Book Club

Marple Stories

Christie never intended Miss Marple to rival Poirot in the publics affections, but this spinster sleuth soon proved a hit with the public.  Here's the place to discuss her stories - but beware spoilers!

If you can't find your favourite Miss Marple story, don't worry - more will be added shortly.

Warning: These discussions may contain spoilers!

The Mirror Crack'd from Side to Side

Jemma 05 Sep 09 at 12:52 p.m. GMT

In the Mirror Crack'd from Side to Side, Miss Marple faces up to the modern transformation of village life, but finds human nature remains the same. Is this the secret of her timeless appeal, or do you think Miss Marple is at her best in earlier times?

This is the final Christie novel set in an English village. Is she at her best in this setting and how do Miss Marple's adventures in London and the Caribbean compare? Should she always have stayed at home?

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Tommy_A_Jones 21 Sep 09 at 3:37 p.m. GMT

I think it is sad that Miss Marple ages so considerably in this book, I like to think that time is irrelevent in Cristie Land, It is a shame that in this book Miss Marple is so frail but I still loved the book.

shaunabbkevrye 21 Sep 09 at 8:05 p.m. GMT

It stands to reason that she would travel.  Especially to a warmer climate.  That dear nephew Raymond would never let her sit at home with reumatism when he could send her to winter in a warmer climate.

ampman 22 Sep 09 at 5:54 a.m. GMT

I prefer to keep Miss Marple in a village because that is where she is at her most knowledgable. I agree that she should stay the same age ansd not show signs of aging and I am etenally glad that AC did not kill her off because I don't think I could stand it. I only read 'Poirot's end once and I don't think I want to again. Silly but true.

Tommy_A_Jones 22 Sep 09 at 2:53 p.m. GMT

Miss Marple took her knowledge of life in a Village and let others have the benefit of her expeience in other places like London and the Carribean which and the places other than Villages seemed appropriate to me, I too am glad AC never kiolled MM or T&T of, she had to wilt Curtain because that is the way the Book had to go, I can't understand the need for Characters like Morse to be killed of, MM and T&T didn't have to die so they didn't, I haven't read all the Poirot's but have read Curtain, perhaps that is the secret of keeping him alive in your mind.

Puffinjill 23 Sep 09 at 12:29 p.m. GMT

The Mirror Cracked might be set in St Mary Mead, but I never think of it in terms of its village setting. The story mostly revolves around people from, literally, another world - a rich and famous actress and her entourage - who just happen to have chosen to live at Gossington Hall. I know the first victim IS a resident of the village but she, too, has recently moved to the development. What I'm trying to say (I think) is that this novel could have been set anywhere. The changes in and around St Mary Mead means it has lost it previous identity and cohesion.

But human nature is human nature and if there is a human tragedy or story to be told, Miss Marple wouldn't be out of place no matter where it was set.

Tommy_A_Jones 24 Sep 09 at 2:50 p.m. GMT

I think of it in terms of the Village setting, Dolly Bantry comes home to the Village where her old friend Miss Marple lives and although she moved to the Lodge the Lodge is in the Grounds of Gossington Hall where a body was found, also I have lived in a Village since I was 3 and like in St Mary Mead there have been houses being built and the look has changed alot. I think it does matter where it is set. 

Puffinjill 24 Sep 09 at 4:57 p.m. GMT

The setting does matter, Tommy, especially the way the changes of the village mirror the social changes of the time. It's just that I never think of it in terms of its village setting, due to the fact that the majority of those concerned in the story are from quite a different lifestyle altogether.

I technically live in a village but we are swamped by having a huge Outlet Shopping Centre here too. What Miss Marple would of made of one of these in her beloved St Mary Mead, we shall never know.

ampman 25 Sep 09 at 5:46 a.m. GMT

If St Mary Mead was anything like the village I was brought up in and Miss Marple came back today she would find the village shop closed, the church part of a team ministry consisting of 5 other villages (Services at St Mary Mead every 3rd Sunday morning or 4th Sunday night unless there is an R in the month). Dr Haydock would be replaced by a group practice two villages away. Gossington Hall now owned by a footballer. As for Inch the taxi driver, he is just a distant memory although if you don't own a 4x4 the community bus from the next village will take you to town for 2 hours on Tuesdays. Finally, Miss Marples' house is now a weekend cottage for a couple from Notting Hill.

Puffinjill 25 Sep 09 at 6:26 p.m. GMT

I know what you mean! What a shame!

At least we can escape to our idea of the perfect village with our reading. Nostalgia all the way...

ampman 26 Sep 09 at 10:32 a.m. GMT

Yes Puffinjill, I think that is why peole of a certain age like myself love the MM books because it seems to recall a golden age of village life. However when I think back without my rose coloured specs, we were all very poor as our fathers were on agricultural wages, the houses were cold, dark and poky. Thatch is not all it is cracked up to be. I remember ladies like MM who lived on independant means who were living in gentile frugality who didn't have kind nephews like Raymond to bail them out and suffered real hardship.

Puffinjill 26 Sep 09 at 1:05 p.m. GMT

Thanks for the 'certain age' bit!!!

