With the blessing of Rosalind Hicks, Agatha Christie’s daughter, writer Anne Hart has crafted a “biography” of one of Ms. Christie’s most famous and beloved characters. Her source material was the Miss Marple stories themselves, the 12 novels and 20 short stories; she combed through these works, gleaning every single mention of anything at all that might give a hint as to Miss Marple’s childhood, adolescence, and young and middle-aged adulthood before she emerged, fully formed, at around age 65 in The Murder At the Vicarage (she had appeared in a baker’s dozen of short stories before that, collected in The Thirteen Problems). This is an absolute delight of a book, extremely engaging and well-organized; one need not have read all of the Marple stories (I haven’t) to enjoy this, although certainly some acquaintance with Miss Marple is necessary. There’s a handy list at the back of all publications up until the date of this volume, 1985, and also a section concerning Miss Marple’s appearances in television, film and radio; I’m sure that by now those categories have expanded somewhat, but this is still useful. Recommended! ( )

I thought I had read every Miss Marple mystery, and knew every detail about her, until I happened onto this little quasi-biography. So while this author does a wonderful job drawing themes together from her books, and reminded me of why I like the character so much, she also tells me some new things about this little old lady sleuth. I will be searching out several of Christie's short stories featuring Miss Marple to fill in the gaps. This is a great little compendium of "facts" about the "fictional" detective - a thoroughly enjoyable read. ( )

Fun! ( )