This book is composed of 4 complete books: A Carribean Mystery, A Pocket Full of Rye, The Mirror Crack'd From Side to Side, and They Do it with Mirrors. In each, Miss Marple makes her gentle, unassuming appearance and quietly solves the murders. She is such an enjoyable character, and so often underestimated. She is from a village called Mary St. Mead, and often as she meets new people she compares them with those she has known before in her 'quiet' village, and finds someone with whom they share characteristics. This usually gives her extra insight and reminders as to what humans are really capable of doing. Because she is an elderly woman, those who don't know her try to be careful of her sensibilities, but she understands better than they do how humans are complex and sometimes evil beings.
As always, with good murder mysteries, there are all sorts of false clues and important clues that are understated or ignored. Miss Marple sometimes asks questions which don't seem to make much sense, but are actually vital. In one of these cases, the final clue which convinces Miss Marple of what actually happened is one short conversation between the victim and another character. Everyone that overheard it remembers a different answer that was given, but the correct answer reveals both the murderer and the motive! A reminder of what it means to be attentive. So often we hear without actually listening, and we see without actually observing. Well-written enough that I'd read these again .. after enough time so that the details become foggy!
| Title: | Miss Marple Omnibus, Volume 2 |
|---|---|
| Author: | Agatha Christie |
| Date published: | 1997 (individual books published between 1952 and 1964) |
| Genre: | Mystery |
| Number of pages: | 654 |
| Notes: | from Amy |
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