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Summary: MISS MARPLE AND HER STUDIES ON "HUMAN NATURE"
Review: Well Ms. Christie fooled me again but, then again she always does. That is why she was and still remains the best of the genre. This is our intro to Miss Marple and her amatuer sluething. The best thing you can say about any mystery writer is her/his solutions are well hidden yet, totally believable when they are revealed. That fits this story to a tee. The story is narrated by the vicar who is not only unlucky enough to have a murder commited in his home but, is also one of the main suspects. Tough day for anyone unless your next door neighbor is MISS MARPLE. Buy this and I guarantee you won't be disappointed.
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Summary: Misleading right to the end ...
Review: While this book is definitely an original Christie's, it is hardly a vintage.Writing from the perspective of the vicar of St Mary Mead village where Ms Jane Marple lived, the writer unfolded a scene of a little village's usual "transquility" being disturbed by an outsider in the form of Mr Lawrence Redding, an artist who drew various local ladies. One of the ladies was Griselda, wife of the vicar, and another was Anne, second wife to a not generally loved Colonel Protheroe, the latter being a murder victim found in the study of the vicar. Rounding up the usual suspects, there was the victim's daughter, Lettice, nearly as old as her stepmother and hated the latter utterly, a ne'er-do-well local by the name of Archer who was jailed by the late Colonel who happened to be on the bench, plus a mysterious Mrs Lestrange, a recent reticent arrival to the village. Instead of treating the readers to a conventional detective story, the writer described everything from the eyes of the vicar, a possible suspect himself if not for a cast-iron alibi, he had been calling on one of his flocks. The narrator attempted to clear the mystery himself, unsatisfied with the effectiveness of the investigating police officer, a certain Inspector Slack. Together with the local doctor Haydock, they spoke to almost everyone imaginable in the village, trying to reconstructing the truth from various perspective. As a detective novel, it did not help that the star sleuth Ms Marple was herself a witness, her residence being right next to the vicarage. Readers would get a feeling that they are not being treated fairly in terms of the information being provided, depending instead on evaluations provided by Ms Marple. Several red herrings of course were thrown in, which made the story more life-like. As the investigation proceeded, new clues were revealed which oft led the amateur sleuths on wild goose chases. It was only when they returned to re-examine the scene of the crime that the truth finally came to light. Readers who loved mysteries would find nothing to complain about, except that they had been led on a wrong trail and for most of the book, missed out on the real mystery.
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