‘The Blue Geranium’ is the second short story that Fanda @ Fanda Classic Lit has chosen as the June picks for her #AgathaChristieSS24 where we read tw‘The Blue Geranium’ is the second short story that Fanda @ Fanda Classic Lit has chosen as the June picks for her #AgathaChristieSS24 where we read two short stories she’s selected every month. While I’ve been doing a joint review of so far, this month as one of her picks turned out a cat story, I reviewed it for Reading the Meow last week.
The Blue Geranium is a Miss Marple short story from the very first collection featuring the elderly sleuth, Thirteen Problems (also titled The Tuesday Club Murders) and while I remembered I’d read it before, from the name alone I recalled nothing of it until I started reading. But even then, what came back to me was howdunit and not the who and I’d clean forgotten many of the smaller details.
The broad context of the stories in this collection which essentially sees Miss Marple play armchair detective is a series of dinner parties/gatherings where guests present intriguing problems for the others to solve. In the first six, a group of guests including former Scotland Yard Commissioner Sir Henry Clithering and Miss Marple’s nephew Raymond West gather for dinner every Tuesday where each guest shares a strange or curious mystery they have come across leaving it for the others to work out. Needless to say, it is the lacy, fragile Miss Marple who gets to the right answer each time. The pattern is repeated in the next six where another set of guests form the group though Sir Henry continues to be a common link. Here each is narrated over the course of the same evening. The final story in the collection is an exception with a ‘fresh’ murder case which only Miss Marple knows to be a murder.
‘The Blue Geranium’ is the first of the second set where Sir Henry is staying with Col. Arthur and Dolly Bantry, characters we know from later books as well, and this is at a time when Dolly is unaware of Miss Marple’s skills seeing her only as a ‘typical old maid of fiction’ and ‘an old dear but hopelessly behind the times’. Sir Henry though is a confirmed fan. Surprised, shocked even when Sir Henry tells her of Miss Marple’s skills, she isn’t however inclined to disbelieve him and invites Miss Marple to dinner where Arthur will share his ‘ghost story’.
The story is of his friend George Pritchard whose wife is one of those perpetual invalids with nothing in particular wrong with her. She has had a succession of nurses and also seems to have a weakness for clairvoyants and fortune tellers consulting a whole lot. But when a previously unknown fortune teller, Zarida a psychic reader is invited and then later makes some dour predictions, Mrs Pritchard begins to genuinely become afraid. George is unwilling to believe in all this but when some of the signs Zarida has mentioned start to become real, he is at a loss for what to do. Then the inevitable happens and Mrs Pritchard dies. Did she simply die of fright or was there more to it? Before long, rumours start to fly.
This was an entertaining story combining science, the supernatural (or at least the appearance of it) and of course being a Miss Marple story, also basic human nature. Christie once again uses her knowledge of poisons and other facts she would have picked up from her days as a VAD which work well here. How things were done is explained but I didn’t go too deeply into the details in terms of how they were practically accomplished whether there may have been some weaknesses there.
Unlike Christie’s usual short stories where there is not often scope for working things out (unlike the full-length works replete with clues if one looks, though one usually realises in retrospect), in this one if one had applied one’s mind, there is one clue that Miss Marple spells out that would have likely pointed one to the who.
While I enjoyed the puzzle itself especially since I hadn’t remembered whodunit, I also liked being reminded of how Miss Marple becomes friends with the Bantrys and how Dolly becomes aware of her sleuthing skills, something she relies on when trouble comes to their door later in Body in the Library. I remember Dolly being quite sharp from the later book and she shows signs of this here as well, seeing things almost though not quite as well as Miss Marple, while Arthur is rather the opposite, not too bright (actually a little thick, may be), a little too trusting (though his trust isn’t misplaced) but a good-hearted person all the same.
This was a fun revisit as always is the case with Christie and I love how even in these short pieces one doesn’t remember every little detail leaving one something to enjoy on each revisit. ...more
This year I’ve also been joining in the Agatha Christie Short Stories 2024 challenge hosted by Fanda at Fanda Classic Lit but until she pointed it outThis year I’ve also been joining in the Agatha Christie Short Stories 2024 challenge hosted by Fanda at Fanda Classic Lit but until she pointed it out hadn’t noticed that one of the stories she’d picked for June coincidentally happened to be one featuring a cat—so of course I had to read and review it for Reading the Meow. (Fanda too, read it for the week—find her thoughts here).
Unlike Christie’s usual mystery stories though, this one is more in the realm of the supernatural and occult with the feeling of something eerie certainly there though it doesn’t perhaps give one that spine-chilling feeling that her longer works (for instance Endless Night) manage to do when delving into these themes.
Narrated by Dr Carstairs, who we learn specialises in mental ailments, we are told how he has been summoned by his friend Settle to look into the case of young Sir Arthur Carmichael. Only 23, Arthur has inherited the title from his father and lives in the family home in Wolden, Herdfordshire. Sharing the home are Arthur’s stepmother, the second Lady Carmicheal and her son aged only 8. Arthur is a likeable young man, engaged to be married to the charming Phyllis Patterson but has suddenly one day woken up deprived of his senses, behaving in a strange way and refusing to recognise any one, his stepmother being the only one he allows near him. As Carstairs observes him, he takes note of more strange behaviours but nothing it seems can explain them.
Settle believes there is something not quite right in the house (an evil presence) but rather than impose his opinion on Carstairs would rather the latter see it for himself. Carstairs does see things and hear them—a grey cat often near Phyllis or in the lawns, rattling on the door, a ripped up chair (clearly by the claws of a cat) and its miaows heard from outside, yet Lady Carmichael’s denial that there is any cat on the premises.
But as to working out what these actually mean, especially when seen alongside what’s happened to Arthur, it seems the reader can get to the answers quicker than Carstairs does. Eventually things are worked out but rather than the solution that Carstairs and Settle come up with, Arthur’s woes are resolved in an entirely different way.
This was an entertaining short story very much in the supernatural realm but not full-fledged horror which meant it was well within my handling capacity. While Christie chose to use a grey Persian rather than the stereotypical black cat of this genre of fiction, its behaviours are very much in the traditional line—appearing almost as an apparition to Carstairs, producing frightening sounds or at least unsettling ones, and calling out (sometimes piteously, at others more intimidating) only to disappear when looked for. This is certainly effective, especially if one takes one’s time reading and imagines each incident and sound as they play out.
