They also learn from a neighbour that Mrs Allen had a gentleman caller the previous evening whose description doesn't match her fiancé. Japp and Poirot find further clues: the gun has been wiped clean of fingerprints, and large sums of money have been withdrawn from Mrs Allen's bank account on several occasions, but there is no trace of money in the house. They interview Miss Plenderleith and find out that Mrs Allen was engaged to be married to Charles Laverton-West, an up-and-coming young MP but, although the pistol was the dead lady's, she cannot think of a reason why she should use it to commit suicide. It looks as if this is a murder made to look like suicide – and by an unusually incompetent murderer with a very low estimation of the intelligence of police investigators. However, the doctor points out that the gun is in her right hand while the wound is above the left ear – an impossible position to shoot with the right hand. The victim was locked in her room and was shot through the head with an automatic, the weapon being found in her hand. Mrs Allen was found by a housemate, Miss Jane Plenderleith, who had been away in the country the previous night. Once there, they find that the doctor thinks there is something strange about the death of the fine lady, a young widow. Japp asks Poirot to join him at a house in Bardsley Garden Mews where a Mrs Barbara Allen shot herself the previous evening – Guy Fawkes Night – the moment of death being disguised by the noise of fireworks. The UK edition retailed at seven shillings and sixpence (7/6) and the first US edition at $2.00.

In the US, the book was published by Dodd, Mead and Company under the title Dead Man's Mirror in June 1937 with one story missing ( The Incredible Theft) the 1987 Berkeley Books edition of the same title has all four stories.

Murder in the Mews and Other Stories is a short story collection by British writer Agatha Christie, first published in the UK by Collins Crime Club on 15 March 1937.

Man missing incredibles