Miss Marple's Final Cases (2024)

I have now come to the end of my Miss Marple reading marathon this year, with this final volume, “Miss Marple’s Final Cases.” Although I often struggle with short stories, this is a fun collection, with a mix of both stories which feature Miss Marple and a couple of stand-alone stories thrown in. The stories included are: Sanctuary (featuring the wonderful Bunch Harmon, well known from other Miss Marple books). Strange Jest (in which Miss Marple helps a young couple find an inheritance), The Tape-Measure Murder (set in Miss Marple’s own St Mary Mead), The Case of the Caretaker (where the wonderful Dr Haydock brings a frail Miss Marple a mystery to solve to help revitalise her), The Case of the Perfect Maid (bringing together Miss Marple and her attempts to clear the name of a local girl in service), a delightful tale called, Miss Marple Tells a Story (in which she is asked to help solve a tricky murder and clear someone’s name), The Dressmaker’s Doll (one of the two stories in this collection which does not feature Miss Marple, but involves a dress maker’s establishment and a rather creepy doll), In a Glass Darkly (another stand-alone story involving a slightly other worldly event) and Greenshaw’s Folly (featuring Miss Marple’s loving nephew, the author Raymond West, and a tricky will).

This is an enjoyable collection, which includes lots of familiar characters and settings. As always, Miss Marple is her indomitable self – a great believer in justice and in her ability to draw parallels between those suspected of crimes and local ne’er do wells that she has come across in village life. She is often consulted by others and seems to enjoy her natural crime solving ability and the compliments paid her when she helps out. I am saddened I have come to the end of the books, but I know I will be re-reading them again.

"Se cunosc cazuri când un om rănit mortal s-a ridicat singur și a mers o bună bucată de drum ca și cum nimic nu s-ar fi întâmplat, pentru ca după cinci, zece minute să leșine instantaneu. Meșterii de odinioară erau foarte inventivi când trebuiau să conceapă ascunzători. E ca și cum ai ascunde un secret într-un alt secret."
"- Pur și simplu, dacă trăiești într-un sătuc, așa ca mine, ajungi să cunoști și să înveți despre natura umană. "

I was meant to read this as the final book in my Miss Marple Marathon in 2017, but somehow I never did.
So after a Christmas of numerous Poirots on tv, I thought I’d finally finish my challenge, 13 months late. And very enjoyable it was to.
This book of short stories showcases both how clever an author Agatha Christie was and also how enjoyable Miss Marple stories are (ok I know that was badly constructed sentence , to end with "are" ).
As I've said before Miss Marple for me IS Joan Hickson, and so every time I read the words Miss Marple I see Joan Hickson in my head and somehow it makes the story even more enjoyable as i imagine her eyes twinkling as she teases whichever policeman is trying to follow her wonderfully rambling stories.
Just sheer magic, so read, enjoy and just allow the magic to flow through you.

I adored Miss Marple as a teenager (what does that say about me?), and I read most of them during high school. I remember studying her works in college too, but all of these were read in the past, and I'll be reading them again soon in the full-collection of all her short stories where I'll write a much more detailed review.

That said, Marple is the kind of heroine we can easily get annoyed by or gain great admiration for... she's got to be the basis for Columbo, or she and Poirot combined. I can't recommend these enough... if you are comfy with 75+ year old mysteries and some of the potentially inflammatory language that could appear, you can focus mostly on the clever plots and ability to turn them into thrilling moves and tv series.

Genius when it comes to plot architecture!

Not a bad selection of stories, but not the best if you're looking for Miss Marple shorts.
Two of the stories don't have any Jane in them at all, in fact.
BUT. They are both really good shorts, so it's still a win.
If you're looking for a good collection of Miss Marple shorts, I'd recommend The Thirteen Problems or Miss Marple: The Complete Short Stories.

Sanctuary
A man dies from a gunshot wound in the parson's wife's arms, whispering the word sanctuary with his dying breath.
A little dramatic, no?

Strange Jest
This is a story of a rich uncle who leaves his niece and nephew (who want to get married) to hunt for his fortune after he dies. To be honest it felt a bit like Manx Gold because in that one you have two cousins who want to get married but have to hunt for the treasure that their rich old relative leaves for them, as well. However, that one is more of a real treasure hunt with clues, and this one is that he didn't trust banks and they're just hunting around in the house for what the crazy old fart did with all of his money.