The answer when it is revealed is an interesting one too. Even if not extraordinary, it is fun. But this is somewhat spoiled by the xenophobic elements that come through in terms of Lady Carmichael’s Eastern antecedents and consequent likely connection with the occult which are played on.
While this isn’t my favourite of Christie’s short stories with uncanny themes/elements (I think I can safely say that’s ‘In a Glass Darkly’), I still thought this was a nicely done story giving the characters their just desserts and the reader a very satisfactory outcome with just the right touch of the chills!
My thanks to Harper Collins UK for a review copy of this book via NetGalley.
Sinister Spring: Murder and Mystery from the Queen of Crime (2023) is anotMy thanks to Harper Collins UK for a review copy of this book via NetGalley.
Sinister Spring: Murder and Mystery from the Queen of Crime (2023) is another season themed collection of (reprinted) short stories from Christie’s pen. Like a previous volume of these I read Midsummer Mysteries (2021), we have in this collection 12 stories covering various types of crimes from murder to theft, and featuring both recurring detectives (Poirot and Marple, as also Tommy and Tuppence, Harley Quin, and Parker Pyne) as well as standalone stories. The seasonal elements are brought out by mostly by gardens and gardening, which feature in many of the stories
Opening as the previous volume did, with a short extract from Christie’s autobio, this time an episode called the Gunman, based on her childhood nightmare, we move to the first story featuring Poirot where he and Hastings, accompany Japp to Market Basing, in ‘The Market Basing Mystery’ with plans to enjoy a quiet weekend since ‘no one knows who they are’. So naturally, they are soon to be involved in a mystery, as the local constable seeks their help in investigating the death of a Mr Protheroe who was found shot but couldn’t have done so himself. Poirot reaches the answer of course, in this mystery the broad frame of which is the basis of another Christie short story as well.
‘The Case of the Missing Lady’ featuring Tommy and Tuppence was one new to me, and a rather fun story, with an adventurer who returns to England earlier than planned to find his fiancée has gone on a visit but isn’t to be found at the place she supposedly went to, nor do any friends know her whereabouts. Tommy and Tuppence get on the case to find a very unexpected answer, which leaves the reader with a smile on their face (though in the current context, perhaps not the most PC).
From The Thirteen Problems (a Marple collection in which dinner guests describe murders and mysteries they are aware of leaving it to the others to ‘solve’), we have ‘The Herb of Death’ where a young girl staying with her guardian, and on the verge of being married and starting a new life dies of poisoning when foxglove leaves are picked with the sage that is to be used for dinner. Mrs Bantry poses the problem rather simply, and it is from the other dinner guests’ questions that one gets to the nuances; but only Miss Marple sees things in the right light.
Featuring Hercule Poirot is ‘How Does Your Garden Grow’, again one I was familiar with. An old lady writes to Poirot seeking his help over a mysterious problem the details of which are not revealed in her letter, but before he can reach her, she is dead. Poirot decides to visit her home all the same and finds the police convinced it’s murder.
‘Swan Song’ is a more tragic standalone, where an opera star agrees to perform at a country house where she is invited, on condition that Tosca is what’s performed. Why, you have to read the story to find out!
‘Miss Marple Tells a Story’ sees Miss Marple tell of a case she’s personally proud of, where a lawyer Mr Pretherick approaches her to help a client who’s going to be accused of murder. The client is sceptical, but as he explains the circumstances of hs wife’s death in a hotel where they were staying, Miss Marple is on to the answer.
A recently married young woman, travelling on the Simplon express in ‘Have You Got Everything You Want’ confides her troubles to Parker Pyne, suspicious her husband is attempting to harm her in some way while she is on the train. Pyne mayn’t be a ‘detective’ in the traditional sense, but that doesn’t stop him from reaching the rather unexpected solution to this mystery.
We’re back with Poirot in ‘The Jewel Robbery at the Grand Metropolitan’ where Hastings treats Poirot to a stay at the Grand Metropolitan. There they run into the Opalsens and Mrs Opalsen who is very fond of jewellery, wishes to show them her priceless pearls, but the necklace vanishes before she can.
Also from The Thirteen Problems is ‘Ingots of Gold’ where Miss Marple’s nephew Raymond West narrates an incident that occurred with him when he visited an acquaintance in Cornwall who was looking for a ship lost in the Spanish Armada. But unfriendly locals and more recent events make the trip a more dangerous one than he bargained for.
‘The Soul of the Croupier’ takes us to Monte Carlo where Mr Satherthwaite (usually seen in the Harley Quin stories) is on his annual visit. Here he runs into an old acquaintance, the Countess Czarnova whom he’s seen there for years, each time in the company of a new admirer. On this trip, it’s a young American. A girl travelling with the young man truly cares for him, and Mr Satherthwaite realises they belong. Harley Quin is also on the scene, and the two can only look on as a drama with a thread of pathos unfolds.
Agatha Christie writes a very Wodehousian tale in ‘The Girl on the Train’ which rather reminded me of A Damsel in Distress by Wodehouse (even our ‘hero’ is called George, like George Bevan in Damsel). In this George Rowland, after a night on town and arriving late for work, is turned out by his uncle. He decides to head to Rowland Castle simply because it bears his name, and on the way in the train helps a beautiful young woman who seems to be running away from some one and dives into his compartment. This turns into the adventure of a lifetime as she entrusts him with a sealed package and asks him to trail a bearded stranger.
To wrap up the collection, we return to Miss Marple as her nephew Raymond West takes a friend to visit a property in the neighbourhood with an interesting story behind it, Greenshaw’s Folly, now lived in by an old Miss Greenshaw, the last of her family. Later, Raymond’s wife’s niece takes up a job there, only to become involved in a murder. Luckily, Miss Marple is there to ensure the puzzle is pieced together.
This was an entertaining collection which covered many moods from the tragic to the humorous, and gives the reader mysteries and puzzles, as also fun, adventure and and romance. One can get a taste of the various genres Christie writes in, though of course not the depth of her full-length mysteries. I liked all the stories in the collection (many of which were revisits for me) but my particular favourites this time were two of the humorous ones, ‘The Case of the Missing Lady’ and ‘The Girl on the Train’ both new to me, and both loads of fun.
