You know one of those books where you just about miss who the author is because it’s brown-paged, small print, paperback. There’s no cover and you almost miss the first page so you don’t get to see the title, that’s how this book was. I read it when I was about 12 years old and only stumbled on it a few days ago because I was clearing out the top of my wardrobe.
How can the Police believe you when you say there was a murder when:
• You’re the only one who witnessed it.
• There’s no evidence whatsoever.
• There’s no corpse to be found around.
• You’re an old lady.
I gasped when I went to look for the soft copy of this book and found out that it was written by Agatha Christie. You know those names that are so renowned, you just have them at the recesses of your mind but you don’t know exactly who they are but still love the name? That’s how it felt for me. I was pretty excited to find out that she wrote this book and that it’s also a series. A Marple mystery series.
Moving back to the book, Mrs Elspeth McGillicuddy was in an empty compartment of a railway station on her way to see her friend, Miss Jane Marple, when she witnessed something devastating from the first-class carriage of the opposite train. A man in a long coat was strangling a woman. She watched it fair and square as the woman’s eyes bulged out and went all purple till she eventually got limp and crumpled in the man’s arms.
At that moment, Mrs. McGillicuddy’s train slowed and at the same time the opposite train gained speed and soon enough disappeared. Now you can imagine how utterly disoriented Elspeth was as she narrated the incident to Jane Marple, her friend. Jane knew two things. That her friend, Elspeth was never one to lie over things like that and therefore what she saw was the honest-to-God truth, and also that the Police, even after filing a report, stating the murder she had witnessed, would never believe two old ladies. So they were well on their own.
Miss Marple, having lived her whole life as a detective, knew that because of her age and fragile health, she would not be able to investigate the case thoroughly. So after narrowing where the location of the corpse possibly was to Rutherford Hall, a big house owned by a cantankerous old man, that is where the star of the book, Miss Lucy Eyelesbarrow, came in.
Miss Lucy immediately gave me a Mary Poppins vibe, after reading for a few minutes. She's thirty-two and held a first-class degree in Mathematics but instead of pursuing a life and career in academia, Miss Lucy chose a most surprising career which is being a housekeeper for the rich and influential. She brings orderliness to home and cooks exceedingly well, but never stayed in a particular household for more than a few weeks. It was a period where housekeepers were scarce, so a gem like Lucy was much sought after.
It was this woman Miss Marple hired to offer her services in Rutherford Hall as a housekeeper. Emma Crackenthorpe, the old man’s daughter was quite puzzled as to why such a seemingly established woman would agree to work for them with the stringent payment she had to offer her, but soon enough, saw Miss Lucy as the rare and dutiful person she was.
A lot of things happened in this book and I’m not one for spoilers so I’ll talk about how satisfying I found this book. I enjoyed the fact that through Miss Lucy’s occasional visits to Miss Marple, vague hints were dropped that let the readers attempt to solve the mystery of who was the murderer in the book. I loathe when an author springs up some character who was from start to finish not a part of the book but suddenly comes into existence by a way of the whole, “This was how it all began,” speech.
I like the suspense. I liked the pacing. I liked the fact that from start to finish I had different suspects. That all suspicions would point to some people because of the “hints” intentionally dropped by the author for us to pick up but then it turns out to be maybe all, or none of them at the same time. There are very few books that I could give a resounding 4.7, and this is only because, with how Lucy Eyelesbarrow was presented, I would have loved to see her in a grander light. Her skills were sort of under-utilized but that’s just my general opinion.
I loved this book and a year or so from now, I’d want to read it again. Just to relive the exhilarating experience even though it wouldn’t be as exciting as the first time. Or maybe I would just binge on more books in the Miss Marple series. What a cunningly delightful old woman, she was. I hope anyone looking for an easy-paced but sizzling mysterious book won’t pass on this one.
Thumbnail designed by me on Canva.
