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A character in The Mysterious Affair at Styles

Cynthia Murdoch

Mrs Inglethorp's ward, who works in a hospital dispensary and knows exactly how much strychnine will kill.

What they want

To be treated as more than the ward, and to be left out of the suspicion her job invites.

The book

The Mysterious Affair at StylesAgatha Christie, 1920

Agatha Christie's first novel, written on a bet in a wartime dispensary, and the first appearance of Hercule Poirot.

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At a glance

In the book
Mrs Inglethorp's ward; dispenser at Tadminster hospital
Where she appears
Throughout

Who they are in the book

Spoiler-free

Cynthia is the young woman of the house, an orphan taken in by Mrs Inglethorp, who works at the Red Cross hospital at Tadminster making up medicines. Hastings visits her dispensary and sees the poison cupboard. She sleeps through the night of the murder, drugged, and her door is the one with the green thread on its bolt.

How Cynthia Murdoch Is Portrayed

Appearance, manner, and tone — as the book sketches them, in our words.

  • The dispensaryHastings sees the poison cupboard and the bromide powders on his visit to Tadminster.
  • The sleepShe does not wake during the death in the next room, and Poirot asks why.
  • The powdersA box of bromide powders she made up is found empty.
  • The proposalHastings proposes to her in the last chapter and she laughs, because she loves Lawrence.
Their ending, and the commentary — spoilers aheadHow the book leaves them, what happened after, and what the record says. Open when you're ready.

Cynthia was drugged with a sleeping draught so that Mary could pass through her room. Her bromide powders were the murder weapon, but not in her hands.

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