Many nursery rhymes, much like fairy tales, even though they are now largely read by children, have rather dark and sinister meanings and undertones, Many nursery rhymes, much like fairy tales, even though they are now largely read by children, have rather dark and sinister meanings and undertones, whether it is ‘Three Blind Mice’ or ‘Ring a Ring o Roses’ or ‘Mary Mary Quite Contrary’ dealing with themes like the plague or religious persecution. Agatha Christie is quite the master of using these ominous poems to build her mysteries around and with great effect. And ‘Ten Little Soldier Boys’, another of these, which originally appeared in at least two earlier versions, both containing racial slurs or insensitive language, is similarly used by her in 1939 novel, And Then There Were None, a book which came out on top in the vote for the world’s favourite Agatha Christie, organized for her 125th birthday; like the poem, the book too had to be purged of its originally racist title. But leaving those discussions aside, it isn’t hard to see why this book won that vote, or indeed why Christie more than deserves that epithet—Queen of Crime—when one reads it.
Before I get to the book and my thoughts on it (though, I’ve actually already said what I thought, haven’t I?), I just wanted to briefly go back to the confusion I had as to my reading of this book, and that was that I wasn’t sure when I bought a copy of this recently whether I had ever actually read it before. I knew the story having seen and read various versions and adaptations, but just couldn’t remember if the original was among these. And this is though I’ve been reading Christie since my early teens, am a great fan, and have read well over 50, perhaps even over 60 of her books so far. But now that I did read it, I realised that I hadn’t in fact done so because every scene, and every detail felt new, it didn’t all come flooding back as things do with a book read long ago and forgotten. And I am glad I did finally read it.
And Then There Were None opens with a varied set of people, a school teacher who takes up a secretarial post during the vacations, a former army man, a retired judge, a doctor, and a spinster, among them, responding to somewhat vague invitations from people claiming acquaintance or invoking common friends. All of them, eight to be precise, are travelling to Soldier’s Island, a place on which a modern house was built by an American millionaire who later sold it, and where elaborate parties are thrown and entertainments organized, and as to the ownership of which rumours abound, especially among residents of the nearby village. When the guests arrive, they find they are to be attended on by a couple, Mr and Mrs Rogers, and their hosts, the Owens, whom we soon find none of them have seen or even heard of before will join them the next day. The house is well provided for, and each room, besides other ornaments, has on its wall a copy of the sinister rhyme, Ten Little Soldier Boys which seems befitting given the island’s name
That evening at dinner, though, all present, including the Rogers are in for a shock for suddenly a voice begins to play, accusing each of them of murder, naming victims, years, and locations. A chill goes through the room and each accused reacts differently. Some like Philip Lombard accused of letting over 20 men of an East African tribe die, or Anthony Marson accused of running over two children in his car are brazen with no remorse or regret over their actions and no denial, some defend themselves dubbing what happened accidents or mere performance of duty, some outrightly deny any knowledge or role (while admitting it to themselves), while one, Miss Brent doesn’t believe there was anything wrong with her actions. Shaken thoroughly but not knowing what to make of the indictment, the guests proceed to dinner but then their mysterious accuser strikes and one guest falls down dead. And then by the next day, another. Before long they realise that each death corresponds to the lines of the ominous children’s song. But can they find the person responsible in time? Can they get away? And is there any truth to the accusations?
And Then There Were None may not be the first time that a plot with a closed circle of people, a remote and cut-off location, and each person present with the equal chance of being the victim or the perpetrator was done (I read a review very recently of a similar plot done earlier, but I can’t find my note for it), but even knowing the broad structure of the plot and possible outcome, Christie has done such an excellent job of it that one comes away enjoying every moment, for not only is the plot executed perfectly (and in a way that one really doesn’t know who, with one major clue coming only very close to the end), there are also developments that one doesn’t see coming, and more than even all this, that creepy and menacing atmosphere that comes across in the book that I’ve never felt work as well in any of the adaptations.
The atmosphere was probably the aspect I enjoyed most in the book for one knows that each of those present will be targeted but one is always on one’s toes waiting to see who and how. I found myself turning back to the rhyme over and over wondering how each line would be interpreted in the next murder and whether there was a particular victim the sentence might suit best. Meanwhile the guests are planning their escape, their hopes set on the boat that delivers essentials to the island, but no boat arrives the next day, and then the weather turns making it well-nigh impossible, no matter how many SOSs are sent. Adding to this already fraught atmosphere are ten statutes of soldiers in one of the rooms, a statue vanishing each time a new victim is added. Each person is clearly more or less suspicious of the other, but we see different groups band together at different points, testing out their suspicions—initially the possible presence of a ‘hidden’ outsider, and then later each other.
As to the characters themselves, one can’t really say what one feels about them—whether it is the cold and overrighteous Miss Brent who doesn’t believe herself guilty of any wrong, or the defiant Lombard and Marston, or even those who admit to themselves at least that they were responsible for what happened, there is none that one feels the slightest bit of sympathy for. But do they deserve what they are getting and how? Does the terror serve at fitting punishment?
The denouement is one we don’t see coming both in terms of who did do it (I didn’t remember from the various versions which one this would be so this was a surprise), but also in the form in which it is written. Saying what will be spoiler for those who haven’t read or seen it so I won’t but there is an element of the dramatic in the way it comes about, and the form if I were to compare matches with another later Christie where has used a similar if not the same way in which we learn the outcome.
If like me, by any chance, you haven’t read this yet, don’t wait any longer. Go get a copy and read it!
p.s. Being written when it was, there are of course some ideas (like the women automatically taking over the kitchen and only one of the men helping since he considers himself a ‘domestic sort’) which would perhaps not gel with current-day readers, but one has to consider the time it was written and not attach much to these. ...more
My thanks to Pan Macmillan and NetGalley for a review copy of this book.
Nina de Gramont weaves a rather interesting and very readable tale in The ChriMy thanks to Pan Macmillan and NetGalley for a review copy of this book.
Nina de Gramont weaves a rather interesting and very readable tale in The Christie Affair but while I enjoyed reading it a lot, I had some reservations which have prevented me from rating it as high as I might have otherwise.
The Christie Affair is centred around the period that Agatha Christie went missing for 11 days. This was in 1926, when not long after her mother’s death, something that devastated her, her husband Archie Christie left her for another woman, Nancy (Neale) with whom he had been having an affair. In this version, we have a fictionalised version of Nancy, Nan O'Dea, with a very different back story than her real-life counterpart, and it is Nan who is our narrator. We follow two parallel stories, one the narrative of Christie's disappearance as Nan recounts events as they unfolded day by day, and the second from Nan's past in England and Ireland which left her lost and bitter. In the present, we see the events that preceded Agatha's disappearance, and the efforts that were made to search for her by the police who organized a manhunt on an unprecedented scale as well as others like Sir Arthur Conan Doyle and Dorothy Sayers who relied on their interest in the occult to find clues. (I knew about Conan Doyle’s interest in the supernatural but not that Sayers was into it as well). Among the searchers is fictional Inspector Chilton who also stumbles upon a murder mystery in the process. Meanwhile we learn of Nan’s childhood in England and the time she spent in Ireland (her father was Irish) with relatives and also of the boy she met and fell in love with there.
