Miss Marple Hits the Beach: A Caribbean Mystery | 1964

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"Do you think a murderer ought to be a happy man?"

Miss Marple coughed. "Well, they usually have been, in my experience." 

"I don't suppose your experience has gone very far," said Mr. Rafiel. 

In this assumption, as Miss Marple could have told him, he was wrong. But she forbore to contest his statement. Gentlemen, she knew, did not like to be put right in their facts." 

- A Caribbean Mystery, p. 113

The Sum of It: 

Nephew Raymond really is so very generous to his Aunt Jane. In this book, one of Agatha's last few featuring Miss Marple, our little old lady of mystery is quite out of her element at a tropical Caribbean resort, where Nephew Raymond has dispatched her for her health. Back home, everybody from the ladies down the street to Scotland Yard know of her prowess as a detective, but here, she's just a "fluffy old lady" who knits and prattles on about the weather. 

That is, until another elderly visitor to the resort drops dead, presumably of heart failure, until Miss Marple and the resort's doctor figure out that he didn't actually have any heart problems, and the young lady who cleans his room points out that the heart pills on his bathroom sink that substantiated the "heart failure" diagnosis were never there before, and actually belonged to another guest. The day of his death, the old fella had been talking loudly to Miss Marple about a murderer he had a snapshot of, but just when he pulled it out of his wallet he saw someone behind Miss Marple and shoved it back in and changed the subject #MYSTERY. The old man's death, and subsequent murder investigation, put everyone on edge, especially the hotel's proprietress, Molly Kendal. 

When Molly, who's been having nightmares, finds another person connected to the case with a knife in her back, things go from bad to worse. At this point, despite people constantly dismissing her, only Miss Marple can figure out what's going on, and she enlists the island's other most senior resident, Mr. Rafiel, to add some credibility to her deductions. They do the math, and come down to the surprising fact of the real killer not a moment too soon!

The YOA Treatment: 

Part of the delight of a Miss Marple book is observing her in her element, the small town, country life, where her constant memory of the oddities of neighbors makes her crime solving ability unparalleled. So, this book, set in a random tropical setting, feels a bit out of the wheelhouse, like one of those newer Nancy Drew books written by Carolyn Keene's ghostwriter where Nancy and her pals zoom around a lake on jetskis. That said, this one was stronger than I was afraid it was going to be, in terms of the mystery! I thought I remembered the killer from seeing the television version of A Caribbean Mystery (which is actually pretty good!), but the book still held my interest and kept me turning the pages til my hunches were confirmed! 

There were a lot more aspects of this book that felt like callbacks to Miss Marple's Victorian upbringing than I remember in others, from her lamenting a woman on the island who doesn't present herself as well as she "ought to", and how she really ought to marry again, to some unfortunate lingo and characterization of the people of color who live on the island #CRINGEWORTHY. Both Agatha and Miss Marple were getting on up there in age by the time A Caribbean Mystery was published, so perhaps that explains some of it. 

While this isn't my favorite Miss Marple, I was pleased to see Agatha could still spin quite a yarn as we move into the later years of her career. 

Bon voyage!

- E. 

The Five Star Experience: At Bertram's Hotel | 1965

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"Inside, if this was the first time you had visited Bertram's, you felt, almost with alarm, that you had reentered a vanished world. Time had gone back. You were in Edwardian England once more." 

-At Bertram's Hotel, p. 2

The Sum of It:
I'm back with Miss Marple this weekend - and it's been such a treat! Miss Marple's niece, Joan (married to the regularly-referenced nephew Raymond West), wants to give Auntie Jane a bit of a vacay. Joan asks Jane where she would like to go, and Miss Marple answers straight away: SEND ME TO BERTRAM'S! Apparently Miss Marple visited this classy establishment as a teenager and half wants to relive the good old days and half is just plain curious if it's still as great as she remembers.

So off she goes to Bertram's, where the staff keeps the old fashioned lights burning bright by offering traditional English delicacies such as seed cake and REAL muffins (there is a great deal of truly delightful talk about the distinctions between American and English muffins), maids with caps, and a host of old timers to give the place character. Miss Marple happily runs into old pal Lady Selina Hazy and the two are happy to sit and eat the top notch seed cake and have a good gossip. And there's plenty to gossip about, especially when the uber-famous Lady Bess Sedgwick saunters in one day. Lady Bess has an astounding history of every kind of adventure, from being in the French resistance to saving children from burning houses to having a race car driving boy toy.

Lady Selina and Miss Marple's gossip is further fueled by the appearance at Bertram's of Lady Bess's estranged daughter, Elvira, and the bombshell that Bess and Elvira maybe both have it going on with aforementioned racing driver, Ladislaus Malinowski #drama. Elvira runs around morbidly talking about what happens to her money when she dies, Bess discovers her first husband is working at the hotel, and the Bertram residents are further shocked when said ex-husband is shot as he attempted to shield Elvira from a would-be killer! Add to the mix a string of robberies and a befuddled Canon Pennyfather who may or may not be involved in them and Bertram's has quite the mystery to solve!

