by Barb, working in her new study in Portland, Maine. There are still some boxes to go through, but it’ll do for now
I’ve been working on a new project for my publisher, Kensington Books. It’s actually an update of a novel I wrote in 2011. I finished it, but then the Maine Clambake Mysteries came along, I got busy, and the manuscript has been languishing in the proverbial drawer ever since. Okay, in the virtual drawer. I stole the original first chapter for a short story that was published in Level Best Books Noir at the Salad Bar.
The book is titled, Jane Darrowfield, Professional Busybody. I originally conceived of Jane as my Miss Marple. My version is contemporary, and takes place in Cambridge, Massachusetts. I thought a modern Jane would be divorced, not never-married. And instead of learning everything she needed to know about human nature from observing the citizens of St. Mary Mead, my Jane has seen it all at her job, climbing the ranks of AT&T and later all the permutations of what eventually became Verizon. And –would we even think of her as “old”? After all, old has gotten very much older.
I devoured the Miss Marple stories as a kid, back before YA literature was a thing. I loved them, but over the years, between the movies and the TV shows, my memory has gotten quite fuzzy. Back when I wrote the book the first time, I re-read the first Miss Marple and the last.
Just as Mickey Mouse appears rat-like in his early appearance in Steamboat Willy (1928), Miss Marple is an unpleasant gossip whom people avoid in her first appearance in The Murder at the Vicarage (1930). In Nemesis (1971), the last full-length book written (though not published), Miss Marple is much as we know her and is very much at the center of the mystery.
Struggling with point of view and tone as I rewrite my manuscript, I thought I would turn back to the master. I picked three from an internet list I found of the “best of the Miss Marples,” The Moving Finger (1943), A Murder is Announced (1950), and A Pocket Full of Rye (1953). Each was fascinating in its own way.
In The Moving Finger, Miss Marple turns up late–the book is more than 80% done. She plays a key role, but not the only role in the solution. The book reads, honestly, as if it is someone else’s story entirely, and then her publisher told Christie, “you better make it a Miss Marple,” after it was done.
Indeed, this is a characteristic of these early Miss Marple mysteries. She shows up a little sooner in A Murder is Announced, and her reputation precedes her, at least among the detectives. But it is not her story in any sense and there are only two scenes from her point of view, though she is the major driver of the solution. I haven’t finished A Pocket Full of Rye, the police are well on the case and have interviewed all the major suspects and we’ve not yet seen Miss Marple.
Keeping your sleuth scarce is a wonderful technique for a mystery writer. Going into her point of view is fraught–to play fair we most reveal all she knows, and a distant sleuth will be more exotic, their thought processes and techniques more inscrutable. (See Conan Doyle.) However, it won’t work for me in this case.
Nonetheless, I plan to keep re-reading. Christie’s language and descriptions are far more wonderful than she gets credit for, and her pictures of privileged life during and after the World War II are so interesting. The puzzles are great, of course. I always get a piece, but never the whole.
Readers: Are there any Christie fans among us? What are your favorites? What should I re-read next?
Kait Carson
Charlene D’Avanzo 
I have a soft spot in my heart for Quin and Satterthwaite as well as Tommy and Tuppence.
I love Tommy and Tuppence, too.
Oh, me! I was so excited to find a selection of leather-esque covered Agatha Christie novels at a bookstore recently (the will be having a sale this weekend, I plan to go back and get the others).
I just finished DEATH ON THE NILE, but that’s a Poirot. What about SLEEPING MURDER, Miss Marple’s last case?
Good luck with the purchase. Sleeping Murder was the last book published, and Miss Marple’s last case, but not the last Marple Christie wrote, which is why I chose Nemesis, but now I must go back around and read Sleeping Murder.
Oh, I forgot about Nemesis.
I’ve read and reread all the Poirots and really liked the recent film version of “Death on the Orient Express”. Thanks for the piece – It’s past time that I reread the “Miss Marples” and pay more attention to Christie’s writing style and technique.
I think I need to re-read the Poirots next.
Anonymous is me!
I love this statement! Unmasking or existential angst?
I read Agatha Christie when I was young too. But I confess I didn’t take to her the way so many readers have. I loved a bit a of romance so read much more Mary Stewart, Victoria Holt, and Phyllis A. Whitney books. I need to go back and read Christie again.
I’d be interested to hear what you think of them.
I’m really looking forward to your new project, Barb. Jane Darrowfield is a great character.
I recently re-read Murder on the Orient Express and was struck, as you were, by Christie’s beautiful language and descriptions, so I moved on to Miss Marple in A Murder is Announced. I followed that with a short story collection called The Regatta Mystery and Other Stories where I was happy to find “Miss Marple Tells a Story.” In another life, I wrote a curriculum unit for the Yale Teachers Institute based on that work, so I have a soft spot for that particular story. Liz, I found those “leather” editions at a used bookstore. They are great.
I really want to read some of the Miss Marple short stories as a part of this process.
Looking forward to this new project, Barb! How does it feel to “move” from Maine to Cambridge?
Sigh. When I lived in the town next to Cambridge, I was writing about Maine and now that I live in Maine…C’est la vie.
I re entry re-read all the Poirot books…now I guess I need to do the same with Miss Marple. Christie holds up well…still great reading! Can’t wait for your next one, Barb.
Thanks. I am feeling like I need to read the Poirots next.
The late-arriving sleuth device probably wouldn’t work unless your editor was a fan of Christie’s Miss Marple masterpieces. Only she could get away with such unconventional plot-building. I can just hear that editor complaining “Your sleuth arrives too late! Fix it!”
LOL. I agree. You need to reach a place where the reader really trusts you to pull that off.
I love Agatha Christie! I read them all as a teenager. At that time Tuppence and Tommy were my favorites among her detectives, but I’ve come to really appreciate Miss Marple; after all we have two things in common — our first name and our hobby (knitting not snooping). The Moving Finger has always been one of my favorites, though I quite like Sleeping Murder, despite the less than stellar reviews it received.
Looking so forward to your next book. I am and have been for many years a huge fan of Agatha Christie. My favourites are the Poriots. I too really enjoyed the Latest remake of the movie “Murder on the Orient Express.