Lord Edgware Dies is a work of detective fiction by British writer Agatha Christie, published in the UK by the Collins Crime Club in September 1933[1] and in the US by Dodd, Mead and Company later in the same year under the title of Thirteen at Dinner.

The following morning, Inspector Japp informs Poirot and his friend Arthur Hastings that Edgware had been murdered at his home in Regent Gate the previous evening, stabbed in the neck.

While Wilkinson was witnessed by Edgware's butler and his secretary visiting her husband that night, a morning newspaper reveals she attended a dinner party the same evening, and other guests confirm this.

Seeking answers, Poirot notes a few facts: Bryan Martin, a former lover of Wilkinson before she met the wealthy Duke of Merton, bitterly describes her as an amoral person; Donald Ross, a guest at the party, witnessed her take a telephone call from someone that night; Adams possessed a pair of pince-nez, along with a gold case that contained the drug, which has a puzzling inscription in it; Edgware's nephew, Ronald Marsh, had been cut off from his allowance by his uncle three months earlier; a sum of francs formerly in Edgware's possession has disappeared, along with the butler.

Seeking a theory, Poirot overhears a chance remark from a crowd leaving a theatre, which leads him to talk with Ellis, Wilkinson's maid.

Ross was killed because he realised that Wilkinson did not attend the dinner party; her ignorance of Greek mythology gave her away, as Adams had been knowledgeable on the subject and thus talked about it while impersonating her.

Poirot reveals that the butler stole the missing money; Marsh had witnessed him entering Regent Gates to hide it elsewhere; his disappearance was because he panicked when the police sought another suspect.

Wilkinson is arrested and writes to Poirot from prison about wishing an audience for her hanging, surprisingly evincing no anger at being foiled by him - nor any remorse.

This second title, used on American editions, arises from a superstition that sitting down thirteen to dinner means bad luck to the person who first leaves the table.

The dinner at which Carlotta successfully impersonated Jane Wilkinson had an unexpected missing guest, leaving them thirteen instead of the invited fourteen.

The Times Literary Supplement of 21 September 1933 reviewed the book positively, commenting on the fact that "it was the chance remark of a stranger in the street that put him on the right track.

In her Autobiography, Christie says, "I thought how clever she was and how good her impersonations were; the wonderful way she could transform herself from a nagging wife to a peasant girl kneeling in a cathedral.

It starred Peter Ustinov in one of his six appearances as Hercule Poirot, David Suchet as Chief Inspector Japp, and co-starred Faye Dunaway in the dual role of Jane Wilkinson and Carlotta Adams.

Adaptor: Anthony Horowitz Director: Brian Farnham Cast: A third television adaption of the novel was made as an episode for the French series Les Petits Meurtres d'Agatha Christie ("The Little Murders of Agatha Christie") on 14 September 2012, under the title "Le couteau sur la nuque" ("The Knife on the Neck").

The adaptation changed the setting to a theatre in the city of Amiens, France, in the 1950s, made changes in a number of characters – Christie's detectives were replaced by Commissaire Larosière (Antoine Duléry) and his clumsy assistant, Inspecteur Lampion (Marius Colluci), while the killer is glamorous actress Sarah Morlant (Maruschka Detmers), and the victim is Morlant's inconvenient husband, fellow actor Pierre Fougère (Jean-Marie Winling) – and featured an additional murder subplot involving the theatre's concierge.

[7]: 454  Christie's clash with Thompson regarding this facet of his character was over her insistence on purchasing a solid table to place her typewriter on in order that she could complete her next book.

[7]: 454–55  A singular honour that Christie bestowed on the Thompsons was to read aloud the manuscript of the book to them, something that she normally only ever did to her family[7]: 460  (See External Links below).

Hercule Poirot, the famous little detective, was enjoying a pleasant little supper party there as the guest of Lady Edgware, formerly Jane Wilkinson, a beautiful young American actress.