Tommy_A_Jones 27 Sep 09 at 2:23 p.m. GMT

Puffinjill I thought bI had said that it does matter where it is set, also it isn't just people of a certain age that like MM books, I don't consider mysaelf of 'A Certain Age' for 20 years at least and I read my first AC book at least 20 Years ago.

Dale_Clare 05 Nov 09 at 11:40 a.m. GMT

I was absolutly happily astonished when i read the mirror Crak'd from side to side and even more happier when i saw the joan hickson Tv version of it she really knew how to play miss marple. however my all time favorite movie adaptation was angela lansbury.I dont know any other person of my age who likes the AC books especialy the MM stories I supose not may sixteen year olds care much for litrature.  

Read more about this story: The Mirror Crack'd from Side to Side

Tommy_A_Jones 05 Nov 09 at 1:53 p.m. GMT

I don't know how old you are Dale and wouldn't dream of asking as Dale can be a Female's Name in some parts of the world but I agree with you about the book even though I saw the Brilliant Joan Hickson Version first as it wasn't totally true to the book so the BBC very generously let us experience something else when reading the book (I mean that with affection to the Joan Hickson Adaptation) although the Angela Landesbury version isn't my favourite Adaptation of an Agatha Christie book - for me that is either the Peter Ustinov version of Evil Under The Sun or the David Suchet versiion of the same book or the David Suchet versions of either ABC Murders or After The Funeral but the Angela Landesbury version is in my top 10 and most probably in my top 5, I just love the opening sequence in the Village Hall and I think as I said somewhere on a blog if the writers want to meddle withj the Miss Marple series enlarge on the idea in the beginning of the Angela Landesbury film. Are youy a Murder She Wrote Fan Dale? I love it, I can see alot of Agathaha Christie's influnence in some if not alot of the Episodes. Sorry I was going off-opic there, I would love to enlarge on what I mean but maybe not here is the best place.

Lone_Wolf 24 Nov 09 at 2:48 p.m. GMT

Unmpressed with the plotting here. It's just another "X is murdered. Everyone thinks that it was Y, not X, who was meant to be murdered, but it turns out in the end that it was Y who murdered X". It was already done with "Peril at End House". While in "The mirror cracked" the theme is developed a bit more nicely, it's still the same theme. I guessed the murderer by reading the summary at the back cover.

That book also suffers from too much meandering around.

Miss Knight was suitably annoying in a funny way, though. And, sadly, careless people like the victim in the book are ofte reponsible for many tragedies.

Tommy_A_Jones 24 Nov 09 at 4:38 p.m. GMT

I couldn't stand Miss Knight, I sofar haven't found her in other books anb=d I hope she isn't in other books, I am so glad Cherry went to live with Miss Marple, The trouble with Adaptations of the book they have had do much of Marina Gregg being on the Film Set which have made for less than Interesting Adaptations IMHO. I wish we had found out in the book what happened to all her Adopteed Children

go_leafs_nation 24 Nov 09 at 4:56 p.m. GMT

I loved Miss Knight in it. Her attitude towards MM is MEANT to be annoying; we get to share some of MM's frustration at being treated like "the dotty old dear, bless her!", when, as events soon prove, she is nothing of the kind.

Tommy_A_Jones 25 Nov 09 at 3:28 p.m. GMT

Yes go_leafs I realise that but I would have quite Happily taken a Hatchett to her and it also shows how clueless Carers can be so Miss Knight illustrates how we haven't really mmoved on just the years have.

Puffinjill 25 Nov 09 at 6:50 p.m. GMT

I think that's a fair point. Miss Knight is portrayed in a comic light and she IS there to be annoying but there is a more serious message behind the character. She is brisk and efficient and probably good at her job but takes absolutely NO consideration of the individual she is tending. Miss Marple is old, therefore Miss Knight simply lumps her together with all others of similar age and treats them all as if they are half-witted.

To us, and to Miss M, it seems overbearing and thoughtless. We can sympathise with Miss Marple for having such a ghastly woman in her house and enjoy their scenes, knowing (if we know our dear Miss M at all) that Miss Marple will find a way of ending their time together.

But many people find themselves 'cared' for by those with similar views on the old or disabled. They see them all alike and not as the individuals they are. So whilst Miss Knight affords US much entertainment and we can cheerfully dislike her, AC was showing us she was aware of the shortsightedness of such people. And, as Tommy rightly says, time hasn't nessecarily changed this.

GKCfan 25 Nov 09 at 8:40 p.m. GMT

At the start of Nemesis there's an interesting coda to the story of Miss Knight.  Miss Marple thinks about her old caretaker– NOT with affection, but mistakenly thinks of her as "Miss Bishop," a chess-related mix-up.  At first the reader fears for the state of Miss Marple's memory, but after the events of the novel unfold, we realize that her mind is as sharp as ever.  

This is a recurring theme for both Poirot and Marple: younger people assume that since they are older, their minds have dulled.  Remember Miss Marple's dictum in Murder at the Vicarage: "The young people think the old people are fools, but the old people KNOW the young people are fools!"