Miss Marple inserts herself into the hunt in her fluffy old lady way, and then shocks the young couple when she solves the mystery for them.
How?
Because this guy reminds her of another old man who liked Dad jokes back in St. Mary Mead.
Village life, bitches.

Tape-Measure Murder
Not my favorite Marple.
And yet, is any Marple a bad Marple?
So. This one deals with a woman whose husband is the main suspect in her murder, mainly because he isn't showing the appropriate amount of emotion.

The Case of the Caretaker
Miss Marple, recovered from a bad bout of the flu, was feeling depressed.
I guess that's a thing?
Anyway, it took a lot out of her and she'd started to fall into a funk. So her good friend and physician, Doctor Haydock, brings her a file with a case he recently had so she can solve the whodunnit.

The Case of the Perfect Maid
Miss Marple knows.
She's like Santa Clause or something when it comes to who has been bad or good, and her friends and neighbors would do well to listen to her advice when it comes to the hiring and firing of servants.
Or employees as we call them these days.

A sweet but flighty domestic named Gladys is fired after being suspected of stealing jewelry from the two sisters that employed her. While they didn't outright accuse her, the taint of scandal is enough to ruin her chances of future employment. Luckily for Gladys, her cousin is Miss Marple's maid. And she pleads her silly cousin's case to her beloved little old lady.

Miss Marple Tells a Story
I loved the way Miss Marple narrated the story in a hilarious humblebrag kind of way.
When a lawyer brings his client to Jane and asks her to listen to the story of the events leading up to him finding his wife dead in their hotel room, the client in question thinks it's a waste of time.
However, just as her lawyer friend hoped, the fluffy old lady manages to see a few things that everyone else missed and ends up saving his bacon.

The Dressmaker's Doll
This is maybe the creepiest story Agatha Christie ever wrote.
Of course any story written about a haunted doll is going to scare the sh*t out of me. That's my thing.
Dolls. Ugh. Brrr!

In a Glass Darkly
Once again, Christie has her heroine getting strangled by the man who claims to love her.
What was wrong with you, Agatha?!
A young man has a vision of a beautiful woman being strangled in the room next to his while at a house party.
Can he save her from her fate?

Greenshaw's Folly
Raymond West, Miss Marple's lovable nephew, brings home a mystery to his Aunt Jane.
While trying to entertain a friend from the city with the local sight of an oddly built local house, he stumbles into a family drama and a murder-to-be decades in the making.

If for some reason you are looking for Marple shorts that are not part of the Tuesday Night Club, then this would be great. Otherwise, I'd suggest trying to find either of the books linked at the top of the review.

Miss Marple's Final Cases and Two Other Stories (Miss Marple #14), Agatha Christie
Miss Marple's Final Cases and Two Other Stories is a short story collection written by Agatha Christie and first published in the UK by Collins Crime Club in October 1979. The book contains eight short stories.
List of stories:
Sanctuary
Strange Jest
Tape-Measure Murder
The Case of the Caretaker
The Case of the Perfect Maid
Miss Marple Tells a Story
The Dressmaker's Doll
In a Glass Darkly
Greenshaw's Folly
تاریخ نخستین خوانش: روز دوم ماه آگوست سال 2017 میلادی
عنوان: آخرین پرونده خانم مارپل؛ نویسنده: آگاتا کریستی؛
برخی داستانهای این کتاب در کتاب سه موش کور نیز چاپ شده اند. ا. شربیانی

They are all good, but I love Miss Marple the most

EXCERPT: The Vicar's wife came around the corner of the vicarage with her arms full of chrysanthemums. A good deal of rich garden soil was attached to her strong brogue shoes and a few fragments of earth were adhering to her nose, but of that fact she was perfectly unconscious.

Christened by her optimistic parents Diana, Mrs Harmon had become Bunch at an early age for somewhat obvious reasons and the name had stuck to her ever since. Clutching the chrysanthemums, she made her way through the gate to the churchyard, and so to the church door.

The November air was mild and damp. Clouds scudded across the sky with patches of blue here and there. Inside, the church was dark and cold; it was unheated except at service times.

'Brrrrrh,' said Bunch expressively. 'I'd better get on with this quickly. I don't want to die of cold.'

