I have a soft spot for Miss Marple. Her unthreatening and endearing “dear old lady spinster” demeanour hides a steely determination: she subverts the notion of how old ladies should act and think.
Her sweetness is tempered with acidity and acerbic wit, and she takes great pleasure in besting the professionals and policemen she detects with. How is is that this little old lady is able to relate to so many cruel murderers?
Her sleuthing super skills are her ability to see right through human wickedness and her ability to remain steadfast and curious. She’s also remarkably relaxed about encountering murder everywhere she goes, including uncovering murderers in her own sleepy English country village, St Mary Mead. Nothing surprises Miss Marple!
This aged and wise detective created by Agatha Christie has endured and spawned many copycats and is the perfect counterbalance to her suave and cosmopolitan detective, Belgian Hercule Poirot.
Here are some of the best Miss Marple books I can heartily recommend.
A Murder is Announced
Agatha Christie’s 50th book, published in 1950, A Murder is Announced, is often praised as one of Agatha Christie’s best Miss Marple novels.
Set in the picturesque English country village of Chipping Cleghorn, a murder is literally announced in the local newspaper. A specific time and a location for the murder are given, and thinking it may be a hoax, curious villagers arrive to the appointed spot at the appointed time. Then the lights go out…
The ensuing murder and investigation are conducted by Miss Marple and the local police. Though some of the details and characters of the case seem a little far-fetched, the actual murder set-up is ingenious. How does the murderer do it? Miss Marple senses something is off, but can she crack the mystery before the audacious murderer strikes again? A real murder mystery original.
A Pocket Full of Rye
This novel was published in 1953, and it tracks a series of murders that reference a famous nursery rhyme: “Sing a Song of Sixpence”. This feature is a popular Agatha Christie device: Christie has written other murder novels that reference nursery rhymes.
What makes rich businessman, Rex Fortescue, die all of a sudden while drinking tea in his “counting house”? Soon other victims follow, and the London police must work overtime to crack the increasingly serious and baffling case.
Miss Marple’s ability to relate to a gullible servant girl helps lead her to the clever and cruel murderer and make a connection with something in Fortescue’s past.
Miss Marple’s ability to understand servants and maids is often a feature of her novels and this is another one where her compassion shines through, as well as some gentle scolding.
Sleeping Murder by Agatha Christie
The book cover pictured above is the first-edition hardback cover.
Despite the subtitle, this does not have much in it that makes it seem like “the last Marple case” – she is her usual sprightly self throughout!
This is a true crime classic, a very psychological novel with a good mystery that’s truly chilling. The book starts with a newly married couple settling in Devon’s sleepy (fictional) Dillmouth, buying a seaside villa called Hillside. But the wife, Gwenda, starts seeing eerie sights and wonders if there’s something oddly familiar about the house? Did she witness something terrible here or is her mind playing tricks on her?
Unearthing a murder from over 20 years ago is a task that has Marple written all over it. Town gossip and distortion are no match for her clearheaded sleuthing.
Christie supervised the publication of both Poirot’s and Marple’s last cases, but she died just before this book was published in the 1970s. She’d first written it in the 1940s and it had been locked away in the vault alongside Poirot’s last case since then. There’s a conjecture that she wrote both of these last novels during a scary time during the Blitz in London when death seemed imminent.
The Body in the Library
Image source: https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/6/68/The_Body_in_the_Library_First_Edition_Cover_1942.jpg
This book was published in 1942 and is a great send-up of the murder mystery cliche of finding a body in the library.
The respectable Bantrys find a dead woman on their carpet when they wake up one morning. Who is she and how has she ended up dead in their library? Why is she dressed with such glamour and care?
Miss Marple is drafted in as friend of the family to help unearth the real murderer before the family name is besmirched by scandal. Miss Marple is quick to notice small details on the body that don’t make sense and a dastardly plot is slowly unveiled..
A very good novel with a charismatic cast of characters and a really baffling mystery that holds your interest.
A Mirror Crack’d From Side to Side
Published in 1962, this is a really juicy Miss Marple novel with a layered narrative and intelligent plotting.
Can you see a murder being planned just by looking into someone’s eyes? What does suffering do to a person?
Hollywood comes to St Mary Mead when famous actress Marina Gregg buys nearby Gossington Hall. Heather Babcock, self-confessed local fan, is quick to fill Miss Marple in on all the movie star gossip.
When a drinks reception at Gossington Hall ends in tragedy, Miss Marple is on the scene and starts to untangle all the complex relationships surrounding Marina and Gossington. Is someone trying to target the beautiful Martina?
4:50 from Paddington
Published in 1957, this is a novel that hinges on a great plot device: a murder seen from a moving train.
Elspeth McGillicuddy sees a murder on a train whilst she is passing by on a parallel track: a woman being strangled by a man in a compartment. The nightmare image flashes by in an instant.
Elspeth tells her friend Miss Marple who believes her and sets out to determine how somebody could murder and conceal a body on a train.
Miss Marple’s sleuthing leads her to a grand stately home. Unable to go there herself, Miss Marple sends Lucy Eyelesbarrow to work and spy on her behalf. What evil secrets are hiding at Rutherford Hall?
I love Miss Marple as a detective: she is so sharp and witty, but also compassionate. Her ability to understand and interpret local gossip and provide a female and domestic perspective in psychological murder cases is ingenious. Miss Marple is a joy to read: her composure, her understanding of social undercurrents, her unflinching curiosity, and how she surprises everyone around her. She’s not just a brilliant detective; she’s a quietly radical figure who proves that wisdom and insight often come in the most unexpected packages.
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