Proxy murder

A proxy murder is when someone commits any type of homicide, most likely by one person ordering another person, or through the use of a third party.

Proxy murder is not used very often by Agatha Christie as a plot device. There are a few times that the person committing the crime, isn’t the person planning the murder. Some of the times this third party knows what they are doing, and some of the times they don’t.

Proxy murder in works by Agatha Christie

 * A Pocket Full of Rye - Gladys Martin is told by her boyfriend Albert Evans to tamper with Rex Fortescue‘s marmalade.
 * Crooked House - Brenda Leonides gives Aristide Leonides eserine instead of insulin, after Josephine Leonides had tampered with the medications.
 * The Tuesday Night Club - Gladys Linch is provided with arsenic laced hundreds and thousands by Albert Jones, to put in a trifle.