Alternate title: The Tuesday Club Murders
Miss Marple puts her deductive skills to use in thirteen of her most fiendish cases in this short story collection from the reigning matriarch of mystery.
Miss Marple is having a visit from her nephew, the novelist Raymond West; as a game the group each tells a ‘mystery’ and the others try to guess the solution. The game is then played later with a different group at the home of Colonel and Mrs Bantry. It kind of works like a bunch of short stories, each problem cleverly laid out and wrapped up in one chapter.
Aside from Sir Henry, the former Commissioner of Scotland Yard, the other guests are all quite dismissive of the old maid with such a sheltered life, supposing that spending her life in such a serene environment would give an elderly spinster great insight into shady goings-on .
Of course, Miss Marple surprises them all except maybe by her guessing each event outcome correctly by comparing it to village events, outwitting the ubiquitous colonel, ex Scotland Yard chief, a lawyer and a doctor, amongst others.
My thought
Miss Marple, her nephew Raymond and a small collection of others decide to form The Tuesday Club Murders. Everyone brings a story to tell and the others try to solve it. Each chapter is a different story of trickery, misdirection, and murder.
In this stories, Miss Marple's skills of deducting human connections are put to the test as characters relay tales of mystery. She then must come up with the solution before everyone else
I love Miss Marple, and have probably read and re-read all the novels, but I had never read these short stories. The last story is my favorite, even though they're all excellent.
This book has all the hallmarks of Christie's theatrical, chess piece, jigsaw puzzle type novels and is quite immaculately presented here. Her style may not have the grit of modern writers but still has a charm and ingenuity that they lack.
 by Agatha
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