Nemesis by Agatha Christie

Miss Marple #12

Publisher: Harper Collins

305 pages

Own/Kindle

 

Blurb

 

A letter from beyond the grave

One last request

An unsolvable crime

When Miss Marple receives a letter from the recently deceased millionaire Jason Rafiel, she’s not sure what to make of it.

Knowing her deductive skills, he challenges her to solve a crime. If she does so, she will inherit £20,000.

The only problem is that he has failed to mention who was involved, or where, and when the crime was committed. Jane Marple is intrigued.

Never underestimate Miss Marple

 

Review

I must be honest and admit that I feel a little conflicted about Nemesis. Let’s start with the positives because they are many.

For me, this was one of Christie’s more ingenious plots. I loved how Marple was spoon-fed information, first to make her intrigued and subsequently to keep her nose pointed in the right direction. This setup did make me wonder if Mr. Rafiel had figured all the answers out for himself before he died and needed Miss Marple to set the record straight because he wouldn’t be around to do so. As much as I like that idea, this is probably a me-thing because no such suggestion is made in the story.

The characters in this story were vivid and the plot intrigued me as much as it fascinated Miss Marple. I couldn’t help rolling my eyes a little when Archdeacon Brabazon declares that he just knew Variety and Michael Rafiel had truly loved each other, but as a plot device and a further step towards the ultimate solution it worked charmingly. On the other hand, I adored descriptions like the following:

 

‘…a big man with square shoulders and a clumsy-looking body, looking as though he had been carelessly assembled by an ambitious child out of chunky bricks.’

 

I truly appreciated how Christie portrayed love as a dark force in this story. We are so used to love in books being the answer to problems, the thing that saves characters that it made a nice change to have love used as the driving force behind evil.

As I mentioned before, I’m a huge fan of the All About Agatha podcast. One of the two original podcasters, Catherine Brobeck had this theory about what she called ‘Dark Marple’. What a shame she didn’t live long enough to discuss this book. Not only does Marple’s darkness ‘shine’ in this story but it is also acknowledged by several other characters.

 

‘So gentle—and so ruthless.”’

And

‘The most frightening woman I have ever met.’

Statements by the Assistant Commissioner and the Home Secretary respectively.

What’s more, even Miss Marple herself considers the concept:

“‘D’you know, said Miss Marple to herself, ‘it’s extraordinary, I never thought about it before. I believe, you know, I could be ruthless’”

Finally, on the positive side, I want to give a huge shout-out to Miss Marple’s attitude towards the money she receives as her reward for solving the case. I love that she has no intention of saving it or using it for investments. Given the stage of life she has reached, spending her earnings on enjoying herself is just about perfect. I can’t help wondering what sort of adventures her plans might have brought Marple. Seems the opportunities would have been endless; if only Christie had written those stories.

But… I did have two issues with this story.

Until now I’ve been mostly able to ignore the parts of the story that the All About Agatha podcast calls, ‘stuck in their time’. In this story, I found myself less able to breeze over the descriptions of young girls and women. Somehow the fact that Christie would write so condescendingly about members of her own gender makes the sentiments voiced more painful.

Apparently, by this stage in her career, Christie dictated her books rather than typing them. And at times, it shows. Especially in the chapter where she explains what has happened and how she reached her conclusions, there are numerous repetitions, almost literal repetitions (😊), and it, unfortunately, stood out.

As much as those two things bothered me, they didn’t ‘kill’ my enjoyment and admiration for this story. The plot was very clever and the way the solution was reached was intriguing and surprising but overall plausible.

The above is more a collection of statements than a review, so I’ll end with a summary of my feelings about this story. Despite the dark theme, Nemesis was for me a delightful and intriguing mystery. As always it was an easy read with far more going on than is apparent at first glance. The solution was satisfying, and the final confrontational scene was nothing short of spectacular.

I do love me some Agatha Christie.