Mission Marple Book Club discussion

Didn't like this one as much on my reread, but considering how late this was in Christie's career, I think this was still pretty enjoyable on the whole

Oof. I'm gonna have to admit sadly that I was quite disappointed for most of this reread. I thought I remembered this one as being better than it was. Perhaps because the last time I read it was about 15-17 years ago when I did a reread of the entire Christie canon and this novel looks better due to what it is surrounded by (I mean it comes directly after Passenger to Frankfurt, haha!). But in this Marple reread where the quality has been generally really high, the dip here is noticeable.

The difference only 5 or 6 years makes! I wasn't the biggest fan of At Bertram's Hotel but you can see so clearly the decline in her writing here compared to that novel, which I believe is still written well despite its shortcomings. In Nemesis there is so much repetition, and many chapters are devoted quite frankly to very little. They certainly aren't moving the plot along. In the chapter where Miss Marple looks up Esther Walters who was, they spend two pages telling each other how well the other looks!

It was a narrow save from a 2 star rating for me, because on the positive side, I feel the final third of the novel picked up the pace a bit and got more interesting. Plus a lot of my disappointment comes from the fact that I really, really like the idea of this story and want it to be better. It's pleasurably creepy, almost Gothic, I would say: the three sisters in the house that is slowly decaying, the sinister atmosphere, the tumbled down greenhouse and the creepy, invasive vine covering everything, the murders of a number of young girls in the area, the sapphic undertones... I loved all that stuff. If only it had been written just a few years earlier maybe?

Miss Marple seems less cuddly and sweet in this book, and honestly quite irritable with everything. Perhaps it's understandable, due to her aging. She's finding it so hard to do the things she used to and is getting frustrated by her declining faculties. Perhaps Christie was feeling like this at this point in her life too, and her own frustrations were coming through. I suppose also in a very "meta" way (if I'm using that term right), the confusion in the plot and writing mirrors Miss Marple's mind as she's now at a very advanced age.

Oh, the timing was really off in this novel too, did anyone else notice? There is a year/18 months between this and A Caribbean Mystery and yet The Body in the Library happened only a few years ago too, apparently. And lots of other instances where the timing makes no sense. I think Mara noticed during Project Poirot that this happens in (view spoiler)[Elephants Can Remember as well, which was the very next book in the series (hide spoiler)].

Though Christie doesn't generally shy away from discussion of sex as much as we might think, this book seems to be the most direct I remember her being on this topic. Much of the language used feels quite contemporary to me too, which I give her some credit for (in the sense she is trying to keep up still). Interesting how there is a matter-of-fact statement too of how young girls naturally form romantic attachments to older women (though I disagree with the Archdeacon that it has to "naturally" dissipate on growing up and discovering men, of course). I found the discussion of rape by two of the male characters in this book to be really revolting though. I was nervous Miss Marple was going to go on a rant about it too, but thankfully she stated she hoped she wasn't going to be expected to weep for Michael Rafiel with all he had done.

I felt no great happiness he ended up cleared of any crimes, he sounded awful. But I think Miss Marple's, and indeed Mr Rafiel's, interest lay in justice, and had they found Michael guilty after all they wouldn't have hesitated in wanting him to face the consequences. It is at least an interesting idea to have the potentially falsely accused character be so unlikeable that you can't root for him to get off.

One thing though; it sounded like he was suspected of killing many young women around that time, and yet he's been cleared by the end. So there is still an unsolved serial murderer out there? Eek!

To me, this is the definitive final Marple book, even though it's not the last one published. I do have to give it up for the ending which is lovely, and such a good one to end a series on. How awesome that she finally gets compensated for her talents, with a very large reward that she plans to spend, doing all the simple things she would like to do. I won't lie, I found the last few paragraphs quite emotional.

So, I'm complaining a bit about this story, which I don't love doing, but as I said, the general idea of it I do think is cool, and it is probably the most interesting to me out of the later Christies where she just wasn't able to handle them as well (from say everything between By the Pricking of My Thumbs to Postern of Fate, this is my favourite). And if anyone wants to see how best to do it when taking a lesser Christie and turning it into an adaptation, watch the 1987 Joan Hickson version of this, it is really excellent in my opinion. There is a lovely scene in there, not in the book, where Nora Broad's mother is interviewed by the Professor character, and it's so well acted, I really enjoyed it. And the show-down between Miss Marple and Clotilde at the end is enjoyable too.

MARPLE: She wanted a normal woman's life. She wanted reality. You returned her to fairyland. And now...
CLOTILDE: And now?
MARPLE: She's safe now from any unsuitable princes. Sleeping Beauty lies in the ruins, and flowers grow 'round her.
CLOTILDE: Yes. Yes.
MARPLE: No, Miss Bradbury-Scott! She's a rotted corpse and there is no one to kiss her awake!

And then watch the Geraldine McEwan adaptation of Nemesis and see exactly how not to do it!

I liked the fact this one had maximum Miss Marple, and also the fact she is going to enjoy the money! I was also uncomfortable with the way they spoke about rape in the book and it wasn’t clear whether this was just the way these people thought about it or whether it was Christies opinion as well. It didn’t sit right.

I did enjoy the book but some of it was just crazy - around half the people on the tour were arranged to be there by Mr Raffiel. Also there were a lot of pointless red herrings like Emrys colour blindness. I know there has to be some but it seemed a lot.

I did like the callbacks to The Body in the Library, although if you have read that book you know what is happening with the 2 murders very quickly.