This was as I wrote a very readable book, and I enjoyed the writing and the pacing. The author I think was very imaginative in the story she has created around a subject that still remains somewhat of a mystery—where Christie disappeared to for those 11 days.
The murder mystery element of the plot was something I hadn’t expected when going into the story but it turned out very interesting, especially since I didn’t really see the solution coming at all. Nor indeed did I guess how the two threads of the story, in fact more than two, would connect up. Here again the book took me by surprise and things began to make a lot more sense and fell into place rather well. I also liked that Nan is not portrayed as the typical home wrecker or ‘villainess'. In fact, the reader is able to sympathise with her almost all through.
But the qualities of the book notwithstanding, I did have a few reservations, perhaps related to each other. The first was regarding the fact and fiction blend in the book. I mean I know a lot of historical fiction weaves together real and fictional elements (events and people) but here I wasn’t sure what to make of the aspects the author chose to keep (like the homes where Archie met Nan) and those she fictionalised (like Nan's background and even personality; her feelings vis-a-vis Archie which make sense in the story but would not apply to the real-life Nancy).
The other part was Nan's story. This brings up a scenario and an issue that has been dealt with in another recent much-praised novel (I don’t want to talk about it too much as it would be a spoiler). While this is something that needs to be talked of and I think the author told the story very well evoking all the anger and sympathy it calls for, the Agatha Christie story didn’t feel to me the right ‘vehicle’ to tack this onto. It didn’t seem to me plausible here (particularly the liberties it took with elements of the real-life track).
So this turned out a book that I enjoyed reading (the story is really good and I appreciated all the surprise elements) but I think if the author had fictionalised the entire thing, even the Christie story, may be created fictional counterparts for them too, it would have worked a lot better for me.
A haunting, creepy mystery from the pen of the Queen of Crime.
Endless Night (1967) is a standalone by Christie, and a book very different from her othA haunting, creepy mystery from the pen of the Queen of Crime.
Endless Night (1967) is a standalone by Christie, and a book very different from her others, more in the realm of her stories that have a dreamy, creepy quality and yet do have their feet in the human realm. This story is told in first person by one of the main characters (actually one might call him the central character, since all we see and know is from his perspective), Michael Rogers. Michael is a good-looking young man, but a restless one, who can’t stick to a job or settle down. He does various things from working in a garage to working as a driver (when we meet him), and at his whim chucks a job and moves on to the next. Michael comes upon and falls for a beautiful property in a small village called Kingston Bishop, with an old falling-to-bits house called The Towers, though according to local legend, it is called Gypsy’s Acre. Of course, he doesn’t have the money to buy it. But luck is on his side it seems, for here he also meets and falls in love with a young heiress, Ellie who reciprocates his feelings. The two are married (of course, her family doesn’t approve), and hire an architect Rudolf Santonix, whom Michael has met on one of his driving jobs, to build the house of their dreams.
But in the village, he initially, and later Ellie meet an old gypsy woman Mrs Lee who reads their palms and warns them off the place. Once they are married and arrive to settle in their new home, Mrs Lee continues to appear when Ellie goes out warning her away again and again. This naturally makes Ellie uneasy.
Meanwhile, Michael also doesn’t much like Greta, Ellie companion/au pair who seems to have an influence over Ellie, and soon moves herself into their home, despite all the objections he has, adding to the tension in the atmosphere. Accidents have taken place in the vicinity of Gypsy’s Acre in the past, but put down to the curve in the road. But is really something in the curse?
I absolutely loved the atmosphere that Christie has created in this book. For over two-thirds of the book, nothing (I mean no deaths or incidents) happens—we are basically being told Michael and Ellie’s story, how they meet, how they marry, how they begin to get used to life with each other having come from such completely opposite backgrounds, and of course Ellie’s family’s reactions to Michael (there is a certain dreaminess in the narrative which I could perhaps compare with Christie’s Harley Quinn stories). We are only told that there is some lore surrounding the place (no details of any incidents that occurred there), and we have the old gypsy woman, Mrs’s Lee’s ominous warnings, to Michael perhaps once and then to Ellie repeatedly—again learnt of by us through Michael—no ‘encounters’ with her except the initial ones. But despite this, Christie does a wonderful job in creating an atmosphere that not only gives one a feeling of impending doom, but is also very very very creepy as well. So much so that even after I’d finished (luckily, I read it during the day), I felt goosebumps and chills for a long while (and can feel it even when writing this review).
Also as far as the mystery is concerned, I thought Christie did a wonderful job as well, pulling on us a surprise that I didn’t see coming at all—until really just before the reveal. Here since Michael is the narrator, all we know of the other characters—people in the village and Ellie’s family is through him. We don’t really ‘know’ them but have bits of information. So one doesn’t have much to work with in terms of figuring out whodunit, but one does keep trying to work it out. The answer though, I only saw right at the last moment, and wouldn’t have worked it out at all.
I wouldn’t like to use the word ‘enjoy’ for this book, but I found it to be one where the atmosphere was excellently done as was the mystery, and I especially liked that little otherworldly touch she kept even when the mystery itself was very much of this world!
My thanks to Harper Collins UK and NetGalley for a review copy of this book.
Agatha Christie being one of my favourite authors, when I got this one froMy thanks to Harper Collins UK and NetGalley for a review copy of this book.
Agatha Christie being one of my favourite authors, when I got this one from NetGalley, I couldn’t help but bump it up on my TBR pile!
Midsummer Mysteries: Secrets and Suspense from the Queen of Crime is a collection of twelves short stories by Christie with a summer theme. The book covers a range of crime and suspense—from murder to theft, kidnapping to mysterious disappearances, matters of the heart to matters of state. Across the stories, we ‘meet’ all of Christie’s detectives Miss Marple (2 stories), Poirot (4 stories), Parker Pyne (2 stories), Harley Quin (1 story), Tommy and Tuppence (1 story) and we also have a couple of standalones, in which none of the detectives appear. The stories take us to England (of course)—but also to more exotic locales—Greece and Egypt. (For me, about half the stories were new, others I had read before.)
