A woman's body is found in the library of Colonel and Mrs Bantry's home, but no one knows who she is. Against the backdrop of the village gossips in full flow, the police and Miss Marple try to find the guilty party.

Even though some of Agatha Christie's novels and short stories appear quite dated about a hundred years later, you have to admire the sheer inventiveness – surely there are only so many ways in which a person can get killed? And yet she managed to come up with novel ideas and surprise readers in the course of her lengthy and prolific writing career. This one was quite ingenious, with blink-and-you-miss-them clues, and I hadn't solved the murders by the time Miss Marple reveals all. ( )

Agatha Christie is so much fun! I loved this one. I thought the excitement by the wife was just funny!! ( )

This was my first Miss Marple mystery. The premise is great: an influential British couple discover a body in their library and it's someone they do not know. Many characters involved and the clues reveal many plot twists and suspects along the way. Interestingly enough, Miss Marple is not featured in much of the first 2/3 of the book. Yes, she is introduced and her prowess at solving mysteries is made clear, but most of the story focuses on the investigations from the police and other friends of the couple in whose house the body was found.

Another murder occurs, which opens up new avenues for suspicion, etc.

In the end, Miss Marple is featured and she solves the mystery quite nicely. Wrapped up in fine form with all the plot twists explained.

The reason for 4 stars is that I thought the story dragged a bit throughout the majority of the book. It was interesting, but not to the point where I felt where I needed to put everything aside and keep reading (that would be 5 stars). I finished this book over the course of a few weeks. ( )

Lord and Lady Bantry awake one day to find the body of a young woman in their library; someone they do not know. Miss Marple is a friend of Dolly Bantry and Dolly asks her to solve the puzzle, she thinks it will be fun to be a detective. Miss Marple has a reputation amongst the local police and they are not opposed to her reviewing the facts and often ask her to also talk to some of the people. I always enjoy following the connections and seeing how she puts things together, but the class prejudice and general stereotyping of whole groups of people can be off-putting. ( )

This was a really good Miss Marple story and I had fun reading it. Objectively speaking, it is probably the best Miss Marple that I read, it's just not my favourite. But Miss Marple gets to shine in this story with her comparisons and her knowledge of the human nature.
Also worthy of note is that this book starts pretty much immediately with the finding of the body instead of severeal chapters of build up before the murder happens, which was also very nice for getting quickly into the story. ( )