Lord Edgware Dies (1933) - A work starring the detective Hercule Poirot, and written by Agatha Christie

By the time that Agatha Christie wrote this book, Hercule Poirot was a character who had made his mark in many of her previous books and had a huge set of fans. This book also had an alternate name, 'Thirteen at Dinner', based on the belief that if there are thirteen guests at the table, bad luck would follow the first guest who arises from the table (and there is a scene in the book where there is a dinner with 13 guests). The book's central theme is of the confusion where the accused has a solid alibi for the time of the murder, and how can a person be in 2 places at the same time, something for Poirot to solve and resolve. The book also features the other 2 companions, Hastings and Chief Inspector Japp.
Like many of her other books, the dedication of Christie's books reveals something about her personal life. The book was dedicated to Dr. and Mrs. Campbell Thompson, with Dr. Reginald Campbell Thompson being the archaeologist who was employing her husband, Max Mallowan, to work at the digs in Ur, and let Christie also accompany Max (where she could continue working on her book).



Poirot gets a letter from a lady who wants him to convince her husband to agree to a divorce. This kind of work is not something that Poirot enjoys doing, but he does, but to his surprise, the husband says that he has already agreed to the divorce and sent her the letter, which she claims not to have received. This lady is Jane Wilkinson (an actress) who is married to the peer, the fourth Baron Edgware. And then the Baron is found dead, and she is accused of murdering the Baron so that she can get married to her lover, Duke of Merton. She had arrived at the house, the butler had let her in, and the next morning, the Baron was found dead. But there is a problem, since she was also seen in a dinner party on the previous night (the night of the murder), and how can a person be at 2 different places at the same time.
Then Poirot gets to know of the death of an actress called Carlotta Adams is found dead, dead due to an overdose of Veronal, which she had apparently been using for some time (since there was a small box of it with her). Then an actor called Donald Ross is stabbed just when was going to tell Poirot about something interesting he witnessed at a dinner party. It is now upto Poirot to figure out what is happening, and whether Jane is really the murderer.