ABOUT THIS BOOK: A collection of Miss Marple mysteries, plus some bonus short stories...First, the mystery man in the church with a bullet-wound...then, the riddle of a dead man's buried treasure...the curious conduct oif a caretaker after a fatal riding accident...the corpse and a tape-measure...the girl framed for theft...and the suspect accused of stabbing his wife with a dagger. Six gripping cases with one thing in common - the astonishing deductive powers of Miss Marple.

MY THOUGHTS: Is there anything I could say about Christie's Miss Marple that hasn’t been said before? I adore 'Aunt Jane', and this collection of short stories was new to me. Although it appears that Aunt Jane is becoming frailer, her mind is as sharp as ever.

June Whitfield played Miss Marple in the BBC Radio version I listened to, with a whole cast of other supporting narrators. And while I loved it, the sound effects are magnificent, you do miss out on a lot of extraneous details, which means that at some point in the future I will read the book.

THE AUTHOR: Agatha Christie is the best-selling author of all time. She wrote eighty crime novels and story collections, fourteen plays, and several other books. Her books have sold roughly four billion copies and have been translated into 45 languages. She is the creator of two of the most enduring figures in crime literature-Hercule Poirot and Miss Jane Marple-and author of The Mousetrap, the longest-running play in the history of modern theatre.

Agatha Mary Clarissa Miller was born in Torquay, Devon, England, U.K., as the youngest of three. The Millers had two other children: Margaret Frary Miller (1879–1950), called Madge, who was eleven years Agatha's senior, and Louis Montant Miller (1880–1929), called Monty, ten years older than Agatha.

During the First World War, she worked at a hospital as a nurse; later working at a hospital pharmacy, a job that influenced her work, as many of the murders in her books are carried out with poison.

Her first novel, The Mysterious Affair at Styles, came out in 1920. During her first marriage, Agatha published six novels, a collection of short stories, and a number of short stories in magazines.

In late 1926, Agatha's husband, Archie, revealed that he was in love with another woman, Nancy Neele, and wanted a divorce. On 8 December 1926 the couple quarreled, and Archie Christie left their house, Styles, in Sunningdale, Berkshire, to spend the weekend with his mistress at Godalming, Surrey. That same evening Agatha disappeared from her home, leaving behind a letter for her secretary saying that she was going to Yorkshire. Her disappearance caused an outcry from the public, many of whom were admirers of her novels. Despite a massive manhunt, she was not found for eleven days.

In 1930, Christie married archaeologist Max Mallowan (Sir Max from 1968) after joining him in an archaeological dig. Their marriage was especially happy in the early years and remained so until Christie's death in 1976.

Christie frequently used familiar settings for her stories. Christie's travels with Mallowan contributed background to several of her novels set in the Middle East. Other novels (such as And Then There Were None) were set in and around Torquay, where she was born. Christie's 1934 novel Murder on the Orient Express was written in the Hotel Pera Palace in Istanbul, Turkey, the southern terminus of the railway. The hotel maintains Christie's room as a memorial to the author. The Greenway Estate in Devon, acquired by the couple as a summer residence in 1938, is now in the care of the National Trust.

Christie often stayed at Abney Hall in Cheshire, which was owned by her brother-in-law, James Watts. She based at least two of her stories on the hall: the short story The Adventure of the Christmas Pudding, and the novel After the Funeral. Abney Hall became Agatha's greatest inspiration for country-house life, with all the servants and grandeur which have been woven into her plots.

During the Second World War, Christie worked in the pharmacy at University College Hospital of University College, London, where she acquired a knowledge of poisons that she put to good use in her post-war crime novels.

To honour her many literary works, she was appointed Commander of the Order of the British Empire in the 1956 New Year Honours. The next year, she became the President of the Detection Club.

DISCLOSURE: I listened to the BBC Radio full cast drama version of Miss Marple's Final Cases, with Miss Marple played by June Whitfield, published by BBC Worldwide Ltd, via OverDrive. All opinions expressed in this review are entirely my own personal opinions.

Please refer to my Goodreads.com profile page or the about page on sandysbookaday.wordpress.com for an explanation of my rating system. This review and others are also published on my webpage https://sandysbookaday.wordpress.com/...

