Amy Carnaby

Miss Amy Carnaby is a young woman working as a companion to rich ladies. Two of her employers, Lady Hartingfield and Lady Hoggin, consider her not being very intelligent. Miss Carnaby confides in Hercule Poirot that her job is more manageable if she pretends to be less intelligent than she actually is. Poirot realised that, in reality, she is quite clever.

Amy, her sister, and several other girls working as companions has started a scheme to get more money from their employers.

Amy later helps Poirot and Chief Inspector Japp capture a dangerous murderer by infiltrating a religious sect which he was head of.

Amy was the daughter of a Church of England clergyman, the Reverend Thomas Carnaby. She told Poirot that she had been brought up with strict principles. She was very distressed when, in spite of this, stray ideas kept coming into her mind on how various crimes could be successfully without being caught. She had, for example, thought of a way of robbing a post office, and had another idea on how to evade customs duties. Amy had a pet dog, a Pekinese named Augustus who had been left to her by a former employer, Lady Julia Hartingfield.

Appearances

 * The Nemean Lion (short story)
 * The Flock of Geryon (short story)