Welcome to Litsy!

Miss Marple's friend Elspeth McGillicuddy actually witnesses a man strangling a woman from her train window but despite her alerting the conductor and the railway authorities no corpse is found until Miss Marples hires her former home help to find the body. The woman is unidentified so who killed her and why?

Looking back I should have known who the murderer was but of course I didn't.

#coffeeandabook

Although I don't quite buy the motive(s), I like the characters in this one quite a bit. Miss Marple is always a delight. I've been reading through Christie's novels for several years and have been reading English lit for decades, and this is the first time I really realized that, unlike with novels set in the US in which I can follow the action on a fairly detailed mental map, I have only the vaguest sense of the geography of UK-set novels.

I made the mistake of reading the news for too long too early today, and it totally threw me off my game. I did a few tedious chores then I retreated into bookish self-care and organized my bookshelves while listening to the tagged audiobook. I've got all of my physical TBRs in the same place now, the read fiction organized by author name, and the nonfiction (mostly) organized by topic. And I have a nice stack to give away, too.

Miss Marple solving a murder in a small village is always a good time. This one also has an interesting cast of characters and a rather clever puzzle mystery.

#serieslove2025 @Andrew65 @TheSpineView
#bookspinbingo @TheAromaofBooks

This is the one I remember the least from the 1980s TV series, I couldn't even remember the basic plot & was getting it mixed up with The Mirror Crack'd. It was a solid murder mystery that has that Christie 'je ne sais quoi' which elevates it above a 3 star. It's a quick read packed full of untrustworthy & unlikeable characters, but thankfully Miss Marple appears from the start in this one. 3.5🌟

TWs: attitudes towards mental illness, xenophobia.

Really enjoyed this book! Short stories featuring Miss Marple, written by popular authors like leigh bardugo, Lucy foley and Val McDermid. This was my Christmas book from 2023, desperately tried to finish it by Christmas 2024 - almost made it but not quite!

The village of Chipping Cleghorn is surprised by a very unusual newspaper announcement. This week, amongst the furniture for sale, the local gazette's announcement page contains an advertisement which reads: ‘A murder is announced and will take place on Friday October 29th, at Little Paddocks at 6.30 p.m.‘

Unsure if it is a practical joke or one of those new 'murder mystery games', the neighbours gather at the house on Friday evening (continued)

My second Miss Marple book. This one takes her out of the village of st Mary‘s mead, which was a bit of a shame, but I enjoyed the characters and again, did not guess who did it. She‘s so good.

I enjoyed this far more than I expected to. It‘s definitely a boilerplate mystery but much more winks and nods were felt over anything I read with Poirot. Maybe I just relate to Miss Marple more. 😅

Should be noted though - lots of not great allusions to POC, off hand comments to LGBTQIA, and pretty clumsy with discussion of mental illness. This was published in 1964 and it shows.