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It was difficult to rate this book. I wanted to do more justice to Agatha Christie and her brilliant mind, but my conscience nags at me; it tells me that in honesty I was not drawn into the story as I normally do when I read her novels. So here I'm divided and trying to justice to her and me both.

It was overall a good plot though not a novel one. The setting is a small village in England where life is slow and stagnant. In such a small village, it is not surprising that everybody knows everybody's business. Gossip mongers and story creators are all too common in such a closed community. In this setting, Agatha Christie brings in some interesting set of characters - old spinsters, widows, eccentric, spirited, and manipulative men and women. As always, her characters are a vibrant lot.

This is the first time that we are introduced to Christie's celebrated lady detective - the old Miss Jane Marple. Miss Marple who has made it her hobby to observe human nature rarely misses out on the important happenings in St. Mary Mead. She is sharp-witted and shrewd, and although she is no professional, it is no easy matter to delude her.

Having read books of the Poirot series, it was surprising for me to be introduced to a strikingly different detective (if I may use that word for Miss Marple). Whereas Poirot is an uncommonly brilliant detective, Miss Maple is more ordinary and reachable. In contrast to the strict professionalism demonstrated in Poirot, here is an ordinary old lady with her powers of observation and a decent deductive mind who solves a murder mystery which the local police fail to solve. What is interesting here is that she doesn't do anything actively to gather evidence; she only acts upon the evidence that was gathered and thrown her way by others.

At the onset, the story held my interest. I generally enjoyed the presentation of the incidents and characters in a tightly woven plotline. There is a fair amount of suspense from the point of murder that takes place at the Vicarage. Incident characters and events served as red herrings so the reader wouldn't guess the criminal before being revealed. All was good until I got to the end. With many twists and turns, the truth when revealed was quite the ordinary. I guessed it way before and was quite firm on my conviction until the author quite deliberately created confusion. That's what I call cheating. :)

It was odd how suddenly Miss Marple shines. When all the avenues of finding the murderer are exhausted, she comes forward and sums up methodically how the crime was planned and committed as if she had been in confidence with the criminals and being party to the crime. I found this brilliant summing up a little too good to be true. To begin with, the story is told by the Vicar. For most of the part, he plays the armature detective alongside the police inspectors. They gather evidence and all are passed to Miss Marple through the Vicar. Even medical evidence fails but Miss Marple saves the day. I'm sorry but that didn't quite agree with me.

Nevertheless, I cannot say I didn't enjoy the story. That is something you can't say when it comes to an Agatha Christie murder mystery. But to speak the truth, this work didn't rise to my expectation. I wasn't entirely drawn in. I think I was at the beginning, but slowly and especially toward the end, I lost my enthusiasm. The ending was a slap in my face and I still can feel the pain. It is sad to say this, but in truth, I was somewhat disappointed.