Overall a classic Christie and better than Miss Marple’s debut novel The Murder at the Vicarage which is probably why it was chosen as the first story to be filmed in the excellent Joan Hickson series. I definitely experienced something similar the first time I read this as I can strongly remember finishing reading it whilst waiting at a bus stop on the way to church.
In the latest episode of the highly recommended The Men Who Explain Miracles podcast, Dan talked about the experience of reading Hercule Poirot’s Christmas on a train and having to finish it in the station as the need to know what had happened was so strong. She does her best work in deciding which of a group of schoolgirls should be given the third degree, an interrogation which she conducts herself with the same determination and ruthlessness of George Smiley.ĭespite a plethora of policeman, it is Miss Marple with a woman’s eye, who is able to solve the case. This theme that it is possibly more important to identify a killer to prevent injustice to the innocent than to serve justice on the guilty is a recurring theme through Christie’s work including “The Four Suspects” from The Thirteen Problems.
Miss Marple is motivated to help solve the case in order to remove the shadow of suspicion from the Bantrys. Things become even more confused when a second murder occurs. She had recent become the favourite of a wealthy elderly man who planned to adopt her, which put the rest of his family’s noses out of joint and provides the police with a number of suspects to investigate. It is quickly established that the dead girl is Ruby Keene, a dancer at a local hotel. This seems unlikely but when Colonel Bantry goes downstairs he finds it to be true. Mrs Bantry’s day begins with the maid announcing hysterically that there is a body in the library.
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