Mrs McGinty dies from a brutal blow to the back of her head. Suspicion immediately falls on her shifty lodger, James Bently, whose clothes reveals traces of the victim's blood and hair. Yet something is amiss: Bentley just doesn't look like a murderer. Poirot believes he can save the man from the gallows - what he doesn't realise is that his own life is now in great danger...

Originally published: London : Collins, 1952.