Miss Marple: The Complete Short Stories is comprised of 20 short stories. The first thirteen short stories were published in book form in The Thirteen Problems in 1932 (aka The Tuesday Club Murders). The others were published in three other collections of Christie's stories, mixed in with stories from other sleuths.
Description from the back cover of my paperback edition:
This collection gathers together every short story featuring one of Agatha Christie’s most famous creations: Miss Marple. Described by her friend Dolly Bantry as “the typical old maid of fiction,” Miss Marple has lived almost her entire life in the sleepy hamlet of St. Mary Mead. Yet, by observing village life she has gained an unparalleled insight into human nature—and used it to devastating effect. As her friend Sir Henry Clithering, the ex-Commissioner of Scotland Yard, has been heard to say: “She’s just the finest detective God ever made”—and many Agatha Christie fans would agree.
In June of this year I read four short stories from Miss Marple: The Complete Short Stories (reviewed here). I thought I would finish reading the other 16 stories during the summer months, but alas, that did not happen.
Miss Marple's unusual gift that aids her sleuthing is that she remembers people she had known, mostly from St. Mary's Mead where she lives, and compares their behavior and foibles to the people in the case at hand. She is an elderly sleuth and has had many years and many experiences to draw from.
This week I read four more stories from the book. Here are my thoughts on those stories:
"Motive v. Opportunity"
This was the fifth story from The Thirteen Problems. The premise of the stories in this collection is that a group of people meet to discuss unsolved mysteries. Initially they plan to meet every Tuesday, so they call themselves the Tuesday Night Club.
This puzzling case was brought to the group by Mr. Petherick, the lawyer. An American medium has charmed an older man, Simon Clode, and taken over his home. Previously Mr. Clode had planned to divide his estate between his two nieces and a nephew, but in the end changes his mind. Yet then the new will is replaced by a blank sheet of paper. Very strange, complicated, but still fun to read.
"The Thumb Mark of St Peter"
Another story from The Thirteen Problems. Miss Marple tells this story to Raymond West, her nephew, and Joyce. Miss Marple's niece's husband died, and everyone where she lived thought the niece had murdered him. There is no evidence one way or the other but she is shunned by all her neighbors. Another very complicated one, but I was glad that Miss Marple cleared her niece of any suspicion.
"Miss Marple Tells a Story"
The next story I read was from a different collection, The Regatta Mystery and Other Stories. In this story, Miss Marple is telling her nephew Raymond and Joan about a case she solved in the past. Mr. Petherick, the lawyer, brought the problem to Miss Marple, hoping she can clear his client of murder; he is suspected of killing his wife. As usual, the client doubts Miss Marple's abilities, but she proves her worth and clears him. A very clever story.
"Strange Jest"
This story is from Three Blind Mice and Other Stories. Janet Heilen, a beautiful actress who knows Miss Marple and believes in her crime solving skills, invites her to a party so she can help her friends solve a mystery. Charmian and Edward have inherited their great-great-uncle's estate, but they cannot find the money that he was hinting about having hidden away somewhere. Miss Marple saves the day.
20 comments:
She was good at clever!
It's funny, I can read Miss Marple short stories over and over and they never get old or seem repetative. I adore her anedotes about the sly or horrible things she's known people do.
I'm glad you enjoyed these, Tracy. I like the way Miss Marple links her village memories to whatever she's investigating. She has this treasure trove of anecdotes that I enjoy reading. I like her personality, too.
Charming character, village, stories.
Todd, I wish I was half as clever. I would not want to be so good at seeing the devious side of people though.
I prefer Miss Marple to Poirot. Great collection of great stories!
Cath, I like that people come to her for solutions to serious crimes, yet she stays tucked away in her small village most of the time, leading a seemingly ordinary life.
Margot, it is too bad that there were only 20 short stories about Miss Marple.
Patti, some of the other characters that show up frequently are fun too. Nice comfort reading.
George, that is interesting. I don't think I have read enough of either the Marple stories or the Poirot stories to make a comparison. With the Poirot short stories, I like that Hastings narrates a lot of them. And they do have more variety. But also I haven't read a lot of them, because I have seen many of them as TV adaptations and I know the solutions.
I haven't read any of these...still a complete Christie novice, I'm afraid...but I've sampled some of the video adaptations of Miss Marple (seems to be a lot of those around). I did buy a collection of Poirot novels and stories on Monday that I plan to dip into soon, so I'll finally be able to compare the two characters.
I do hope you like the Poirot novels or stories. I had read them when I was younger but wasn't sure I would still enjoy them later, and it was a year or two after I started blogging that I tried some of her novels again. I tried a standalone, the first Miss Marple, and an early Poirot. It took me a while to get used to Poirot, but then I began to love his character. I have read at least 50 of her novels since then.
With regard to Miss Marple's methods, I remember her being called an early "profiler" in something I read. It seemed funny to me, but Miss Marple does base her observations on how other people have acted, which I guess is a very simplified form of profiling! Have you read the newer collection of Marple stories written by other "crime queens" as homage to Christie?
Marty, that is interesting, I can see the comparison to a profiler in the methods Miss Marple used. I have not tried out those stories by other authors. I usually don't like when authors write using another author's character, but I have heard a lot of good comments on the stories, so maybe I will someday. I will check it out more.
Miss Marple is so fun. I enjoy reading mysteries with her.
Lark, I will confess that I like the novels better than the short stories, even though sometimes Miss Marple is not in the novels until later in the book. I still have four of the novels yet to read.
One of the joys of life for me is knowing there is more Agatha Christie for me to read!! I will hold onto this post, so I can read it after I've read the stories.
I always enjoy Miss Marple stories, and can happily re-read them. But am really surprised to find there are only 20 of them, I'd have guessed many more.
Nan, sorry I missed your comment from back in September. I still haven't read all the Christie mysteries, and I do like knowing that there are more to look forward to.
Moira, I was very surprised that this book had so few stories in it. Especially since there are so many Poirot stories. The Poirot stories do seem to be more varied but I haven't read that many of those either. I watched a good number of them in the Poirot series starring Suchet.
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