A Miss Marple, getting physically more frail as she gets older, is still allowed to stretch her brain skills, by being sent on a tour to find out a crime. Only she's not told what the crime is, or when it happened...

Some years earlier, when on holiday in the Caribbean, Miss Marple had met Jonas Rafiel and together they had solved a mystery. Now, a number of years on, he has died, but with some"unfinished business" on his mind, and he leaves a bequest for Miss Marple, dependent on her carrying out his request. She is contacted by his lawyers who hand her a letter from him offering her £20,000. At that stage there is no detail about what he wants her to do apart from the fact that he is keen to see that justice is to be done, and he reminds her of the fact she once told him that she saw herself as Nemesis, the harbinger of justice.

So she begins her quest two days letter by joining a bus tour of Famous Hoses and Gardens of Great Britain with 15 other people. She really still has no idea of what Mr Rafiel wanted her to do, but she has already begun some investigations of her own into his background. As the bus trip progresses it becomes clear that although he hasn't told Miss Marple much, Mr Rafiel has assumed she will accept his request, and he has done several things to clear the way for her.

By the middle of the novel I thought the nature of Miss Marple's quest had become obvious, but at the same time, the narrative was frustratingly slow, almost as if Christie wanted us to think about what makes a person a good detective etc. And then came the first death when one of the passengers from the bus tour was killed, struck by a large boulder. Things speeded up a bit after that.

I can understand if readers are of two minds with this book. It is very different from most of the Miss Marple books, and I thought it was a bit obvious that Christie wanted to explore what made Jane Marple so sensitive to the presence of evil, what made her so determined to see that justice was done. There are sections of text that are almost rambling.

You will have seen that I have read this before. I am re-reading it with my U3A Agatha Christie reading group and I will be interested to see whether or not they have enjoyed it. We will follow our discussion with the viewing of one of the television interpretations but I have yet decided whether it will be the Joan Hickson or the Geraldine McEwan one, probably the former I think, in the hope that it sticks closer to the original book. Which do you think it should be? (We don't have time for both) ( )

I didn't remember this book very well at all, but of course I have seen the Joan Hickson adaptation. Even so, I found that I was not completely sure about who did it (I remembered that it was one of the sisters but Christie was very good at her misdirection!)

Emilia Fox did a fine job narrating. ( )

Digital audiobook read by Emilia Fox

From the book jacket: In utter disbelief, Miss Marple read the letter addressed to her from the recently deceased Mr Rafiel – an acquaintance she had met briefly on her travels. He had left instructions for her to investigate a crime after his death. The only problem was, had failed to tell her who was involved or where and when the crime had been committed. It was most intriguing. Soon, she is faced with a new crime – the ultimate crime – murder. It seems someone is adamant that past evils remain buried….

My reactions
Miss Marple is up to her usual tricks. She is a keen observer and an astute judge of character. She fully understands that people underestimate her – or even completely ignore her. She is only an old woman, after all. HA!

I have to admit that my mind wandered on this one. I just wasn’t keeping up with Miss Marple in following the clues, I guess. But not to fear. As is typical with these books, she will sit down and explain it all – in detail – to the detectives, suspects, and other interested parties.

Emilia Fox does a good job of narrating the audiobook. She sets a good pace and I like the way she interprets Miss Marple. My lack of attention was not due to any lack of skill as a narrator. ( )

My mom had several Agatha Christie books, and I am reading them before she decides whether to donate them or keep them. Not being very familiar with Christie, I consulted a book list to determine the order of books--I thought this came up early on the Miss Marple list of books, but now that I am on review sites, it says it is #12 (and another reviewer stated it was the final Miss Marple).

For me, the story did not really get going until about 100 pages in.

Miss Marple is offered an "inheritance' of sorts from a man she met once before if she can solve a problem--but she's not quite sure what problem.

There were quite a few characters and it made it somewhat difficult to remember them (for me). ( )