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Loading... A Pocket Full of Rye (1953)by Agatha Christie
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Sign up for LibraryThing to find out whether you'll like this book. No current Talk conversations about this book. So many red herrings in this delicious tale of murder and mayhem, and of course, Miss Marple. Poison enters this murder mystery many times, instead of violent death. Again, Agatha Christie employs a nursey rhyme into her story to list the order of deaths. The rhyme involving blackbirds baked into a pie follows the murders in this story. What a surprise to find the actual killer at the end of the tome, and not who I expected! A gold mine in Africa hinges on the murders. Could one of the children of Mr. MacKenzie hiding under an alias be the killer? Is the housekeeper, Mary Dove, a possible suspect? So many characters to study and analyze for a motive, but a delightful investigation. 3.5* for this audiobook edition Miss Marple plays a smaller role in this book than she did in the Joan Hickson dramatization, which I found disappointing. However, Richard Grant does an excellent narration. “I don’t know how it is,” fluttered Miss Marple, “but I so often seem to get mixed-up in the things that are really no concern of mine. Crimes, I mean, and peculiar happenings.” Christie, Agatha. A Pocket Full of Rye: A Miss Marple Mystery (Miss Marple Mysteries Book 7) (p. 216). HarperCollins. Kindle Edition. Well, it's not Miss Marple who gets mixed up in murder this time - it's her old maid, Gladys Martin. When Miss Marple hears about Gladys' circumstances she hops on a train and travels to Yewtree Lodge where the Fortescue family are entertaining wickedness, four blackbirds and a pocket full of rye. I hate the Miss Marple books when Miss Marple makes only a small appearance. This was alright. I liked Inspector Neele but the other characters were kind of bland and it made it harder to tell them apart. Still it kept my attention, the plot was fast paced and had a variety of twists and turns. Poor Gladys. Not my favourite Miss Marple but a decent read. 3 stars. 3.5 stars no reviews | add a review
Is contained inA Miss Marple Quartet: The Body in the Library, A Pocket Full of Rye, A Murder Is Announced, The Moving Finger by Agatha Christie The Nursery Rhyme Murders: Crooked House / Hickory Dickory Dock / A Pocket Full of Rye by Agatha Christie Agatha Christie Collection: They Do it with Mirrors, a Pocket Full of Rye, Murder on the Orient Express, Evil Under the Sun, Death on the Nile by Agatha Christie Agatha Christie Crime Collection: Destination Unknown, The Murder on the Links, A Pocket Full of Rye by Agatha Christie 4.50 From Paddington / Murder in Mesopotamia / A Pocket Full of Rye / Lord Edgware Dies by Agatha Christie Hickory Dickory Death / Murder on the Orient Express / The Mystery of the Blue Train / A Pocket Full of Rye by Agatha Christie Miss Marple Novels: The Murder at the Vicarage / The Body in the Library / A Pocket Full of Rye / Sleeping Murder by Agatha Christie A Miss Marple Quintet: Murder At The Vicarage; A Murder Is Announced; A Pocket Full Of Rye; The Mirror Cracked From Side To Side; At Bertram's Hotel by Agatha Christie Has the adaptationDistinctions
Rex Fortescue, king of a financial empire, was sipping tea in his "counting house" when he suffered an agonizing and sudden death. On later inspection, the pockets of the deceased were found to contain traces of cereals. Yet, it was the incident in the parlor which confirmed Miss Marple's suspicion that here she was looking at a case of crime by rhyme. . . . No library descriptions found. |
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Google Books — Loading... GenresMelvil Decimal System (DDC)823.912Literature English & Old English literatures English fiction Modern Period 1901-1999 1901-1945LC ClassificationRatingAverage:
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Review of the William Morrow Paperbacks edition (June 14, 2011) of the Collins Crime Club (UK) & Dodd, Mead & Company (US) hardcover (1953) originals.
A Pocket Full of Rye finds Miss Marple investigating a series of murders in the Fortescue household where one of her own former maid servants is now a house maid. The case becomes personal for Miss Marple when one of the victims is that same house maid. The murderer seems to be planning their crimes in accordance with the nursery rhyme "Sing a Song of Sixpence", and the authorities are baffled as usual. Only Miss Marple perceives that the nursery rhyme is a cover story for a much more diabolical plot.
See cover at https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/5/57/A_Pocket_Full_of_Rye_First_Editio...
The front cover of the original 1953 Collins Crime Club (UK) hardcover edition. Image sourced from Wikipedia.
Confusion for Completists
A Pocket Full of Rye is the 6th Miss Marple novel. Some lists, including the Goodreads Miss Marple Listopia, count it as Miss Marple #7 as the short story collection [book:The Thirteen Problems|31309] (1932) is counted as #1.
Trivia and Links
A Pocket Full of Rye was adapted twice for English language television series. Both of the TV adaptations are reasonably faithful to the original plot. I did not find any free trailers or postings of either of them, but they are both available on the Britbox streaming service here in Canada.
The first TV adaptation was as part of the BBC's Miss Marple (1984-1992) series as Episode 4 in 2 parts in 1985, which starred Joan Hickson as Miss Marple.
The second TV adaptation was as part of ITV's Agatha Christie’s Marple (2004-2013) reboot series as Series 4 Episode 1 in 2009 which starred Julia McKenzie as Miss Marple. ( )