A Caribbean Mystery by Agatha Christie

Miss Marple #10

188 pages

Publisher: Agatha Christie Ltd / Planet Three Publishing

First Published: November 16, 1964

Library

 

Blurb

A Caribbean resort

Strangers thrown together

Is there evil in paradise?

Major Palgrave enjoys an audience, and, in Miss Marple, he discovers a captive audience too polite to walk away. But midway through recounting the tale of a multiple murder, he stops suddenly when something, or someone, catches his eye.

Then, when he’s found dead the following day, Miss Marple suspects that someone wanted to silence the talkative major. Permanently.

Never underestimate Miss Marple

 

Review

Miss Marple is on holiday in the Caribbean, organised and financed by her nephew Raymond West. While her stay certainly works wonders for her rheumatism, Miss Marple is bored…nothing ever happens. Things get a little more interesting when Major Palgrave digs out his wallet to show her the picture of a murderer, only to abort this action when he looks at something behind Miss Marple and appears to panic.

The next day, Major Palgrave is discovered dead and since he was old and was supposed to suffer from high blood pressure, his death is accepted as natural without question from anybody. Except for Miss Marple that is. When not long after a servant at the resort also dies, investigations into both deaths commence.

It’s fair to say that there’s no shortage of suspects in this book. There are many complicated and somewhat dodgy (love) entanglements among the guests, and gossip is rife. Miss Marple is struggling without one of her usual buddies to discuss the circumstances and suspects with. That is until she gets closer to Mr. Rafiel, a very old and filthy rich fellow guest on the island.

I rather liked Mr. Rafiel. He has a very low opinion of people in general and doesn’t care what others think about him. Why should he, given that he is indeed ‘filthy rich’? This quality makes him very open and honest. It also means that he is a good sounding board for Marple as soon as he realises that she isn’t the doddering old lady he first took her for.

It takes a third death for Miss Marple to fully understand what has been going on, and she’s only just in time to prevent a further murder.

I have no doubt that when I listen to the All About Agatha podcast later today, Kemper and Catherine will have criticism about all sorts of developments in this story. And that’s fair enough. How could they possibly rate all of Agatha Christie’s stories if they accepted each of them as absolutely wonderful? I, on the other hand, am on no such mission, which means that I can read these books for enjoyment only, without looking for faults or inconsistencies. As with the previous Christie titles I’ve revisited, I thoroughly enjoyed this book.

I’m having so much fun re-reading these stories. What makes it even better is that even when I do, vaguely, remember whodunnit, I most of the time have no idea how or why that could be possible. Which goes a long way towards explaining why I, who normally doesn’t enjoy re-reads because I already know the story, get so much pleasure from revisiting these mysteries.