The Herb of Death and Other Stories

Rating:
Summary: First-class recording of 4 Marple stories
Review: I've discussed these stories in chronological order rather than order of appearance. The stories are an unabridged narration by Joan Hickson, who gave the best interpretation of Miss Marple I've ever seen. The only quibble I have with the recordings is that the publisher didn't group the stories into separate recordings based on content (e.g. a story from _The Tuesday Club Murders_ is on this recording). I advise you to scoop up the set of recordings (see my Listmania list), unless you can find some omnibus audio edition of Hickson's narration that includes the lot.

"The Thumbmark of St. Peter" - Miss Marple's contribution to the Tuesday Night Club (see Hickson's narration of _The Tuesday Club Murders_ for the earlier stories), at which each member was required to tell the story of a real life mystery, to which he or she knew the answer, but none of the others did. One of her many nieces - Mabel, this time - had made an unwise marriage, but after her husband's death, wrote her aunt in near hysteria. Not grief; stress, because rumours were spreading that she had poisoned her husband.

"The Herb of Death" - Mrs. Bantry's story, the 5th of 6 stories, one told by each member of a dinner party at the Bantrys. (Hickson's recording of the 1st 4 form _The Blue Geranium and Other Stories_.) Mrs. Bantry didn't want to tell a story, saying that she isn't any good at it. So she begins by telling of the bare facts of a death at Sir Ambrose Bercy's - a lot of foxglove got picked with the sage, everyone got food poisoning (including the Bantrys), and Sir Ambrose's ward Sylvia actually died of it. "There isn't anymore. That's all." Sir Henry in particular takes this as a challenge, since the listeners then have to work at ferreting out the details with clever questions.

"The Affair at the Bungalow" - Jane Helier's story, the last of the 6. Miss Helier, like a few other beautiful blond actresses in Christie's works, is, to put it kindly, not regarded as an intellectual. So when she comes up with a tale of robbery that 'happened to a friend of hers', all the other guests figure they know what's coming next.

"Death by Drowning" - A girl in St. Mary Mead has just been found drowned - Rose, the daughter of a man who runs the local pub. Having just learned that she was pregnant (having seduced a promising young architect in hopes of a shotgun wedding), quite a few people have reason to want her dead: the architect (engaged to a girl back in London), and her devoted admirer Joe Ellis, to name two. Miss Marple fears that the police may get the wrong person, so she reveals her own suspicions privately to Sir Henry (still a guest at the Bantrys'), and he follows up on them.