ŷ������

Before Miss Marple appeared in her first, full length novel, she featured in short stories; the first in 1927. This collection was first published in 1932 (The Murder at the Vicarage, the first Miss Marple novel appeared in 1930). Although these are short stories, there are links which make these more enjoyable than some collections of random stories.

We begin with stories told at a group called, “The Tuesday Night Club,�� in which Miss Marple, her nephew, Raymond West, artist, Joyce Lempriere, solicitor, Mr Petherick, Dr Pender, a clergyman and the retired Commission of Scotland Yard, Sir Henry Clithering, meet to discuss mysteries. These are solved successfully by Miss Marple, but part of the joy of this section of the book is the little group of characters so beloved by Agatha Christie �� the clergyman, the lawyer and the, almost obligatory, attractive young woman.

This group changes slightly in the second part of the book, where Sir Henry Clithering is the guest of Colonel and Mrs Bantry. Asked if he would like to suggest someone as a sixth for dinner (along with Dr Lloyd and the beautiful actress, Jane Helier), Mrs Bantry is surprised when he suggests Miss Marple. Again, the dinner party ends in a similar way �� with every person telling a mystery that needs to be solved and where Miss Marple, again, triumphs with her village parallels.

The last story, “Death by Drowning,�� is slightly different, in that Miss Marple, discovering that Sir Henry Clithering is staying in St Mary Mead, asks for his help in solving the death of a local girl. This is a very enjoyable collection, with clever plots and enjoyable scenarios. Interestingly, the village of St Mary Mead is mentioned in the Poirot novel, “The Mystery of the Blue Train,�� and Miss Marple �� although she did not appear as often in print as Christie’s Belgian detective, is almost as beloved and popular. This is certainly a very enjoyable collection, even for someone like me, who does not normally enjoy short stories.