Book 14 of the Miss Marple Challenge. This one is a set of short stories, six of the “original” final cases, an additional Miss Marple story “Greenshaw’s Folly” and two non-Marple stories, “In A Glass Darkly” and “the Dressmaker’s Doll”. The edition I have has only the original six but I dug out two others from other Christie short story collections that I have so it’s sort of a “cheat” marking this one as “read” since I have missed “Dressmaker’s Doll”.

The last six of Miss Marple’s cases were not restricted to murder alone. Though the majority of the stories (four of the six) do involve murders, there is also a hidden treasure (in fact more than one) and robbery in the other two which were as much fun as the murder stories and Miss Marple shows us that not all hidden treasures are “hidden” and not all the obvious suspects the actual murderers. In these we find ourselves back in St Mary Mead as well as Chipping Cleghorn (where a murder was announced) with old friends, the Harmons (Bunch, particularly), Jane Helier (from the Thirteen Problems), Doctor Haydock, Mrs Price-Ridley, Raymond and Joan, and of course Tiglath Pileser (though he makes only a brief appearance). The story I most enjoyed in the collection was not a murder one to my own surprise but the “Perfect Maid”, which was such fun―I remembered the solution from a previous read but wouldn’t have guessed otherwise. And one can’t help but love Doctor Haydock for knowing just the right medicine for Miss Marple, a case to solve when she needs it!

Of the other two stories, “Greenshaw’s Folly” was enjoyable, pretty complicated really but seemed to me just a little bit far-fetched (with a plot detail was quite similar to another story). “In a Glass Darkly” was certainly the creepiest of the lot, not exactly a supernatural story but with a touch of the uncanny that made it very enjoyable indeed.

This was a great collection to end the Miss Marple challenge. I’ve really enjoyed reading the books chronologically. Many of the mysteries were excellent―the puzzles keeping me guessing (A Murder is Announced, The Body in the Library, 4:50 from Paddington, Sleeping Murder, among them) but there was so much more to them as well. I also enjoyed the social changes taking place with each of the books, Miss Marple’s reactions to them, the characters (that AC herself was a great observer of human nature stands out in so many), and even the changes in Miss Marple herself who (when I read the first book this time) was so very different to the impression I had of her and changed as the books progressed. The books also make (to an extent) quite a strong statement against stereotyping on account of age―Miss Marple mayn’t be physically strong (a bit of a stereotype in itself) but her mind is as sharp as ever and where everyone else fails, Miss M always has the right answer. This has been a great challenge that I thoroughly enjoyed.

‘Miss Marple’s Final Cases’ is the first Agatha Christie that I have read and it’s one that I happened across rather than chose to read. ‘Final Cases’ is a collection of six short Miss Marple stories along with two additional and somewhat eerie stories of the supernatural. This collection was originally published in 1979 but the individual stories date variously from the 1930s to the 1950s.

Miss Marple is of course and enduringly delightful, charming, memorable and likeable literary creation and the stories are compelling, stylishly written, entertaining and satisfyingly complete in themselves. When compared to the Conan Doyle created Sherlock Holmes short stories and novels (the only other classic literary sleuth I am familiar with) – the likeable Miss Marple is almost the antithesis of the wonderful but equally dislikeable Sherlock Holmes. The Miss Marple stories here do feel by comparison much lighter, less mysterious, less dark and ultimately, less thrilling than those concerning Sherlock Holmes. Clearly Conan Doyle was writing some decades earlier than Christie about a very different kind of main protagonist, set in a very different world and creating a very different kind of mystery – so from that perspective, it is perhaps a little erroneous to compare the two.

The stories non-Miss Marple stories included here were of a far more eerie and supernatural nature, not too dissimilar to the ghost stories of Susan Hill and were suitably ghostly and chilling in nature.

Having read reviews of this collection of Miss Marple stories, it seems reasonable to view this book as a short, light and enjoyable introduction to the wider world of Agatha Christie and to her more well known, critically acclaimed and endlessly adapted works such as ‘Orient Express, Roger Ackroyd, And Then There Were One, Crooked House, ABC Murders et al. it is these works that I am looking forward to reading and with some expectation of them displaying more depth, complexity and mystery.

2.5* but honestly, I couldn't make myself round it up to 3...

It was a snoozefest. I kinda felt like pages were missing from my book!?? I mean, short stories, okay, but damn.

Let me show you what it felt like.

