Mission Marple Book Club discussion

Pretty sure this will be a first read for me IIRC... Yay!!!

This one is so short! I hadn't remembered or realised that before but I think it's possibly the shortest of the Marples. Before reading this, I have to be honest, I considered it to probably be my second least favourite Marple. So, on rereading I was able to enjoy the parts that stood out to me favourably as I had lower expectations.

It's not a story I've reread so I had a nice few surprises with what was happening. My familiarity with this story is more based on the adaptations, which are all pretty decent to varying degrees. So in the book I was intrigued by how unpleasant most of the characters were, compared to the TV versions, Gina in particular. Also, lots of talk about Italians again. Lines like: "She's half Italian, you know, and the Italians have that unconscious vein of cruelty. They've no compassion for anyone who's old or ugly, or peculiar in any way. They point with their fingers and jeer." bear no resemblance to any Italian I know, but is an interesting peek into the British prejudice against them of the time. Shades of Jacqueline de Bellefort from Death on the Nile and coincidentally the same actress plays both her and Gina in the adaptations.

But at the end of the day, I just find this much less satisfactory than the others. The plot itself is kind of easy to work out if you're familiar with Christie, so I would only recommend this to newbies, and even then there are better ones. Also, the book really is too short, the second half races along to the finish too quickly. And all up (and I think it's just a personal thing with me), the setting and the mystery and the characters, well they're not dull so much as the novel doesn't quite rise to the colour that is in a lot of Christies, put it like that.

It's also hard not to compare it to (view spoiler)[the superior Death on the Nile as the plot is a kind of variation on that, with the murderers setting up a diversion that makes you think they cannot be involved, and that someone else has taken advantage of a sudden scenario taking place but really it's been planned out beforehand (hide spoiler)].

I don't like sounding like I'm miserable about this book, because I still enjoyed rereading it, especially the first half, and gave it 3 stars (probably I would say 3.5). The best thing about this was that it is our first fully Miss Marple story, in that we follow her from start to finish and she is in nearly every part of the novel. I loved that. Whatever I may personally think about some of her opinions, I love hearing her muse on all sorts. My favourite was when she was talking about the British character of celebrating faults and failures, rather than successes. Also, with a bit of quick maths Miss Marple is clearly meant to be in her mid to late 60s, very close to Christie's own age at the time of writing this. This is the first time her age has been as easy to pin down. I think we're going to see more of Christie's own point of view put into Miss Marple's character now than before when it was more of her Grandmother's generation's point of view.

It's also lovely to get some background on Miss Marple's younger years, and it's fun to imagine her as a young girl, hanging around in Italy with these two American friends. The last few lines I really loved too:

"'You two remind me,' she said, 'of -'
Gina rushed forward and placed a hand firmly over Miss Marple's mouth.
'No, darling,' she exclaimed. 'Don't say it. I'm suspicious of these village parallels. They've always got a sting in the tail. You really are a wicked old woman, you know.'
Her eyes went misty.
'When I think of you, and Aunt Ruth and Grandam all being young together... How I wonder what you were all like! I can't imagine it somehow...'
'I don't suppose you can,' said Miss Marple. 'It was all a long time ago...'"

@Eamon, oh wow, I think you're right re: the age Marple is meant to be and LORDY. That would mean she's in her 50s in earlier books and the way she is described is as decrepit and frail, and literally drowning in lace. Agatha, this is not that old!! :D

I actually really enjoyed this, I think mostly because it is a Marple with a country house setting. I really enjoyed the milieu, the element of Marple's childhood friends, and the characters. The mystery was immediately obvious once the murder happened to anyone who has read more than a few Christies, which dinged it down a bit, but in terms of pure enjoyment, this was a great first read for me

^ Hahahaha, I know, right? This book talks about her and Carrie Louise being two elderly women walking along the paths, and my parents are in their late 60s, many of my aunts and uncles have tipped over into their 70s and they're all still so young, haha! But then I also remember how my grandparents seemed much older at 50, and how I saw a video of my great-grandmother once and she was like a little old women at 50. I guess back in the days when a 27 year old woman was considered an unmarriagable spinster, people settled into old age quicker?