Almost all the stories give us a summer ‘feel’—with beaches and bathing, cruises and holiday trips, visits down to the country, and also a distinct midsummer madness that afflicts some of the characters or at least stands out in the atmosphere in some of our stories. In one or two of the stories, though, I felt the summeriness didn’t come through as strongly but that is a minor complaint.
Now for the stories themselves; we start off with a Marple story (from The Thirteen Problems), ‘The Blood Stained Pavement’ in which Joyce Lempriere, an artist, is recounting an interesting incident (involving a mysterious death of course) she witnessed when out on a sketching expedition in Cornwall—involving a young couple and another woman, the husband’s old friend. None of the party hearing Joyce’s tale, including former police commissioner Sir Henry Clithering can point to the solution but Miss Marple does, of course—relying once again on her observations of village life and human nature. This story is a prototype for one full-length Christie book, and also another short story but both with their own twists. All three renditions are very enjoyable.
Next in ‘The Double Clue’, Poirot is called in to make discreet inquiries into the theft of some priceless jewels at the home of Mr Hardman who had invited a few guests over to show them off; the clues seem to point to one person in particular, but did that person really do it?
‘Death on the Nile’, a story that shares its name with a full length Poirot novel, takes us on a Nile cruise where a domineering and dictatorial rich lady is travelling with her titled husband, her companion, niece, and husband’s secretary. Also on the boat is Parker Pyne, whom she is determined to get rid of for she wants the boat entirely to herself. So we are a little surprised when she consults Mr Pyne as to a possible attempt on her life. Everyone around her resents her, but who does so that much?
On completely different lines, and involving matters of the heart and some of that midsummer madness (also a Harlequin performance) is ‘Harlequin’s Lane’. Here we find Mr Satterthwaite (who regularly appears in the Harley Quin stories and also in one Poirot book, Three Act Tragedy) paying a visit down in the country to the Denmans with whom he has almost nothing in common. But what fascinates him is Mrs Denman’s sitting room, a plain and almost impersonal space but for a Chinese lacquer screen. At their home he runs into the mysterious Mr Quin, also a guest. This story, as is the case with many of the Harley Quin stories, has a very dreamy and otherworldly feeling about it, and its ending is somewhat unsettling as well.
Poirot is asked by Dr Hawker, a neighbour, to accompany him, when one of his patients, an Italian count leaves a message calling for help. The count is found dead, and the guests who had been dining with him (and with whom he was overheard speaking in a raised voice) are missing; but is the mystery as clear-cut as it seems?
‘Jane in Search of a Job’ sees Jane Cleveland, a young woman in search of a job, respond to and take up a position pursuant to a rather strange advertisement. This throws her in the midst of an adventure but not quite the kind she was expecting. This one had definite shades of Sherlock Holmes (the red-headed league/copper beeches stories), but of course Christie gives it her own touch.
In ‘The Disappearnce of Mr Davenheim’ a wealthy banker disappears from his country home, and no trace is found. Just at the time, he had an appointment with someone who had borne him a grudge. Poirot of course finds once again that the matter is not as simple as it may seem. Another story with a Holmesian touch.
We meet Miss Marple again in ‘The Idol House of Astarte’, another of the stories that involves an element of otherworldliness and midsummer madness, but one which turns out very much to be of this world in its solution. Another of the thirteen problems, this one is narrated by the clergyman Dr Pender, and involves a mysterious death that takes place near a statute of Astarte, the old Phoenician deity, a place which to Dr Pender had a distinct feeling of evil. But whether it was evil in the place or in the heart of the culprit, we can’t really say, for Miss Marple once again finds the answer, which as I said lies very much in the human realm.
In ‘The Rajah’s Emerald’ we meet James Bond, no, not 007 (the publication date (1934) is earlier than the first Bond story by Fleming (1953), so probably just a coincidence). James is down on a beach holiday as is also the girl he is in love with. But Grace is staying with wealthier friends in a posh hotel while James is in a boarding house having to deal with crowds and long queues for everything. When James decides to take a step not quite in his usual character (nothing horrifying, just a way to not have to deal with the queues), he finds himself in an adventure! (I loved the ending of this one!)
‘The Oracle at Delphi’ finds a comfort-loving American lady, Mrs Willard Peters on holiday in Greece with her culture loving son. But when Willard junior is kidnapped on one of his expeditions, she turns to Parker Pyne for help.
Tommy and Tuppence appear in their ‘spy’ avatar in ‘The Adventure of the Sinister Stranger’ when a stranger comes into their inquiry agency with a rather obviously cooked up mystery for them to solve. But do they manage to trap him?
Finally, we are back with Poirot in ‘The Incredible Theft’, a story which is a version of ‘The Naval Treaty’ but with its own spin. A house party is to be a cover for discussions on matters of national security between Lord Mayfield and Sir George Carrington. Mrs Vanderlyn, a wealthy lady, known to have dubious connections, is also present. Stolen of course, are important military plans, disappearing from the table they had been placed on when Lord Mayfield’s secretary is forced to leave the study for just a few moments. Did Mrs Vanderlyn get the papers? How?
This was an enjoyable collection of Christie stories, which I think would appeal to both regular readers and fans as well as people new to Christie. We get a flavour of the range of plots she comes up with, meet all of her detectives, and also get a taste of the unexpected twists in the puzzles she creates. While being short stories, these don’t have the level of complexity that her full length books have, each story has a twist and solution that one certainly doesn’t see coming. A very entertaining and engaging collection, with many surprises woven in. 4.5 stars.
p.s. The opening extract from Christie’s own childhood holiday in the Pyrenees recalls an unsettling incident which also shows why she was perhaps so much attached to her mother.
