Characters in Mrs. McGinty's Dead

Supporting characters

• Hercule Poirot

  Bored and out of sorts in shabby village lodgings, he relies on patient observation and psychology rather than physical clues to undo a conviction the law has already accepted.

  Also in The Mysterious Affair at Styles, Murder on the Links, Poirot Investigates, The Murder of Roger Ackroyd, The Big Four, Mystery of the Blue Train, Black Coffee, Peril at End House, Lord Edgware Dies, Murder on the Orient Express

• Ariadne Oliver

  A scatty but shrewd writer whose exasperation with her own fictional detective serves as Christie's affectionate self-parody; she is drawn into the village while battling a stage version of her work.

  Also in Cards on the Table, Dead Man's Folly, Third Girl, Hallowe'en Party, Elephants Can Remember, Hercule Poirot and the Greenshore Folly

• Superintendent Spence

  Secured the conviction himself yet is troubled enough by conscience to seek help, unwilling to let a man hang on a verdict his instinct rejects.

  Also in Taken at the Flood, Hallowe'en Party

• James Bentley

  A meek, awkward, self-pitying man whose very lack of charm makes him hard to defend, testing Poirot's belief that unlikeable does not mean guilty.

• Mrs McGinty

  An ordinary cleaning woman whose habit of noticing things in the houses she worked sets the tragedy in motion.

• Maureen Summerhayes

  Warm and well-meaning but hopelessly disorganised, running a chaotic guest house that subjects Poirot to comic discomfort.

• Major Summerhayes

  A struggling former military man trying to make a living from market gardening alongside his disorderly household.

• Robin Upward

  Theatrical and self-absorbed, he fusses over his mother and his work while collaborating with Ariadne Oliver on a stage version that drives her to despair.

• Mrs Upward

  An invalid with a keen memory whose recognition of an old photograph proves dangerously consequential.

• Mrs Rendell

  Anxious and uneasy, she behaves as though she has something to hide, drawing Poirot's attention.