I'm really glad you enjoyed it as your first read, as I know you didn't enjoy The Moving Finger as much, so that's awesome. You are so right about Miss Marple's childhood, her friends and everything. That is delightful. If you ever want to see an adaptation of it, you can't really go wrong with any of them, even the 80s version haha. And if you thought Bette Davis looked like a corpse in Death on the Nile, oh my gosh, wait until you see her here! (Poor woman it was after her stroke.) I mean, there's having a good work ethic and then there's just being compulsive about it.

I really liked the premise of this book but I wanted more of Miss Marple’s friendship with Carrie Louise than we got.

There was a very unbelievable part where we got every suspect coming up to Miss Marple and speaking to her in turn. It was a little bizarre!

Small things I liked were Miss Marple pretending to bird watch again and Gina describing her views on how women are treated in the world.

Things I didn’t like: the ‘forced kiss, stuggle then enjoy it’ trope -ugh and the underdevelopment of most of the characters.

Also not a fan of the description of the deaths in the first epilogue. Or in fact the way the last murders were breezed past.

Still a 3 star but maybe only just because I like the character of Miss Marple so much.

Lorraine wrote: "There was a very unbelievable part where we got every suspect coming up to Miss Marple and speaking to her in turn. It was a little bizarre!"

Yes! I noticed that too. I mean, I don't generally care about needing to suspend disbelief in most Christies, most times it's part of the delight in reading them, but that scene didn't really work for me. I guess it's to show how people will take Miss Marple for a harmless old lady and talk at her, but, I dunno, it was too many people in the same setting all at once, or something.

I agree, Miss Marple pretending to bird watch is always wonderful :D.

I remembered this as one of my least favourite Marple books, and I didn't love it this time, either, but I liked it more than I remembered. I think it has an issue with pacing - it just winds up too fast - and I got a bit tired of being told how charming Carrie Louise was and that everybody loved her and wanted to protect her. This was obvious and didn't need to be stated so many times. The solution to the murder is a classic Christie trick, but I felt it was actually flagged more than usual and a bit obvious this time around.

Totally agree with Mara on the end quote its a gem.
They Do It With Mirrors by Agatha Christie

My rating: 3 of 5 stars


A well executed plot with an interesting motif. A dramatis personnae with great potential to grip and interest the reader. Miss Marple is sweet and fluffy and about as safe as a striking cobra to confide in. She was truly the ineffectual seeming, little old lady with a steel trap mind. A logical and satisfying conclusion to a seemingly complex and murky mystery. Why then three stars only?

First I had a big eye-roll issue with the motive for murder, finally revealed at the end of the book (don't worry, I'm not going to reveal it), which I felt was unnecessarily complex and completely unbelievable. Also not cogent with my understanding of the personality of the character concerned, on my reading of the book...and I have read it several times before. Its almost like the Dame thought 'I can't give my audience another hackneyed motive for murder like the ones I have used before. This one will come right out of left centre for them, beautifully unbelievable and embellished. None of them will guess it this time'. Well, the Dame is right...I don't believe anyone will guess the murder motive correctly - if I'm wrong please tell me where I went wrong and what I missed. To me it feels as though another play's final act was accidentally substituted for the correct finale by the actors, just before the final curtain fell. Oops! Too late!

At the end of the day a number of the major characters seemed way too two dimensional and it was hard to feel sympathy for any of them in the way I do while reading what I consider the best of Agatha Christie's novels. I would have liked a little longer with each of the suspects to properly understand why Miss Marple responded to each one as she did and why Carrie Louise was so fond of each of them all. It was obvious that she had a talent for finding the best in every person she met, along with a rare talent for retaining a grip on rational expectations for their portrayal of individual flaws. Certainly, her character was my favorite out of all the cast in this little drama.




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