In this, the thirty-third Poirot mystery, Poirot receives a request for help from mystery-writer Ariadne Oliver. Mrs Oliver has been down at Nasse Hou
In this, the thirty-third Poirot mystery, Poirot receives a request for help from mystery-writer Ariadne Oliver. Mrs Oliver has been down at Nasse House, Nassecombe, Devon, where a village fête is to be held and one attraction is a ‘murder hunt’ on the lines of a treasure hunt which she is in charge of organising. (Poirot is to be present in the guise of giving out the prizes.) While the plans are going along well, Mrs Oliver is certain that she senses something wrong, perhaps that someone has been getting her to alter things ever so slightly, a small detail here and there, though she can’t point her finger to who or what, and what exactly might go wrong. Nasse House is owned by Sir George Stubbs whose wife Hattie (Lady Stubbs), originally from the West Indies, is simple minded. His efficient secretary Miss Brewis, Mrs Folliat whose family originally owned the house, and other residents at the village are all enthusiastically organising and contributing to the fête—Sally Legge (who is staying for a few months at the village with her husband Alec) for instance is to tell people’s futures as Madame Zuleika. Meanwhile, it seems that a cousin of Hattie Stubbs, Etienne De Sousa, whom she hasn’t seen for years (since she was a child, in fact) wants to look her up, and will arrive on the day of the fête. On the day of the fête, Mrs Oliver’s fears prove real and the young schoolgirl who was to play the ‘body’ in the murder hunt is found actually murdered while Hattie Stubbs has vanished entirely with no clue to where she could be and no body found. Where could she have gotten to? Had she been killed? And what reason would anyone have for killing Marlene Tucker, a harmless schoolgirl? This is a puzzle that baffles not only the police who are glad of Poirot’s presence on the scene but also Poirot who can’t solve the case quite as fast (or easily) as he usually does.
This was once again an enjoyable mystery from Christie, who (as another reviewer on Goodreads has also said) certainly has the best puzzles. She doesn’t leave us without clues—in fact here too, if one pays attention to even casual conversations Poirot has with various persons present, one might actually catch on to what was really going on (though one almost always never does, and some observations might be interpreted more than one way). This time since I was rereading, I did pick up some at least of these, a hint here, a clue there—and this was fun though I would say that may be compared to some other mysteries of hers, the clues/hints in this one weren’t perhaps as clear; yet everything and everyone, even if they seemed to be just a background or unconnected feature had a purpose.
Compared to his usual adventures, Poirot perhaps also took a touch longer to solve this one having to go back ‘defeated’ for a bit before he returns for another visit and set of conversations and can finally solve the case. Nonetheless, it is him and his grey cells alone that can put things together eventually, not only solving the mystery but also locating the evidence.
Mrs Oliver does not spare him over the time he takes, telling him when he calls her nearly a month after the events that it was about time he did see things. She is here in all her glory, with her rather fantastical hairstyles, and jumble of thoughts (from which she does manage to produce fairly complicated plots, and an equally complicated murder game) adding a bit of fun to the gravity of the murder and the other more serious storylines. In this one, she doesn’t have her usual struggles with her Finnish detective (reflecting Christie herself), but her one of her reader’s misconceptions about her add a few further comic moments as well.
As with Christie’s other books, this one too has other storylines moving alongside the mystery thread—some turn out connected while others simply throw one off course. But all the characters we are introduced to are also well developed—each with their individual personality and story.
An enjoyable revisit, and one where from cover onwards, everything gives you a clue!
Book 14 of the Miss Marple Challenge. This one is a set of short stories, six of the “original” final cases, an additional Miss Marple story “GreenshaBook 14 of the Miss Marple Challenge. This one is a set of short stories, six of the “original” final cases, an additional Miss Marple story “Greenshaw’s Folly” and two non-Marple stories, “In A Glass Darkly” and “the Dressmaker’s Doll”. The edition I have has only the original six but I dug out two others from other Christie short story collections that I have so it’s sort of a “cheat” marking this one as “read” since I have missed “Dressmaker’s Doll”.
The last six of Miss Marple’s cases were not restricted to murder alone. Though the majority of the stories (four of the six) do involve murders, there is also a hidden treasure (in fact more than one) and robbery in the other two which were as much fun as the murder stories and Miss Marple shows us that not all hidden treasures are “hidden” and not all the obvious suspects the actual murderers. In these we find ourselves back in St Mary Mead as well as Chipping Cleghorn (where a murder was announced) with old friends, the Harmons (Bunch, particularly), Jane Helier (from the Thirteen Problems), Doctor Haydock, Mrs Price-Ridley, Raymond and Joan, and of course Tiglath Pileser (though he makes only a brief appearance). The story I most enjoyed in the collection was not a murder one to my own surprise but the “Perfect Maid”, which was such fun―I remembered the solution from a previous read but wouldn’t have guessed otherwise. And one can’t help but love Doctor Haydock for knowing just the right medicine for Miss Marple, a case to solve when she needs it!
Of the other two stories, “Greenshaw’s Folly” was enjoyable, pretty complicated really but seemed to me just a little bit far-fetched (with a plot detail was quite similar to another story). “In a Glass Darkly” was certainly the creepiest of the lot, not exactly a supernatural story but with a touch of the uncanny that made it very enjoyable indeed.
This was a great collection to end the Miss Marple challenge. I’ve really enjoyed reading the books chronologically. Many of the mysteries were excellent―the puzzles keeping me guessing (A Murder is Announced, The Body in the Library, 4:50 from Paddington, Sleeping Murder, among them) but there was so much more to them as well. I also enjoyed the social changes taking place with each of the books, Miss Marple’s reactions to them, the characters (that AC herself was a great observer of human nature stands out in so many), and even the changes in Miss Marple herself who (when I read the first book this time) was so very different to the impression I had of her and changed as the books progressed. The books also make (to an extent) quite a strong statement against stereotyping on account of age―Miss Marple mayn’t be physically strong (a bit of a stereotype in itself) but her mind is as sharp as ever and where everyone else fails, Miss M always has the right answer. This has been a great challenge that I thoroughly enjoyed....more
2021 Review: The Sittaford Mystery (or The Murder at Hazelmoor), a standalone by the Queen of Crime, first published in 1931, is a quite perfect read f2021 Review: The Sittaford Mystery (or The Murder at Hazelmoor), a standalone by the Queen of Crime, first published in 1931, is a quite perfect read for the season with a murder in a snowed-in English village difficult to navigate, a fair few suspects, and a touch of spookiness!
Our story opens in the small village of Sittaford in Dartmoor, where a retired Navyman, Captain Joe Trevelyan had built six cottages, one, Sittaford House for himself and five others which he has sold to others, among them his best friend Major Burnaby. Captain Trevelyan is very fond of money and never loses an opportunity to make some, so when Mrs Willet and her daughter, Violet, recently arrived from South Africa, offer to rent his home, the Captain is happy to oblige and himself moves to a smaller house, Hazelmoor down the hill in Exhampton, making a tidy profit. The Willets who are fairly social invite others from Sittaford for tea and bridge, and among their guests is Major Burnaby. For entertainment, one of the guests suggests a ‘table turning’. But after some fun messages, one of the ‘ghosts’ that visits them announces that Captain Trevelyan is dead—murdered, leaving all the guests unsettled. Major Burnaby is shaken as well, and decides to walk down to Trevelyan’s cottage (despite the impending snowstorm) and take a look. He finds that Trevelyan has in fact been murdered.
