S12E01 - Mrs McGinty's Dead

Mrs. McGinty has been killed by a blow to the head with an unidentified weapon. James Bentley has been convicted of murder and awaits execution. Poirot, however, discovers that Mrs. McGinty bought a bottle of ink shortly before her death, and must therefore have had a reason to write a letter. Examining her possessions, he finds her shoes wrapped in a Sunday newspaper that was published in the week before her death. It is missing an article inquiring about the whereabouts of four women connected with famous crimes of the distant past. Soon it is certain that Mrs. McGinty believed that she had seen one of the photographs in the house of one of the people in the village. Poirot and Inspector Spence narrow down the options to one of two cases.

Mrs McGinty has either seen a photo of Lily Gamboll, who committed murder with a meat cleaver as a child; or of Eva Kane, who had been the love interest who inspired a man to murder his wife and bury her in the cellar (a case clearly based heavily on Dr Crippen). Eva Kane is believed to have had a daughter, who took the name Evelyn Hope. So is one of the younger women in the village an older Lily Gamboll, or Eva Kane's daughter? Or is one of the older women Eva Kane herself?