Dumb Witness
Dust-jacket illustration of the first UK edition
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| Author | Agatha Christie |
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| Cover artist | Not known |
| Country | United Kingdom |
| Language | English |
| Genre | Crime novel |
| Publisher | Collins Crime Club |
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Publication date
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5 July 1937 |
| Media type | Print (hardback & paperback) |
| Pages | 320 pp (first edition, hardcover) |
| Preceded by | Murder in the Mews |
| Followed by | Death on the Nile |
Dumb Witness is a detective fiction novel by British writer Agatha Christie, first published in the UK by the Collins Crime Club on 5 July 1937 and in the US by Dodd, Mead and Company later in the same year under the title of Poirot Loses a Client. The UK edition retailed at seven shillings and sixpence (7/6) and the US edition at $2.00.
The book features the Belgian detective Hercule Poirot and is narrated by his friend Arthur Hastings. One novel published after this one features Hastings as narrator, 1975's Curtain: Poirot's Last Case.
Emily Arundell writes to Hercule Poirot because she believes she has been the victim of attempted murder. She is a wealthy spinster living in Berkshire. What she believes is attempted murder is seen by her household as her tripping over a ball left by her dog, the fox terrier Bob. When Poirot receives the letter, she has already died.
Her doctor says that she died of chronic liver problems. The woman's companion, Miss Minnie Lawson, is the unexpected beneficiary of a substantial fortune and the house, according to the will written while Emily recovered from that fall. Under the previous will, Miss Arundell's nephew, Charles Arundell, and nieces Theresa Arundell and Bella Tanios, would have inherited. This gives them all motive for the first attempted murder. While examining the house, under the pretense of buying it, Poirot discovers a nail covered with varnish and a small string tied to it at the top of the stairs. Before her death Miss Arundell had said something about Bob...dog...picture...ajar. Poirot concludes that this means a jar on which there is a picture of a dog that was left out all night — meaning that Bob could not have put the ball on the staircase because he had been out all night. Poirot concludes that Miss Arundell fell over a tripwire tied to the nail.
On the day Emily's last illness began, the Misses Tripp held a seance at Emily Arundell's home, with Minnie Lawson also in attendance. Both sisters say that when Miss Arundell spoke, a luminous aura came from her mouth, billowing like a spirit. Minnie Lawson similarly reports that a luminous haze appeared. Theresa and Charles want to contest the will. Bella agrees to join her cousins in this, but it is not pursued. At Miss Lawson's house, Poirot talks to the gardener and learns that Charles talked to him about his arsenic-based weed killer. The bottle is nearly empty – something that the gardener finds surprising. Miss Lawson recalls seeing someone through her bedroom mirror at the top of the stairs on the night of Miss Arundell's fall. The person was wearing a brooch with the initials, "TA", taken to be Theresa Arundell. After implying that he bullies her, Bella leaves her husband, Jacob. She goes to Miss Lawson, who hides her and the children at a hotel. Poirot directs Bella and her children to another hotel, and gives her his summary of Emily Arundell's death. Poirot fears a second murder; moving Bella is meant to protect the likely victim. The next day, Bella is found dead, by an overdose of chloral, a sleeping medication.
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