Miss Christie: "There's a butler with a pink umbrella who has a tabby cat and smokes two cigarettes a day. Who is the killer?"
Me: …
Me, 2 hours later: …
Me, on my dying day: f*ck it, I give up. HOW WOULD I KNOW FROM INFORMATION THAT IRRELEVANT!!?!!!

Yeah. That's what it was like. Stories that were rushed and sloppy, details that were just pointless and the last two stories didn't even feature Miss Marple!?!?

The collection includes 6 Miss Marple stories and two non-Marple stories. The six Marple stories were light and charming, like a pleasant summer evening, and I really enjoyed them. 'The Dressmaker's Doll' is a creepy tale, and 'In a Glass Darkly' was an interesting tale of psychic phenomena.
Sanctuary - My favourite story: tells how Budge, the vicar's wife, finds a dying man in the church, and works to understand and fulfill his last wish.
Strange Jest -Two young people are the heirs to their jokester uncle, who left them something, they are sure of it, they just don't know what it is. I should have solved it, but I didn't.
Tape-Measure Murder - A dressmaker arrives for a fitting appointment, only to find her client is dead. Who dunnit? Miss Marple knows.
The Case of the Caretaker- Miss Marple is bed-ridden and her doctor gives her a written testimony about a series of events and leaves her to solve the mystery of what occurred in a large estate between a young husband, his wife, and the former staff.
The Case of the Perfect Maid - Two elderly sisters (one an invalid) hire the perfect maid - uncomplaining and efficient. But is she as perfect as she seems?
Miss Marple Tells a Story - Miss Marple is engaged by a lawyer whose client is almost certain to hang for a murder he did not commit. Will Miss Marple be able to spot a clue that saves him? She will.
The Dressmaker's Doll - Creepy tale of a doll who seems alive, and moves around the rooms, apparently on her own steam, freaking out the workers in the dressmaker's establishment.
In a Glass Darkly- Set during and after World War I, this tale of a man who foresees a murder, and persuades the victim to separate from her fiance has two surprises in the end.

على الرغم من عنوان الكتاب (والذي اختاره الناشر ليلائم تاريخ نشرها حيث جمعت
القصص من مجلات قديمة لتنشر بعد وفاة الكاتبة ) فهو مناسب ليكون البداية في دخول
عالم أجاثا وللتعرف على الآنسة ماربل التي تعد من أهم الشخصيات في قصص كريستي
ففي هذه المجموعة مقدمة تعريفية عن ماربل عائلتها حياتها عام ظهورها
وتحولها لأشهر الشخصيات الخيالية.. القصص التي حققت فيها وحتى مخطط تفصيلي
وتخيلي لقريتها سينت ميري ميد
تضم المجموعة 8 قصص ..6 قصص بطلتها ماربل
وبما أن العزيزة ماربل خبيرة بالنفس البشرية وخباياها فحل تلك القضايا كان بغاية السهولة
القصتان الأخيرتان غريبتان إحداهما تحمل عنوان دمية الخياطة ذكرتني بالعروس المرعبة تشاكي
القصة الأخيرة جريمة في المرآة تذكرت قراءتي لها سابقا رغم عدم تذكري لباقي المجموعة
قصص جميلة استمتعت بقراءتي لها كما العادة مع كريستي

O lectura usoara si relaxanta: 9 povesti frumoase, dintre care 7 cu Miss Marple in actiune si 2 povesti super creepy, ceea ce m-a dus cu gandul la povestile lui Daphne du Maurier.

What a pleasure this was to read! I Loved the short stories and I had a good chuckle at some of the conversations between characters. Very funny in parts And mysterious in others. I particularly liked the last two stories for their creepy elements (Halloween vibes).
A very enjoyable read!

The Miss Marple stories are OK, although I really prefer the full length novels. What spoils the book for me are the two final stories, sans Miss Marple. I don't at all care for this sort of supernatural horror stuff that doesn't make sense in the first place, let alone in this collection.

Short stories are always more difficult for me than novels, weirdly. These were very good and easy to consume. I must admit that 'The Dressmaker's Doll’ was particularly creepy...

