange clothing before and after the party. While waiting for Adams to return from the party, Wilkinson discovers a letter among Adams's belongings that had yet to be posted and tampers with the letter to implicate the last man it mentions for the murders. Ross was killed because he realised that Wilkinson did not attend the dinner party; her ignorance of Greek mythology gave her away, as Adams had been knowledgeable on the subject and thus talked about it while impersonating her. Poirot reveals what led him to his theory: Wilkinson lied about receiving her husband's letter and used Poirot to prove she had no motive for his murder; the telephone call to Adams was to confirm if their deception had yet to be exposed; the pince nez belong to Ellis, used in a disguise that she and Wilkinson wore to keep their hotel meetings secret; the gold case was created a week before the murder, not nine months as its inscription implied Wilkinson had it made under a false name and then sent Ellis to collect it; a corner of a page in Adams' letter was torn by Wilkinson, changing the word "she" to "he", to imply that a man hired Adams. Poirot reveals that the butler stole the missing money; Marsh had witnessed him entering Regent Gates to hide it elsewhere; his disappearance was because he panicked when the police sought another suspect. Wilkinson is arrested and writes to Poirot from prison about wishing an audience for her hanging, surprisingly evincing no anger at being foiled by him nor any remorse.

Hercule Poirot The famed Belgian detective. Drawn into the case, after being asked by Wilkinson to aid her in getting a divorce from her husband. Captain Hastings Poirot's friend and assistant on the case. He is the narrator of the story. Inspector Japp The investigating officer for the case. Lord Edgware The first victim of the case. A wealthy English peer with a harsh personality, who is a noted collector of objets d'art. Carlotta Adams An American impersonator conducting a tour in London and Paris. Hired to impersonate Edgware's wife by an unknown employer. Donald Ross A young actor who attends the dinner party Wilkinson joins. Jane Wilkinson A beautiful but amoral American actress and Edgware's estranged wife. Geraldine Marsh Edgware's daughter from his first marriage. Captain Ronald Marsh Edgware's nephew and heir to his title. Genevieve "Jenny" Driver Adams' friend in London. Bryan Martin A successful actor who worked with Wilkinson and was recently in love with her. Miss Carroll Edgware's housekeeper. Alton Edgware's butler. Ellis Wilkinson's personal maid at her new accommodation. Duke of Merton A devout Anglo Catholic, and the current love of Jane Wilkinson, whom he plans to marry. Dowager Duchess of Merton The Duke's mother, vehemently opposed to his planned marriage to Jane Wilkinson.

Lord Edgware Dies is alternatively titled Thirteen at Dinner. This second title, used on American editions, arises from a superstition that sitting down thirteen to dinner means bad luck to the person who first leaves the table. The dinner at which Carlotta successfully impersonated Jane Wilkinson had an unexpected missing guest, leaving them thirteen instead of the invited fourteen. The superstition weighs heavily on young actor Donald Ross, but plays out for both him and Jane Wilkinson, and her impersonator.

The Times Literary Supplement of 21 September 1933 reviewed the book positively, commenting on the fact that "it was the chance remark of a stranger in the street that put him on the right track. Three such murders, however, are enough to tax the powers of the most superhuman sleuth, and we do not grudge him one stroke of good fortune." Isaac Anderson concluded his review in the 24 September 1933 issue of The New York Times Book Review by saying, "This story presents a most ingenious crime puzzle and a still more ingenious solution, all set forth with the consummate skill of which Agatha Christie is mistress." Robert Barnard: "Deals with a social/artistic milieu rather off Christie's usual beat: aristocrats, actresses, socialites, rich Jews. The anti Semitism is more muted than in the early thrillers, but still leaves a nasty taste (this is the last book in which it obtrudes). Otherwise clever and unusual, with the Hastings/Poirot relationship done less crudely than usual."

In chapter 19, the Duchess of Merton tells Poirot that Lady Yardly had told her about him. Lady Yardly had previously appeared in the short story, "The Adventure of the Western Star" from the Poirot Investigates collection.

The character of Carlotta Adams was based on the American dramatist Ruth Draper (1884–1956). In her Autobiography, Christie says, "I thought how clever she was and how good her impersonations were; the wonderful way she could transform herself from a nagging wife to a peasant girl kneeling in a cathedral. Thinking about her led me to the book Lord Edgware Dies.” Draper was also the inspiration for a character in the short story The Dead Harlequin, published in The Mysterious Mr. Quin (1930), where the character was called Aspasia Glen and was the murderer's accomplice, rather than the victim. In Chapter 7, Chief Inspector Japp mentions the Elizabeth Canning case which was a real kidnapping case that occurred in London in 1753. The case created a sensation at the time due to the inconsistencies in the victim's declarations and the alibis of the perpetrators. Japp mentions this case due to the peculiar fact that the suspect was seen at two places at the same time. In the novel Lady Edgware was seen at a dinner party at the same time that she was also seen visiting the victim. Similarly, in the Canning case the suspect, Mary Squires, was seen travelling at the time that Elizabeth Canning said that she had been imprisoned by her.

John Moffatt starred as Poirot in a five part BBC Radio 4 adaptation by Michael Bakewell directed by Enyd Williams and also starring Simon Williams as Captain Hastings and Nicola Pagett as Jane Wilkinson.

The novel was first adapted in 1934 as an eighty minute film directed by Henry Edwards for Real Art Productions. The film was the third to star Austin Trevor in the role of Poirot after his appearances in Alibi and Black Coffee, both in 1931.