Prompt – A book published in the 20th Century
Medium – Book
About the Book – Rex Fortescue, an investor and king of a financial empire, is found dead in his office (‘counting house’) after being poisoned. When his body is examined, he is found to have a pocket full of cereal, specifically, rye. His family are not particularly grief-stricken by the murder – his much younger wife; his oldest son, Val, and Mrs Val; his youngest daughter, Elaine; and his first wife’s sister, the slightly demented Aunt Elvira. Inspector Neele is called to investigate the murder and is later joined by Agatha Christie’s sleuth, Jane Marple. However, more deaths soon occur, and the picture starts to look very much like the children’s nursery rhyme – ‘Four and Twenty Blackbirds’.
My Rating – 8.5/10. I am very much a fan of the Agatha Christie books, films and TV shows (though less of the more recent ‘hard hitting’ adaptations by Sarah Phelps). I love the Poirot tales, but I do have a soft spot for Miss Marple. She is one of those extremely underestimated characters who generally ends up solving the mystery and uncovering the terrible murders. This novel has the right amount of suspense and strangeness, alongside Christie’s love for the inclusion of a rhyme, poem or story in the solution to the murder. She is a very easy read without being too straightforward – I’ve never read this novel before and was shocked by the murderer at the end of the book.
The characters are extremely well developed and there is no similarity between them to make it difficult to keep up with who is who. Miss Marple enters the story around half-way through, but unlike in one of the earlier books I read (‘Grey Mask’) with a largely absent detective, Miss Marple, whilst not in many scenes, feels constantly present. She influences the story massively, always seeming to be one step ahead of the action and indeed, the detective (who is, however, a very good detective!) In my opinion, Christie manages to keep the mystery of the murderer secret right until the end – there are no real hints that the character who does the dreadful deed is a murderer. She also does a very good job at inserting some nuance into the story – the murdered man, in particular, is a thoroughly nasty piece of work, and it is only the last murder where the victim truly is innocent.
Would I read it again? Yes, although I do find that Christie’s books are never quite as good the second time around!
Jen's Book Blog 