3.5 stars - I definitely prefer The Thirteen Problems as a collection, but Miss Marple is always a charming detective for a short story

1.8 stars
این مجموعه شامل ۹ داستان کوتاه معمایی هست که با شخصیت خانم مارپل
روایت می شود که اکثرا دارای خلاهای روایی هست به طوری که عملا امکان ارتکاب جنایت به آن شیوه وجود نداره مگر اینکه با یک سری انسان احمق و کم هوش رو به رو باشی،،در بعصی از داستان ها، انسان هایی را میبینید که عمدا کاری میکنن که در مظان اتهام قرار میگیرند ولی قاتل نیستند و اصلا نگران این نیستند که ممکنه به عنوان قاتل دستگیر بشند و اعدام در انتظارشون باشه که این مسلئه منطق رو از داستان حذف میکنه.. عنصری که در داستان های جنایی رکن اصلی محسوب میشه
حماقت گرینشاو ۳ ستاره
محراب ۲.۵ ستاره
شوخی عجیب ۱ ستاره
هراس ۱.۵ ستاره
سرایدار ۱ ستاره
خدمتکار بی عیب و نقص ۲.۵ ستاره
قتل در هتل کراون ۲ ستاره
عروسک مرموز صفر
تصویری در شیشه ۳.۵ ستاره

Namanya saja kumpulan cerita, ada yg bagus dan biasa saja. Dua cerita terakhir berbau mistis.

“Some commit murder, some get mixed up in murders, others have murder thrust upon them. My Aunt Jane comes into the third category.”

Generalnie beznadzieja i daje 2,5/5 gwiazdek, bo szkoda gadać

The second one is soo good ❤ and I'm really attached to Miss marple more than Poirot🌚 sorry🤦‍♀️☻

POSLEDNJI SLUČAJEVI GOSPOĐICE MARPL i sabrane priče-AGATA KRISTI
✒️"-To je umetnost-kazala je primadona-platiti cenu,patiti,trpeti,i na kraju ne samo doći do spoznaje,već imati snage i da se vratiš na početak i da povratiš izgubljenu lepotu čistog,dečjeg srca."
✒️"Kad neko živi u selu kao što ja živim,ima priliku da dobro upozna ljudsku prirodu."
🍂Ukupno 19 priča,objavljivanih u periodu od 1926.do 1958.
🍂 Iako je širok vremenski okvir i priče su podeljene u dva dela,zbirka je sasvim ujednačena.
🍂Prvih 11 su priče u kojoj nema ni gospođice Marpl niti ikoga od uobičajenih Agatinih detektiva.
🍂Upravo te priče su najzanimljivije,jer imaju taj misteriozni spooky vibe. Tu su uklete kuće,i duhovi,Pan i njegova frula i svašta još
🍂Drugi deo su priče s najsimpatičnijom bakicom ikada,gospođicom Marpl.
🍂Od njenih slučajeva istakla bih priču Slučaj pazikuće.
🍂Ova pripovetka ima skoro identični zaplet kao roman Beskrajna noć,samo pročišćen i bez predugog uvoda. U ovakvoj formi radnja je mnogo brža i zanimljivija. I nemojte misliti da je priča ista. Agata uspeva da napravi više varijacija na temu,a da se ne ponavlja.
😍😍😍
#7sensesofabook #bookstagram #readingaddict #literature #knjige

This was perfectly what I needed right now. Short and sweet cases with all the comforting quality of Agatha Christie’s writing. Some of them have pretty obvious solutions, others not so, while still others aren’t even mysteries at all but supernatural short stories hidden within this collection, and have absolutely nothing to do with Miss Marple.

Christie just had such an accessible, comforting style of writing that I can’t find in many other writers, even her contemporaries. She might be writing about death and murder and poison and assault, but everything just fills so breezy and like a cozy day in the English countryside. Her stories are also generally concise and to-the-point: everything you need to know is on the page, but it isn’t in your face either so you need to be particularly looking out for it.

Of the actual mystery stories in this collection, perhaps The Tape-Measure Murder or Sanctuary were my favourites. The rest were fine but fairly standard. If you’ve read enough Christie, you probably could make a fairly good guess at the solutions. The Tape-Measure Murder and Sanctuary had a bit more of an oomph to them, having more complex backstories or a standout feature of the murder.

But the stories that I might actually remember most in this collection are the two non-mystery stories: The Dressmaker’s Doll and In A Glass Darkly. I was caught off guard at first by The Dressmaker’s Doll because I expected a mystery to be behind all of this, but then imagine my surprise when no mystery happened and there really was some kind of supernatural phenomenon happening here. In A Glass Darkly toned down the supernatural aspect a bit, but it was still pretty engaging. These made me keen to try out Christie’s non-mystery novels which I have been meaning to read for years and years and still haven’t picked up.