The police led by Inspector Narracott investigate. It seems at first that the Captain had no enemies, but it emerges that he was tight with his money because of which many in his own family bore him grudges. Soon his nephew James Pearson, who was in the village at the time (and had in fact visited Trevelyan to seek a loan) is arrested. But James’ fiancée Emily Trefusis knows he is innocent (for he doesn’t have the guts to kill) and teams up with enterprising reporter Charles Enderby to prove James innocent. The two begin to talk to Trevelyan’s relations and others in the village, and uncover some secrets. But do they track down the killer?
This was an enjoyable mystery with plenty of subplots and red herrings to throw one off track. Since this was a reread for me, I knew whodunit (I don’t think I guessed the first time around), and was keeping a look out for clues. Christie is fair and does give us various hints along the way. One incident though seemed the result of chance or coincidence, though, and I am not sure how things would have played out without it. But still, I had forgotten some of the subplots and threads, so it was interesting to follow those.
In the book Christie also gives us plenty of interesting characters. In Emily Trefusis we have a rather spunky Christie heroine, who undertakes to travel to isolated and snowed-in Sittaford and solve the mystery on her own. She uses not only her intelligence (which she has plenty of) and also ability to manipulate people (Charles, in particular) to do her bidding to manage to speak to various people involved and get help in the things she can’t do on her own. With Emily’s story we also have a romance thread, and a bit of a mystery as to whom she will pick for more than one character becomes interested in her. Another standout was the intelligent invalid lady Mis Percehouse, who might have a sharp tongue but turns out quite a likeable person. She takes to and helps Emily (she also has a bunch of cats, one of whom is called the Emperor of Peru).
But while Emily is investigating, Inspector Narracott isn’t turned into a background character, nor the typical policeman in mysteries who is lost or clueless. He too is fairly sharp and uncovers plenty of information; both investigations proceed side-by-side, complementing each other.
While not among Christie’s best mysteries, this was one I enjoyed a lot, for its atmosphere, characters, and plot too (aside form a few niggles).
3.75 stars
2017 Review Major Burnaby who has gone to visit with his neighbours the Willets finds himself participating in “tableturning” but after a harmless bit of fun, the “spirits” inform them that Captain Tevelyan has been murdered. Navy Captain Joe Trevelyan had retired to the small village of Sittaford in Dartmoor where he built six houses, one of which he occupied himself, and the rest sold to others, among them Major Burnaby his closest friend. The Captain’s only flaws seem reclusiveness and a fondness for money, the latter having led him to let his own house to the Willets for the winter and take up residence elsewhere. When Major Burnaby trudges through the thick snow to put himself at ease and ensure Trevelyan is safe, he finds that the séance was in fact right, and the Captain has been murdered. Captain Trevelyan had no enemies but was a very rich man, so of course those who stand to inherit are in the net of suspicion. When the police find his nephew James Pearson visited him just around the time the incident happened and was desperate for money, they are not long in arresting him. But Jim’s fiancé, Emily Trefusis knows even if he isn’t straightforward in all his dealings, he is not capable of murder and sets out to clear his name, along the way enlisting the help of journalist Charles Enderby who was in Sittaford for another purpose but jumps at the chance of the scoop of a lifetime.
Emily is a very likeable heroine full of spunk and gumption, she knows what she needs to do and gets it done, not being above a bit of manipulation. Charles Enderby is eager to be of assistance (even when it means being outdoors in the middle of the night in frozen weather) and even the Inspector is happy to oblige with information which he wouldn’t probably reveal to any other. It was great fun “watching” Emily as she approaches the Captain’s relations and Sittaford residents finding out all she needs to know, and some that she probably doesn’t. Miss Percehouse was another character I thought good fun, shrewd and also in some ways like Emily, despite being an invalid.
As is usual with Christie, there are various plotlines side by side. Everyone has something to hide but which of these has something to do with Captain Trevelyan’s murder? One pretty much needs to read to the end to find out. This was another one where I didn’t guess the murderer or the motive, for that matter. (I tried thinking up the most fantastic solution I could come up with, but it turned out to be just that, and completely wrong, though there was a “secret” in that quarter as well). The atmosphere is icy, there are secrets galore, even an escaped convict loose on the moors, all together making for very entertaining reading....more
Book 13 of the Miss Marple Challenge. Miss Marple’s final full length mystery has her looking into a most unusual mystery―one where she doesn’t know eBook 13 of the Miss Marple Challenge. Miss Marple’s final full length mystery has her looking into a most unusual mystery―one where she doesn’t know even what she’s investigating. Miss Marple has received an interesting offer from Mr Rafiel, who she met and who was her “ally” in solving the Caribbean Mystery. Mr Rafiel has died recently and in his will proposed a bequest of £20,000 to Miss Marple contingent on her solving a problem using her special set of skills. But he doesn’t tell her what the problem is. Soon she receives further instructions sending her on a tour of English country homes and gardens and finds herself viewing all her co-travellers with suspicion. As the tour progresses, and she meets various people on it and at various stopping places, it is clear that what she’s looking into is murder, things taking a more serious turn when a co-passenger who could have given her important information meets with an “accident”. Even though Miss Marple is much older and not able to get about too much, her mind is as sharp as ever and it isn’t long before she gets to the root of the problem.
