Review: Lord Edgware Dies

Lord Edgware Dies
by Agatha Christie

My rating: 4 of 5 stars

This was also published under the title 13 at Dinner. I think this title is better, partly because there is a bit in the book where a character says "Lord Edgware Dies" and then comments that it would look well in a bookstand. This was classic Poirot with Captain Hastings fretting about what was happening and Japp claiming to have known all along what each fact was as soon as it was proven. I thought I knew what was going to happen back at page 40, but by mid-way I was totally uncertain and at the end I was surprised.

A few words from Inspector Japp (p. 154) for my lawyer friends:

"There's any amount of men that have hanged themselves by being too eager to make a statement. Well, no one can say as we don't warn them! It's all fair and above board. And the more guilty they are, the more anxious they are to pipe up and tell you the lies they've thought out to meet the case. They don't know that you should always submit your lies to a solicitor first."
"Solicitors and coroners are the worst enemies of the police. ... Lawyers you can't object to so much, I suppose. They're paid for their artfulness and twisting things this way and that."

This title counts toward the Vintage Mystery Challenge in the category of Malicious Men: a book with a man in the title.