Guy Carpenter

In the novel Mrs McGinty's Dead, Guy Carpenter is the husband of Eve. He is a tall and very rich man of about thirty-five, described as “having a long face like a horse, pale and rather supercilious”, and a pompous manner. Guy is a partner in the Carpenter Engineering works, and has recently started to have political ambitions, which is supported by his wife.

He married Eve when her name was Eva Selkirk and she pretended to be a war widow. Guy has a great sense of his own importance, otherwise he would not have married Mrs Carpenter if he knew she wasn't really a widow.

When Laura Upward was murdered, Guy Carpenter was at a political meeting. However, his wife had paid some domestic servants to provide her an alibi despite her innocence, which made her the prime suspect. Eve claims she did it because her husband wouldn't have helped. Towards the end of the novel, Superintendent Spence described Guy Carpenter as a "stuffed shirt".

The modern house of the Carpenters is called Holmeleigh.

Portrayals
He was portrayed by Richard Lintern in the 2008 ITV TV adaptation which formed part of the series Agatha Christie's Poirot, who also portrayed Captain John Lake in the episode Dead Man's Mirror. Just like in the novel, he believes Poirot is a journalist but here he is much more unsympathetic towards him than in the original story where he ‘was not anxious to antagonise the Press’.