Closed Casket

 Closed Casket by Sophie Hannah (2016) 302 pages

Author Sophie Hannah once again deploys Agatha Christie's Hercule Poirot in this murder mystery set in Ireland. Both Poirot and his Scotland Yard friend, Inspector Edward Catchpool, are invited to Lady Playford's mansion in a Irish countryside. Lady Playford is a widow who has a splendid reputation as a writer of a children's mystery series. A number of other people are invited to the weeklong house party: Her adult children and their significant others, her secretary, Joseph Scotcher (who is said to be at death's door) and Scotcher's nurse, Sophie, and two attorneys.

Lady Playford announces at dinner the first night that her will has been changed and she is leaving everything--a considerable amount of money and property--to Joseph Scotcher. This is seen as very strange, as Scotcher is not expected to live more than a few weeks. Later that night, Sophie's screams bring the household running. She says that Lady Playford's daughter Claudia was talking to Joseph in the library while she was bashing in his head. Things don't add up when everyone notes that Claudia was wearing a white, non-blood-spattered dressing gown. And in the course of the investigation, we learn that Scotcher died earlier that evening of poisoning. Is Sophie lying? Leave it up to Poirot and Catchpool (and not the local police force) to ferret out the facts in a household of strong-willed people.