The YOA Treatment:
At Bertram's Hotel is by no means Dame Agatha's most fantastic novel (something we have been running into a lot recently...), however, its immense charm comes from Agatha's attention to detail and setting the scene of a location you can genuinely believe Miss Marple would want to revisit. Agatha spends a great deal of time describing the hotel's staff, fantastic tea spread, accommodation of American and English visitors, and attentive staff. Even the chair options at Bertram's get a shoutout:

"There was a general appearance of rich red velvet and plushy cosiness. The armchairs were not of this time and age. They were well above the level of the floor, so that rheumatic old ladies had not to struggle in an undignified manner in order to get to their feet."

After reading this book, more than anything I was dying to stay at a real life Bertram's. Apparently, Agatha is thought to have based Bertram's on Brown's Hotel in London (somewhere she regularly visited). This makes sense because you can feel Agatha writing from her own experience in Bertram's.

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At Bertram's Hotel is a terrific read for when you want to be transported to the cozy, plush atmosphere of a stellar hotel (a la The Grand Budapest Hotel), and possible get a glimpse into Agatha Christie's own memories.

-A.

The Real Housewives of St. Mary Mead: The Murder at the Vicarage | 1930

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"If I were at any time to set out on a career of deceit, it would be of Miss Marple that I should be afraid."
- Leonard Clement, The Murder at the Vicarage, p. 194

The Sum of It:
This week we finally joined the host of delightful characters in the tiny village of St. Mary Mead in their crime adventures with #DameAgatha's first full-length novel "starring" Miss Jane Marple. We say "starring" because, while Miss Marple does in fact do the majority of the crime solving, the events of The Murder at the Vicarage actually unfold through the eyes (and narration) of the lovable, middle-aged vicar, Leonard Clement.

Leonard lives in St. Mary Mead with his MUCH younger wife (#cradlerobber), hysterically named Griselda (NOTE: Griselda has become one of our most beloved Agatha characters! See more about her below), and his teenage nephew, Dennis. The three are a fairly merry trio: Griselda loves the  gossip (#teaandscandal), Dennis loves the local bigwig's daughter, Lettice Protheroe, and Leonard loves to sit back and watch it all happen. Old Leonard's life get a bit more exciting when he stumbles upon the local bigwig's wife, Anne Protheroe, making out with young, local hottie/misunderstood artist, Lawrence Redding. Things get even MORE interesting when Leonard comes home one day to find Anne's cranky old husband, Lucias, #MURDERED in his study (and bleeding on the carpets, so rude)!

Just as the investigation gets underway, Lawrence Redding confesses! Then Anne Protheroe confesses! Everyone can't wait to confess! But, of course, it can't be that tidy. Their confessions don't fit in with the facts of the crime, literally everyone in St. Mary Mead had some sort of beef with dearly departed Lucias (Miss Marple counts 7 suspects), and so the true killer must be found. Who else but Miss Marple to help the police sort out the whole nasty business?

A Brief Interlude to Pay Homage to Griselda:
The pure delight of Vicarage rests in its characters, and in particular, the hilarious interactions between Leonard and Griselda Clement. Leonard first describes his wife thusly:

"My wife's name is Griselda - a highly suitable name for a parson's wife. But there the suitability ends. She is not in the least meek."

He goes on to recount how they had a whirlwind romance, she had loads of boyfriends, but chose him in the end because, in her words, "It's so much nicer to be a secret and delightful sin to anybody than to be a feather in his cap." Griselda hosts "tea and scandal" group with all the village biddies on Wednesday afternoons at 4:30 (Miss Marple included!), is proudly sitting for one of Lawrence Redding's paintings (she likes to tease that she sits in the nude), and is more than once called upon for Nephew Amusing Parties. Griselda is pure delight and her witty banter with Leonard is very reminiscent of the Tommy and Tuppence relationship that we also love so much!

The YOA Treatment:
With this story we get our first real introduction to Miss Marple in her natural habitat, the village busybody with keen observational skills and a tendency to expect the worst of people. After long familiarity with Miss Marple as a beloved figure in fiction, it was interesting to be reminded that not everyone finds her nosiness charming, with many of her neighbors talking about her with a verbal eye roll. By the time the mystery is solved, many of her fellow villagers have developed a bit more respect for her skill and nuance, but it was good to be reminded that she's not just the sweet old lady we get an impression of from the tv adaptations. (We also meet Nephew Raymond who is basically an early 20th century hipster, all snobbery and boredom, kind of hilarious).

Agatha seemed to take particular pleasure in writing Miss Marple, and her readers found a connection with her new character as well. Vicarage is considered one of Agatha's best works and even her contemporary, Dorothy L. Sayers, wrote to #DameAgatha to give her approval: "Dear old Tabbies [speaking of Miss Marple and her old lady cronies] are the only possible right kind of female detective and Miss M is lovely...I think this is the best you have done - almost."

-A. & E.