In 1954, the Companion Book Club of Odhams Press (London) and the Herald-Sun Readers Book Club of the Herlad-Sun newspaper (Melbourne Australia) jointly published a hardcover omnibus edition comprising two of Agatha Christie's novels: Mrs McGinty's Dead and They Do It with Mirrors. The book did not have a unique title. The title page simply used the combination of the two component novels: Mrs McGinty's Dead and They Do it with Mirrors. Both the Companion Book Club and the Herald-Sun versions had the same content. The book was in hardcover format. The Companion Book Club version had an orange-coloured dustjacket with geometric patterns while the Herald-Sun version had a picture of a hand drawn by Australia illustrator Vernon Hayles.
Over the years, the Companion Book Club also published many other Agatha Christie books (as single titles, not omnibuses). The Herald-Sun is known to have had one other title issued jointly: Cat Among the Pigeons. Whether the Herald-Sun issued any others is not known.
Blurb from inside front flap[]
(same for both versions)
It is safe to say that no detective story writer has ever achieved quite the eminence that Agatha Christie enjoys. With well over fifty published detective novels to her credit and a vast army of admirers, which includes Cabinet Ministers, actors, judges, fellow-writers and distinguished men and women from all walks of life, she may truly be called the "Queen of Detective Writers". The two complete stories that make up this volume are amongst her latest and best. Originally published separately, both are vintage Christie and are centred round two of her most popular characters.
MRS. McGINTY'S DEAD, a typically ingenious Christie thriller, marks the return of the inimitable Hercule Poirot, with his slightly comical aspect, his mixed metaphors, his "little grey cells" and his genuinely warm heart. Mrs. McGinty, an ordinary charwoman, was murdered. Everything pointed to the guilt of her lodger Bentley, who was arrested, tried and condemned to death. But Superintendent Spence, who helped to convict him, just didn't think Bentley was the type. Spence confided his problem to old friend Hercule Poirot and together they embarked on one of the most fascinating cases of Poirot's career.
In the second, THEY DO IT WITH MIRRORS, we renew acquaintance with that deceptively meek-and-mild spinster lady Miss Marple. She is staying with her old school friend, Carrie Louise Serrocold, at Stonygates, a country house turned into a college for juvenile delinquents. When Carrie's stepson Christian Gulbrandsen is shot dead it seems impossible that anyone in this oddly-assorted household could have had the opportunity to commit a crime. In a succession of dramatic situations the clear-thinking, far-seeing Miss Marple penetrates an artfully contrived smoke screen and exposes a totally unexpected murderer.
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