Overall, I rated this at 4 stars mainly because they were just all so darn comforting and enjoyable to read. Definitely a great filler book when you’re in a bit of a reading slump or when you just want something a bit light-hearted but engaging and enjoyable.

And so on to the next of the Agatha Christie collection I was so lucky to find recently. Now I will admit that I am not the greatest fan of the little old lady (I think I was too heavily influenced from the TV series which ran for way more shows than the original books. It got to the point where she would be seen cycling in to a quaint little English village and the bodies would start dropping like files - the thing is no one ever seemed to make the connection!!!).

Anyway I chose this book to see if my opinions were founded or not - and as usual they were not - to a degree. You see this book contains a number of short stories (as well as two which do not appear to have any connection to Miss Marple) which range from murder, to lost fortunes and even jewellery thefts. I guess such stories do not make such gripping TV but at least show other stories rather than a constant stream of deaths.

I will admit that I am still a in doubt of this character since she constantly plays down here ability, uses her connections and names drops and generally claims enfeeblement when really her mind is like a steel trap which apparently misses nothing.

So yes I am still undecided over the character however I thoroughly enjoyed the stories and I must admit I am constantly having to re-evaluate my opinion of Agatha Christie which I think is a good thing

كانت أغاثا كريستي هي روائيتي المفضلة في طفولتي، وكانت مدخلي إلى عالم الرواية.. لم أقرأ لها منذ زمنٍ بعيد، وكنت مترددة بعض الشيء خوفًا مما فعله مرور السنوات والكتب في ذائقتي الأدبية.. وخشية تغيّر صورة كريستي المحبوبة في ذاكرتي، ولكن لحسن الحظ عُدت ولم أندم مقدار ذرّة..

قرأتُ هذه المجموعة القصصية دفعةً واحدة، واستمتعتُ بها جدًّا.
كما استمتعتُ بقراءة الفصل التعريفي بالآنسة العزيزة ماربل الذي أضافته دار الأجيال في مقدّمة الطبعة العربية.

مُتعةٌ خالصة في صفحاتٍ قليلة ، أنصح بها كلّ من يشعرُ بالملل !

I loved this last collection of short stories by Agatha Christie, most of them featuring Miss Jane Marple. She has the cleverest way of looking at crimes, and relating them back to people she knows or knew in the village of Hogsmeade, or in her own family. There were two other more eerie shorts - one about a doll that seemed to move on its own, and another about a man who saw a reflection in a mirror. Great stories.

The only thing that really stood out for me were the supernatural stories. They aren't the best ones in the genre, but it's refreshing to see something so different than what Agatha Christie's usually does. The stories that involved crime or murder are just very dull and confusing in the way they seem to contain so much information crammed up in a few pages.

I usually love Agatha Christie stories — always have since I was pretty young. She was one of the authors that really got me into reading mysteries, after all.

And this book of short stories are equally endearing ... all except two, which aren't Miss Marple mysteries at all. And they aren't really mysteries so much as almost ghost stories ... but because of that they may be the ones that remain most vividly in my mind.

Miss Marple is a spinster and most of her tales have her sitting quietly in some sitting room and after hearing a mystery from someone, she compares it to something that happened in her village of St. Mary Mead — and comes up with the clever solution that no one else does. I especially like the first story in the book, Sanctuary, that features her god daughter Bunch, a vicar's wife who comes across a dying man in the church. But this story too is a bit different from the others. Because Bunch ends up becoming almost the protagonist in the story, she is involved in nearly all the action. Miss Marple is involved, and is likely the one who solves the mystery, but Bunch is really the driving force.

And then there is the story Strange Jest, that reintroduces us to the actress Jane Helier. Jane introduces Miss Marple to a couple, who have a mystery and once again, we're in to the pace, flavor and usual fair that so many of us enjoy from Christie and Miss Marple.

That's how it is with seven of the nine stories in this book. That's probably why the other two stand out. They are very much different from the usual and for all those reasons, the book is a good if surprising read. I didn't like as much the two non-Miss Marple stories, but I'm glad that I read them and this book. If you enjoy Christie, short stories or clever mysteries, this would be a good one to try.