I’m currently reading…The Complete Miss Marple Short Stories

 

I have a penchant for mysteries. Call me gruesome, but I love murder mysteries in particular.

I guess it comes from a love of getting to the bottom of things and solving them…getting closure.

Now I think about it, the part of me that is anally retentive – that part that needs to draw a line under things – has always loved mysteries and detective stories, and this even reflected in my reading choices as a child.

So I grew up reading and loving Enid Blyton’s Famous Five and Secret Seven series, moved on to Nancy Drew after a while…and then I discovered the genius that was Agatha Christie.

I’m currently reading her book The Complete Miss Marple Short Stories.

I love the antiquated aspect of Agatha Christie books…the fact that these murders are elaborately planned and carried out by jealous wives, or husbands who wish to be free of their tiresome but wealthy wives and inherit a fortune in the process, as well as countless other interesting characters with motives that you never see coming.

But most of all, I love Miss Marple! Elderly but sharp as a whip, old-fashioned but witty, unassuming but scarily observant and with an uncanny knowledge of human nature, it goes without saying that I favour her over Poirot.

Regardless of the situation or how cunning the criminal, no one succeeds in pulling the wool over Jane Marple’s eyes. I keep trying to second-guess her – and solve the mystery first – but fail abysmally every time!

Looking for some good old-fashioned murders with arsenic or cyanide, and someone to keep the police from jumping to obvious conclusions? Then Marple’s your woman!

Available from the Folio Society, a book club for those with a passion for books…the words, the look and feel of them…everything!

http://www.foliosoc.co.uk/books/details.php?OfferCode=BMRSA3&CatCode=NB9&pg=1&SearchMode=Y