Most of the Miss Marple books (now that I’ve been reading them chronologically) deal with change, changing times, developments, modernisation, and how Miss Marple (and indeed others of her generation) react and adapt. This one too deals with this theme and changes in social mores are quite a prominent thread running throughout. Miss Marple may be accepting of these but is still pretty ruthless when it comes to crime or “evil”. Having read the other books, one plot detail made part of the mystery quite clear though not the why or who and the who wasn’t too much of a surprise as I’d seen an adaptation of this before. Still it is somewhat disconcerting when one comes to think of it. A fairly good read, though the “feel” of it in a sense is somewhat different from the usual Miss Marples (she isn’t though)....more
Hercule Poirot is invited to dinner. When he arrives, he finds there are eight guests, four, people new to him but the others, himself included, are cHercule Poirot is invited to dinner. When he arrives, he finds there are eight guests, four, people new to him but the others, himself included, are connected with the world of crime detection in one or the other way―Superintendent Battle of Scotland Yard, Col. Race (connected with the Secret Service), and Ariadne Oliver, author of detective fiction. Their host is Mr Shaitana (the word “shaitan” roughly translates to devil/satan or evil), a man who takes pleasure in the power he holds over others with the secrets he knows about them or even manages to worm out of them. Mr Shaitana has told Poirot something that none of the other guests know―that among them that night is a murderer, perhaps more than one. After dinner when the guests devote their attention to bridge (two tables in separate rooms have been set up―one of the detectives and one for the others), Mr Shaitana finds he may have overbid in real life, and is found with a dagger in him in the room in which the “murderers” or supposed murderers were playing their game. All four did leave the table at one or the other point in the game but there was no sound or other sign to indicate when the crime took place. All the detectives begin to look into the matter, Battle handling the official investigation of course, but we essentially follow Battle, Mrs Oliver, and Poirot. Col. Race operates off-screen so to speak and only contributes a little to the investigation. They look into the backgrounds and movements of the four suspects, and each of them it seems has much to hide, things in their past they’d much rather no one knew about. This made for a pretty exciting mystery with plenty of revelations and uncovering of secrets, right up to the denouement, where it is Poirot who solves the case, but not before another surprise twist just when you think you have the answer.
This was an interesting read both in terms of the mystery itself (I certainly didn’t guess whodunit), and the investigation―one can see the contrasts in the methods the three detectives use, Battle his more conventional skills of investigation, Mrs Oliver, her intuition, and Poirot, his grey cells. Well, aside from his grey cells, he uses ordinary conversation, about things other than the murder, the bridge games played, the suspects’ observational skills, etc. to elicit information as to their characters and find the answer. Battle, Mrs Oliver, and Col. Race are of course characters we run into in Christie’s other books as well, and it is nice seeing them work together in this one. In Mrs Oliver, AC pokes a bit of fun at herself and at the process of writing a detective novel―creating a detective from a country she knows little of (in Mrs O’s case the Finn Sven Hjerson), throwing in an additional murder or two to lengthen a book, and the process of coming up with a plot―one can see the work that goes into it of course, but I enjoyed the humour that she injected into it. (Incidentally, in this book Poirot barely knows Mrs O., while in subsequent ones, she actively seeks his help in solving cases and appears in some on her own as well.) People who play bridge would enjoy the details of the game much more than I (complete ignoramus as far as this goes) did but the lack of knowledge doesn’t come in the way of enjoying the mystery. Another minor issue I thought was the backstory of one of the characters which seemed to be told to us a little abruptly towards the end rather than coming out through investigation like in the case of the others―again, nothing that spoils the story but would have added another layer of complexity. But a very good read nonetheless. ...more
Book 8 for the Miss Marple Challenge. This one takes us back to St Mary Mead but what a different St Mary Mead it is. No long the quiet, quaint countrBook 8 for the Miss Marple Challenge. This one takes us back to St Mary Mead but what a different St Mary Mead it is. No long the quiet, quaint country village, many changes have taken place. The old country homes sold, a new “development” with new inhabitants, a department store, and even a film studio close by. The older residents of St Mary Mead―Miss Marple among them―try to come to terms with and adapt to the changes, thankful for what is left of the old life. But Miss Marple soon realises, however much things might change, human beings and human nature remain pretty much the same. Her skills and knowledge are once again put to the test when Mrs Badcock, literally falls down dead at Gossington Hall (the former residence of the Bantrys where the “body in the library” was found”. But Heather Badcock was a nice though talkative woman to whom no one could have intended any harm. It soon turns out that the intended victim may have been the actress Marina Gregg who with her husband Jason Rudd, now live at Gossington Hall. The case once again finds its way to Craddock, now Chief Inspector, who reports straight to “headquarters” as he calls it―Aunt Jane’s home. With him undertaking the more active parts of the investigation, and with help from her current domestic, Cherry Baker, Miss Marple tries to put together what really happened, at the same time trying to contend with Miss Knight, a nurse/companion placed in her home by her nephew Raymond West who insists on treating poor Miss Marple as an “old dear” who mustn’t have any excitement.
This was a Marple book I hadn’t read before but I had seen an adaptation (with Elizabeth Taylor) long ago so did remember whodunit. But still, the puzzle is once again complicated though an element of it is similar to what one has seen in AC’s books (at least two others, with Miss Marple in one of them). Despite this, she would have (had I not remembered the answer) thrown me off-track quite successfully. There are unexpected coincidences and more deaths along the way (I did find myself thinking of Midsomer Murders and how there seemed bodies aplenty there, always). But nothing can mislead Miss Marple for long, for though she may be older and frailer, her mind is as sharp as ever. This was an enjoyable read for me both for the puzzle itself as well as the social commentary that it includes. Four and a half stars. ...more
Book 5 for the Miss Marple challenge. I was excited to read this one as this is the first of the books in the Miss Marple challenge that I had not reaBook 5 for the Miss Marple challenge. I was excited to read this one as this is the first of the books in the Miss Marple challenge that I had not read before. I also only discovered because of the challenge that though this book was published last, it was written much earlier and chronologically also falls early in the series. This one was in a way Miss Marple’s Five little Pigs, a murder that has happened years ago, without even clarity on whether it was a murder but based on a (then) child’s memory of events. Gwenda Reed arrives in England to find a house for herself and her husband and ends up finding the “perfect” house, only to have some mysterious things happen. It turns out that she has been there before, and lived as a child in that very house, but not only that she may have also witnessed a murder. Miss Marple urges Gwenda and Giles to leave matters be but the two set out to investigate, and she soon joins them using her “social network” (the kind there was before the days of Facebook and such) to get introduced to Dillmouth society. They identify and look up people from Gwenda’s family’s past, meet and interview them trying to pick up clues into what happened all those years ago and whether Gwenda’s memories were all real or mixed with fancy somehow.
The mystery/puzzle itself was very enjoyable and I would have been entirely surprised by whodunit (only I remembered suddenly from a TV adaptation that I’d seen some time ago) since for most of the book I was thinking on the wrong track. That did slightly spoil the surprise element for me but I nevertheless enjoyed the characters and how once again it is what people are “inside”—their true natures—that holds the key to how they act, irrespective of the facade they put on for us to see in everyday interactions.
Miss Marple in this one I found getting closer to the image of Miss Marple one has in one’s mind—using the same skills and still grey haired and rather frail but not as lacy and fluffy as in the earlier books. Also, she has a far more active part in this one, getting herself to Dillmouth, and participating in the investigation. Needless to say, I enjoyed it very much! ...more
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