Miss Marple: The Complete Short Stories by Agatha Christie Narrator: Juliet Stevenson
Series: Miss Marple #12.5
Published by Harper Audio on November 1, 2022
Source: Purchased
Genres: Vintage Mystery, Short Stories
Length: 12 hrs 12 mins
Pages: 384
Format: Audiobook
Purchase at Bookshop.org or Audible
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At last - all 20 Miss Marple short stories in a single volume!
Jane Marple is from the village of St Mary Mead and applies her skills of observation and deduction to a wide variety of mysteries. Several of the supporting characters appear in many of these stories, including her nephew Raymond West, Dolly and Arthur Bantry of Gossington Hall, and Sir Henry Clithering formerly of Scotland Yard.
Miss Marple made her first appearance in a book in 1930, and her twelfth and final novel was published shortly after Agatha Christie's death almost 50 years later. In the intervening years Miss Marple also featured in 20 short stories, published in a number of different collections. But never before have they been available together.
In this complete volume, Miss Marple uses her unique insight to deduce the truth about a series of unsolved crimes - cases of a girl framed for theft, some disappearing bloodstains, the cryptic last message of a poisoned man, a woman killed within days of writing her will, a spiritualist who predicts death, a mortally wounded stranger in a church, a Christmas tragedy...
In all 20 ingenious crimes, every one guaranteed to keep you guessing until the turn of the final page.
The twenty stories are:
1. The Tuesday Night Club (1927)
2. The Idol House of Astarte (1928)
3. Ingots of Gold (1928)
4. The Bloodstained Pavement (1928)
5. Motive v. Opportunity (1928)
6. The Thumb Mark of St Peter (1928)
7. The Blue Geranium (1929)
8. The Companion (1930)
9. The Four Suspects (1930)
10. A Christmas Tragedy (1930)
11. The Herb of Death (1930)
12. The Affair at the Bungalow (1930)
13. Death by Drowning (1931)
14. Miss Marple Tells a Story (1935)
15. Strange Jest (1941)
16. Tape-Measure Murder (1941)
17. The Case of the Caretaker (1942)
18. The Case of the Perfect Maid (1942)
19. Sanctuary (1954)
20. Greenshaw's Folly (1956)
I have to admit that in general I don’t read a lot of short stories. I prefer the room novels give to let us get to know characters, learn motives, discover clues. That being said, this is a very good collection. Miss Marple is a sweet old lady who rarely leaves her small town but has a knack of understanding human nature.
Most of the stories start in a similar way. A revolving group sit down to dinner to recall difficult cases. The others are challenged to solve them. Miss Marple, at first overlooked and only included out of politeness, is the one who always arrives at the correct solutions. She notes that people get into the same situations, whether they live in a village or a city.
I listened to the audiobook and the narrator did a wonderful job. All the characters were distinct and consistent across stories. She brought our Miss Marple’s sense of humor and pleasure in outwitting those around her writer nephew nephew or an ex-Scotland Yard Commissioner.
About Agatha Christie
Dame Agatha Mary Clarissa Christie, Lady Mallowan, DBE (née Miller; 15 September 1890 – 12 January 1976) was an English crime novelist, short story writer and playwright. She is best known for her 66 detective novels and 14 short story collections, particularly those revolving around her fictional detectives Hercule Poirot and Miss Marple. She also wrote the world’s longest-running play, a murder mystery, The Mousetrap, and six romances under the name Mary Westmacott. In 1971 she was elevated to Dame Commander of the Order of the British Empire (DBE) for her contribution to literature.
Reading this book contributed to these challenges: