Marple Two

One more Christie post and then I'll quit, honest! That will be helped by a large number of books that came in to the library this week that I have to go pick up tomorrow. There are a lot of exciting things coming up, so stay tuned!

But for now, we turn back to everyone's favourite old maid detective - Miss Marple, and the second collection of her works: Miss Marple Omnibus Volume II.

Miss Marple Omnibus Volume II
Again, there seems to be no rhyme or reason for the organization of these novels, so, again, I just read them in the order presented.

A Caribbean Mystery
This first mystery takes Miss Marple away from her usual milieu of a quiet country village, and puts her down at a resort hotel on a lovely Caribbean island. At first, Miss Marple is disoriented by the steel drum band, endless supply of paw-paw at breakfast, softly swaying palm trees, and lovely sand beaches. However, she soon gets her feet and spots some village parallels - just in time to help in a murder investigation!

Despite the rather exotic setting (for a Miss Marple mystery - unlike Poirot, Marple is not a world traveler and her mysteries usually stay firmly on English soil), this is a usual Miss Marple story with the usual village parallels. The murder is not suspected to be murder first, so Miss Marple and her ally (the extremely old, extremely ugly, and extremely rich Mr. Rafiel) must do some creative digging to uncover a murderer. This is a good Christie story, and almost wants to make you take a vacation. (Although if I arrived at any resort that had Marple or Poirot as a guest, I would be checking out the next day!)

A Pocket Full of Rye
Just as Poirot had a number of mysteries which centred around a nursery rhyme that helped to solve the case, so here does Miss Marple. In this case, the nursery rhyme is as follows:

Sing a song of sixpence, a pocketful of rye,
Four and twenty blackbirds baked in a pie.
When the pie was opened the birds began to sing.
Wasn't that a dainty dish to set before the king?

The king was in his counting house, counting out his money,
The queen was in the parlour eating bread and honey,
The maid was in the garden hanging out the clothes,
When there came a little dickey bird and nipped off her nose.

The murderer is, shall we say, inspired by this poem and it provides a few important clues to Miss Marple and the police detective.

Miss Marple has a personal interest in this murder, as one of those murdered was a little servant girl who trained at her house. (Oh, to have servants - it would be lovely!) This personal interest, along with the cast of characters and clues provided in the poem, leads to a satisfying and interesting Christie mystery.

The Mirror Crack'd from Side to Side
For this mystery, we are back in Miss Marple's village. Hollywood has intruded into the quiet life of St. Mary Mead. Miss Marple's dear friend, Mrs. Bantry (now widowed) has sold her great estate and it has been bought by the famous Hollywood film star Marina Gregg and her devoted director husband, Jason Rudd. There is much surprise and consternation, however, when a local woman is murdered at a housewarming gala held by Marina and Jason. Marina is sure that the poisoned drink was meant for her.

Despite the Hollywood intrusion, Miss Marple is still able to find some village parallels and help the police solve the mystery. Again, poetry intrudes here too, but instead of a nursery rhyme, it is Tennyson's "Lady of Shallot" that provides an interesting thematic background that Christie weaves throughout the novel. This is an excellent Christie with an interesting and challenging puzzle that Miss Marple successfully solves at the end. I will say that the astute reader should be able to gather enough clues to figure out the mystery before the end - but it is still a satisfying puzzle nonetheless.

They Do It With Mirrors
Miss Marple visits an old schoolfriend in this novel and ends up having to assist the police in a murder investigation. Miss Marple goes to visit her old friend Carrie Louise at her sister Ruth's insistence. Ruth has a feeling that something is wrong with her sister, and sends Miss Marple there to try and find out what that is.

Carrie Louise lives in the country mansion of Stonygates with her third husband, Louis Serrocold. A portion of Stoneygates has been turned into a sort of rehabilitation facility for juvenile delinquents. The rest of the house holds Carrie Louise, Louis and other various family members and employees, including: Carrie Louise's daughter Mildred Strete; Carrie Louise's granddaughter Gina; Gina's husband Wally; Carrie Louise's stepsons Alex and Stephan Restarick (from marriage #2); Carrie Louise's secretary Juliet Belliver; and Louis' secretary Edgar Lawson. This is the pool of suspects that Miss Marple has to choose from when Carrie Louise's other stepson Christian Gulbrandsen (from marriage #1) visits with an important message - a message that leads to his murder.

This is another good Christie with a good puzzle. One little problem - do not try and make sense of the chronology of the marriages and timelines for adopting children and having children and divorces and all that. It will not make sense! Some of these timeline problems could have been avoided by making Gina Carrie Louise's daughter instead of granddaughter. The timeline problems don't affect the mystery or the solution at all, so they are not fatal to the book. Just don't actually try to figure out the chronology of Carrie Louise's life, because the dates will not add up!

Other than the chronology issues, this is a good Christie and is quite enjoyable. The characters are an interesting and diverse group of people, and the theme of artifice - magic, theatre, conjuring tricks, runs throughout the novel. A good puzzle with a satisfying conclusion.