[MPOV] Miss Marple: The Complete Short Stories

My rating: 3/5

Goodreads rating: 4.21/5

Published: January 1, 1985

Author: Agatha Christie

Genre: Cozy mystery, crime fiction, classic anthologies

At last - all 20 Miss Marple short stories in a single volume!

Jane Marple is from the village of St Mary Mead and applies her skills of observation and deduction to a wide variety of mysteries. Several of the supporting characters appear in many of these stories, including her nephew Raymond West, Dolly and Arthur Bantry of Gossington Hall, and Sir Henry Clithering formerly of Scotland Yard.

Miss Marple made her first appearance in a book in 1930, and her twelfth and final novel was published shortly after Agatha Christie's death almost 50 years later. In the intervening years Miss Marple also featured in 20 short stories, published in a number of different collections. But never before have they been available together.

In this complete volume, Miss Marple uses her unique insight to deduce the truth about a series of unsolved crimes - cases of a girl framed for theft, some disappearing bloodstains, the cryptic last message of a poisoned man, a woman killed within days of writing her will, a spiritualist who predicts death, a mortally wounded stranger in a church, a Christmas tragedy...

In all 20 ingenious crimes, every one guaranteed to keep you guessing until the turn of the final page.

The twenty stories are:

1. The Tuesday Night Club (1927)

2. The Idol House of Astarte (1928)

3. Ingots of Gold (1928)

4. The Bloodstained Pavement (1928)

5. Motive v. Opportunity (1928)

6. The Thumb Mark of St Peter (1928)

7. The Blue Geranium (1929)

8. The Companion (1930)

9. The Four Suspects (1930)

10. A Christmas Tragedy (1930)

11. The Herb of Death (1930)

12. The Affair at the Bungalow (1930)

13. Death by Drowning (1931)

14. Miss Marple Tells a Story (1935)

15. Strange Jest (1941)

16. Tape-Measure Murder (1941)

17. The Case of the Caretaker (1942)

18. The Case of the Perfect Maid (1942)

19. Sanctuary (1954)

20. Greenshaw's Folly (1956)

Overall, I have enjoyed most of the short stories. I am a fan of Agatha Christie's mystery novels as such when I saw this book, I was excited as short stories are easier to read and digest. The only downside for me was the so-called old English, which is different from current, so I have to really imagine that I am in the 30's while reading it. The way the story was plotted, and the mystery was solved truly had me thinking and guessing LOL! I still have lots of standalones to read so it's about time I should drop by the public library near me to loan them. This is definitely an easy pick me up to read as and when we are free.