[FOsen]

After the funeral, the big four—the vicar, the dowager, Miss Marple, and Hercule Poirot, convened at Bertram’s Hotel for tea and, in the inspector’s case, black coffee with a pocket full of rye. While the Dowager took notes, Poirot began to speak. “I am on the 4:50 from Paddington, so, let us set the cat among the pigeons, no? We have had a string of murders, each more absurd than the last, and every time we apprehend a culprit, another mishap occurs with similar false leads and preposterous red herrings."

"It is almost,” he said, drawing a slim volume from his coat, “as if these murders have a common author.” He examined the book before him. “And, my friends, they do.”

He gently slid the copy of Agatha Christie: an Autobiography in the direction of the ashen-faced dowager. “Your only mistake, my dear Agatha, was to write it all down.”


Editing in with a question - does "dowager" refer only to the widow of a peer, or is it used more generally in the UK - i.e., should I change it?
Frank