Nursery Rhyme Nightmares: A Pocket Full of Rye | 1953

(image from here)

"If wonder--I suppose it would be great presumption on my part--if only I could assist you in my very humble and, I'm afraid, very feminine way. This is a wicked murderer, Inspector Neele, and the wicked should not go unpunished." -Miss Marple, A Pocket Full of Rye, p. 107

The Sum of It:
My read this week turned out to be a very unexpected favorite! A Pocket Full of Rye is our third Miss Marple read in a row, and just continued to solidify my love for Agatha's elderly sleuth. A Pocket Full of Rye begins with an awful lot of death. The Fortescue family are shocked when patriarch businessman Rex Fortescue dies after a violent illness shortly after having his morning tea at the office. It turns out to be a case of #POISONING, and unlikely that he was poisoned in the office! Inspector Neele is on the case, and travels to casa de Fortescue (aka Yewtree Lodge) to see if perhaps old Rex was poisoned at breakfast? Rex's much younger second wife, Adele, emerges as a likely suspect, as she inherits quite a large amount of cash from dead Rex, and has a not so secret boyfriend on the side. HOWEVER, Inspector Neele has to cross her off his list when she turns up #POISONED as well post afternoon tea! Fortescue sons business-minded Percival and recently-returned prodigal Lancelot (yes, those are their for real names) and their wives are rattled further when the family maid, Gladys, ALSO turns up dead! And with a clothes pin on her nose...#mystery!

This last death ushers Miss Marple on to the scene. She literally just shows up on the Yewtree Lodge doorstep to discuss the Gladys death, having been the one to train young Gladys as a maid back in the day. She feels a sense of responsibility to bring her young protégée's killer to justice, and Inspector Neele is grateful for her help. He recognizes her ability to act as unassuming confident to the household. With their powers combined, they do eventually get to the bottom of who is doing all the killing at Yewtree Lodge.

The YOA Treatment:
Two interesting points emerge from A Pocket Full of Rye. The first is that Agatha has once again used a nursery rhyme theme as a plot device, and actually does so quite well this time. This set of murders seems to be follow a Mother Goose rhyme. Rex Fortescue had found some dead blackbirds in his dinner, and on his desk (seemingly a practical joke), and then upon his death, was found with rye in his pocket. His wife, Adele, was killed after "eating bread and honey," and maid Gladys was found dead "in the garden hanging out the clothes." As with other Agatha novels with a nursery rhyme theme ("Hickory, Dickory, Dock", "One, Two, Buckle my Shoe," etc.), Miss Marple and Inspector Neele must determine if the killer is just nutso, or if there is a hidden meaning behind the killings.

A second theme I found particularly interesting from this book is Miss Marple's vengeful attitude toward solving this crime. She is troubled and deeply angered by the way Gladys was demeaned after death with the clothes pin put on her nose. She describes the killer several times in her discussions with Inspector Neele as someone who must be very, very wicked. Inspector Neele comments to himself that he wouldn't have expected someone of Miss Marple demeanor to be so vindictive, and yet, understands her desire to seek justice for someone from, as she says kindly, "her part of the country." I shall not spoil the ending, but rest assured that Miss Marple gets her "surge of triumph" in the end.

-A.