The Body in The Library, Agatha Christie

 

The Book 

  In a classic opening, Dolly Bantry, wife of Colonel Bantry, is having a dream. She thinks she is processing the normal morning sounds. In that place between alseep and a dream, she assumes she's having a dream when her maid tells her they found a body in the library. Dolly has a bit of trouble processing it, so it takes her a hot minute to wake up. Once she's awake, she starts taking charge of the situation. She wakes her husband and sends him down to make sure it's true. While he's doing that, she sends for Miss Marple to come take a look. Miss Marple beats the cops to the scene and is able, with Dolly's help, to have a good look at the dead young woman in their library. 

    From here, Miss Marple decides to help her friends, whom she believes are innocent, and starts to investigate. It doesn't take long to narrow the identity of young woman down to one of two people, a missing teen and a missing young dancer. Both are from the neighboring county. The investigation goes over to the hotel where the dancer was employed, where she is promptly identified as the dancer. Later, a second body, believed to be that of the missing teen is discovered. 

    It's a tangled web, for no one can figure out who would want either of these two young women dead. But Miss Marple, our favorite knitting cynic, isn't fooled. Although it takes her a hot minute to figure out how the murders did it, she is able identify the killers. 

My Thoughts

    This blog last encountered Miss Marple in The Murder at the Vicarage. That book was published in 1930, this book comes 11 years later. Miss Marple hasn't aged a day, but it seems St. Mary Meade has advanced a little bit since the blog last saw it. 

    The book is a quick read, and a pretty little puzzle. It is solvable, somewhere on the medium hard scale. Some Agatha Christie puzzles are easily solvable, others are a little too convoluted, and others just wicked hard. I know Christie is known for having a set of tricks she deploys to make her readers think, but this puzzles is a classic. Quite enjoyable, even if you already know the ending. 

How Much My Library Card Saved Me

    This is another in the leatherette bound editions which are still circulating in my local library. This one has seen better days The corners are coming undone a bit. However, the interior has been lightly read, with no smudges, marks or dog ears on any of it's 183 pages. All in all not bad for an edition that is over 30 years old. This is the most "expensive" of the set we have seen, as when the math is applied to receipt, it comes up to $35.01. 

This Book                                                     $35.01

Items Reviewed This Year                          $385.95

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