The Body in the Library

“Those quiet ones are often the worst.  Jane Marple says so.” Miss Wetherby

Dolly Bantry wakes in her beautiful home in the quiet village of St Mary Mead; everything is perfect until the shocking discovery of a body in the library. Who is the murdered young girl and who could possibly have killed her? Suspicion falls on Dolly’s husband, a man with a reputation as a flirt, who swears he never met the young woman – but why was she found in his library?

Dolly calls on her friend, Miss Marple to help them in their time of need. Can she find the killer or is village gossip about Colonel Bantry true? Nothing seems certain, then another body is discovered…

The Body in the Library was first adapted for television in 1985 by the BBC and more recently by ITV in the Marple series starring Geraldine McEwan; it is one of the most popular Marple stories.

“The best opening I ever wrote,” Christie said in a 1956 Life magazine article of the start of this novel.

The Times Literary Supplement said “Some devoted souls may sigh for Hercule Poirot but there are bound to be others who will be glad to find his place taken in the ‘new Agatha Christie’ by Miss Marple. What this relief signifies is that professional detectives are no match for elderly spinsters.”