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. ( )

It was entertaining, but the resolution was pretty improbable. I like to try to solve the mystery as I read along, but this one didn't afford the reader that opportunity. I still love me some Agatha, though. ( )

A good solid cozy. I liked this more than some of her work or maybe I was just more in the right mood for it. Either way, Miss Marple is as clever as ever as a student of human nature. ( )

The title says it all. Cluedo in a book. It's many many years since I've read a Miss Marple mystery. It was fun to be swept back to an era where the Country House complete with servants was A Thing, where village life was peopled by old ladies, intelligent but under occupied, rendered spinster by WW1.
This time, a body has been found in the library of the country house, but the actual murder must have taken place elsewhere. Any number of police are called in to deal with this event, and of course Miss Marple too. A vast cast of characters wander in and out of the narrative - I found it a bit hard to keep track. I don't think it's exactly a spoiler alert to tell you that Miss Marple cracks the mystery. It was all good period fun, and I enjoyed this book - but not enough to pick up another Agatha Christie for a while. ( )

In this novel Christie sets out to, as she explains in her foreword, put a new spin on what was even in her day a hoary old cliche of detective novels: the dead body in the library. She succeeds by drawing out the wry humour in the characters, Miss Marple's lively friend Dolly and her retired Colonel husband in whose library said body was found, and by placing a twist into the story. Although I did remember what it was, from watching the TV adaptation with the incomparable Joan Hickson some years ago, it didn't spoil things as I didn't recall who the murderer might be. Part of the fun is reading about the prejudices of the various social classes of the time in which the story is set. Dolly calls upon her old friend Jane Marple because, apart from the frisson she experiences from being caught up at a safe removal from the murder, she is perfectly aware that her husband will be suspected of being implicated and will very shortly be snubbed by all and sundry in their very provincial community. So there are real stakes in Miss Marple not just identifying the culprit - and we know that she has done so pretty early on without being let in on the secret - but more importantly, proving it.

Not quite a 5 star read, because quite a bit of it is from the viewpoint of various senior policemen - there are rather a lot of them - who aren't really differentiated from a character viewpoint. I think, without seeing the TV adaptation again, that some of them must have been merged for dramatic purposes and also rather more made of the role of Inspector Slack and the comic possibilities of bringing him into a clash with Miss M, which doesn't really happen in this novel. But an easy page-turning read and therefore worthy of 4 stars. ( )