Dumb Witness by Agatha Christie

Dumb Witness by Agatha Christie
Our story starts with the background of a lady Emily Arundell’s fall down the stairs, we are also introduced to the cast of suspects – Her three family members – Charles & Theresa Arundell children of Emily’s deceased sibling – both spendthrifts. Dr Donaldson fiancé of Theresa who needs money for his research, Minnie Lawson who is in the will, Bella Tanios cousin to  Charles & Theresa who is on the verge of financial ruin due to mishandling of the family finances by her Doctor husband  Dr Tanios.
Emily then takes a nasty fall at home lays her up in bed she decides to remake her will as she is concerned that her wealth may be an incentive for her family to make away with her. Charles himself made a joke to her face when she refused him funds that holding on to the bulk of her capital gave everyone in the family an incentive to bump her off.
Shortly after this Poirot received a letter from Emily which although dated considerably earlier had taken over a month to reach him. Hastings and Poirot then decide to take up the challenge and follow up the letter as it is cryptic in the extreme. They discover at arriving Emily has since passed away and they decide to investigate.
Our trusty duo arrive and Poirot in his typical style ingratiate himself with every neighbour, member of staff, member of the family etc – having found the lay of the land decides the case merits further investigation.
One of the key characters in this book is Bob the dog who was featured on the cover. The image on the cover was modelled on Christies own dog Peter  and she was very fond of him.
It was during this time in the 1930’s that the Detective Club which Agatha Christie helped to launch was expanded with other leading crime authors such as Dorothy Sayers, GK Chesterton and Nicholas Blake to name a few.  It was the worlds first social networking club for crime authors – with dinners, editing, ideas etc

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