In this Hercule Poirot mystery from 1937, wealthy spinster Emily Arundell writes to Poirot with concerns that someone in her family is trying to kill her, but he doesn't get the letter until two months later. When investigating, he quickly comes to the conclusion that an attempt was made on her life that resulted in a fall down a staircase, although she dies a few weeks later of what appears to be natural causes. Lead suspects are her nieces and nephews, her companion, and her two servants. As Poirot investigates, he determines that when the first attempt to murder Emily failed, she was then murdered by poison. He is aided by his friend Captain Hastings who has recently returned from Argentina.
While some of Christie's earlier books had pets in them, this is the first book in which Christie gives the dog an inner life and dialog. I didn't care for that very much, so hopefully she didn't continue that conceit. Christie also used a racist figure of speech ("N***** in the woodpile"), putting it into Poirot's mouth and naming an entire chapter after it. I had never heard it before and had to look it up on Wikipedia which explained the meaning and history of its use, which declined in the 20th century. I've noted the use of antisemitic language in earlier books along with other slurs, such as Dago or "an Apache attack,", but this appears to be her first slur against Blacks.
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