Miss Marple’s Final Cases by Agatha Christie
published 1979
Miss Marple in disguise, solving crimes
(OK, no, it’s not, it’s my choice of picture for the exotic
dancer in the story Sanctuary, see below)
These stories were collected after Agatha Christie’s death in
1976, and were written quite a long time before – it was a tidying up operation,
& I’m looking at the book really for completism. The collection appears in
a couple of different versions, and often these days Greenshaw’s
Folly is added in: it really belongs in the 1960 collection, The
Adventure of the Christmas Pudding, and there is also the
strange question of Greenshore’s Folly (note spelling) which is a Poirot
story – full
explanation in this post. Two of the stories in here do not
feature Miss Marple at all, and have supernatural elements.
The others (with one exception, below) read very much as
though they belong in The
Thirteen Problems: they would fit in well there.
There are a number of familiar themes: no-one looks at the
servants, making impersonation easy, and Gladys is a good name for a maid. Miss
Marple has her poor view of the world: ‘the
depravity of human nature is unbelievable’.
One of the stories, The Case of the Caretaker, first
published in 1942, is very plainly a tryout for a later book, one she wrote quite
a long time after. Using my new patent #spoilernotspoiler system – the book in question is featured in
this
post,
but no need to look if you don’t want to know. (it is such a compact story,
fitted into 12 pages here, that you disrespectfully can’t quite think how she
expanded it to the 200 pages of the later book).
The Tape Measure Murder features a nod to that blog favourite, clothes detection. (I am not going to worry about slight spoilering of this story, as I feel the title just about does the job before you start). There is a green winter dress to be altered, and a woman in a kimono.
And it is entirely unclear how Miss Marple could possibly reach the
conclusions she does. Apart from that it’s great. All those jewel robberies in
big houses in the past – it’s a wonder anyone had a diamond left to bless
themselves. Dorothy L Sayers had The
Nine Tailors, Christie’s oeuvre is full of jewel thieves,
even one of Enid Blyton’s Five Finders Out book features one: The
Mystery of the Strange Messages. Perhaps I should start another list - rack your memories and make your
suggestions.
Sanctuary is different from, and more substantial than, the others, and has its own history – Christie wrote it to raise money for Westminster Abbey in 1954. It features Bunch and Julian Harmon from A Murder is Announced. 1950 Bunch consults Miss Marple about a dying man she discovers while arranging the flowers in the church where her husband is vicar. (You’d think she wouldn’t turn a hair after living through the carnage in her earlier appearance).
The plot is the usual farrago, involving an
exotic dancer, and some jewels that were not stolen, and some excitement with a
suitcase recovered from the left luggage in Paddington station. I do like to
illustrate an exotic dancer: the top photo is from the State
Library of Queensland. Who knows what jewels she may have earned in
her day?
The collection is an easy quick read, showing various
aspects of Christie’s short story abilities.
Art picture by Robert Lewis Reed.
Flower arranging from the National Library of
Wales.
I've read a couple of these, Moira. They may not be Christie's finest writing, but I found them fun all the same. I also like Christie's inventiveness when it comes to how Miss Marple gets involved in these mysteries.
ReplyDeleteYes, I like them, a nice easy read. And yes - she certainly used her imagination there in getting Miss M to the scene!
DeleteMost of the jewel thefts coming immediately to mind are Christie, but Margery Allingham’s collection “Mr Campion and Others” includes a couple of relevant stories - ‘The Name on the Wrapper’ (jewel-thievery at the Hunt Ball) and ‘The White Elephant’.
ReplyDeleteAlso, Patricia Wentworth’s “The Brading Collection” – not quite on a par with the roving country-house-raiding gangs, but jewels are stolen (or are they?) and this is at the heart of one of PW’s typically barmy reasons to split up a happy married couple.
Sovay
Jewel theft at a hunt ball! Combines two of my favourite features, I must look it up.
Deleteyes, perhaps a list of 'inadequate reasons why Wentworth's perfect couples split up' would make great reading.
The Listening Eye also has the theft of a diamond necklace (supposedly connected to Marie Antoinette no less). The robbery includes a murder for Miss S to investigate. BTW "inadequate" is putting it mildly! I think "barmy" came closer!
DeleteTee hee indeed. the Listening Eye promised a fancy dress ball (so someone could dress as Marie Antoinette) and didn't deliver, v disappointing. As if murder enough reason!
DeleteLord Peter Wimsey was mixed up in a country-house jewel theft, IIRC, in "The Nine Tailors."
DeleteOh yes, always my goto example. It made a huge impression on me when I first read it, the whole story and the maids sitting up in the gallery in the church...
Delete... whenever I go to an old church like that I always think of them.
DeleteIn Dornford Yates' Pleydell books (the Berry ones) Daphne has her famous emerald bracelets stolen time after time.
ReplyDeleteI tried Yates and didn't take to them, but I LOVE the idea of repeated thefts of the bracelets!
DeleteFamily diamonds figure in Anthony Gilbert's The Black Stage.
ReplyDeleteAnother one that I've read, and blogged on, but wouldn't have remembered! thanks...
DeleteThe Victorians started it, surely. Think of Wilkie Collins and The Moonstone or Trollope and The Eustace Diamonds.
ReplyDeleteYes indeed. The list gets longer...
DeleteThe Case of the Deadly Diamonds sounds as if it should be a Perry Mason story, but it's actually by Christopher Bush, one of his later Ludovic Travers books.
ReplyDeleteI do like to read a Christopher Bush book now and again, even though I find Ludovic Travers very annoying.
DeleteThe adventures of Raffles are more crime stories than mysteries, but I think they involved several jewel thefts from country houses. Never his host' s property, though--that would go against
ReplyDelete...against the Raffles code. Too darn easy to hit the Publish button!
ReplyDeleteNever totally convinced by his morals, but a good addition to the list
DeleteI enjoyed the Raffles stories but leaving Bunny to carry the can? Not Cricket!
DeleteSovay
A very different sort of Watson!
Delete"The Experiences of Loveday Brooke, Lady Detective" by Catherine Louisa Pirkis has some handy tips for anyone setting up in the country-house-robbing business, courtesy of Mr Dyer who runs the detective agency for which Miss Brooke works - for example, no use targeting a house that's shut up for the winter because all the plate and jewellery will have been sent to the bank for storage. Complicated ground plans need be no deterrent, however - "A dismissed dishonest servant would supply half a dozen maps of the place for half-a-sovereign.". Mr Dyer takes it for granted that if householders have firearms, they may well use them against burglars - no indication that the law might take a dim view - and he recommends electric lighting as "one of the greatest safeguards against burglars that a man can give his house",
ReplyDelete... and my comment seems to have appeared twice - not sure how that happened!
ReplyDeleteSovay
Loveday Brooke is completely new to me - thanks for the reference and of course the usefu tips on burglary! In one of Nancy Mitford's novels she says that any burglar who cracked the safe in Uncle Matthew's house would be very disappointed as it had nothing of value in it, while Aunt Sadie's jewels 'lay glittering about all over the house and garden, in any place where she might have taken them off and forgotten to put them on again'.
Deletehttps://openlibrary.org/works/OL1491846W/The_Experiences_of_Loveday_Brooke_Lady_Detective?edition=key%3A%2Fbooks%2FOL8472849M
DeleteThanks Shay, very helpful
Delete