Customer Reviews
Dear Aunt Jane's Final Short Cases. - By: Themis-Athena, 02 Nov 2008 
"Miss Marple insinuated herself so quickly into my life that I hardly noticed her arrival," Agatha Christie wrotein her posthumously-published autobiography (1977) about the elderly lady who, next to Belgian super-sleuth Hercule Poirot, quickly became one of her most beloved characters. Somewhat resembling Christie's own grandmother & her friends, although "far more fussy & spinsterish" & "notin any way a picture" of the author's granny, like her, she had a certain gift for prophecy and, "though a cheerful person, she always expected the worst of everyone & everything, & was, with almost frightening accuracy, usually proved right."
Although Christie herself considered Miss Marple her favorite creation - preferred even over the prim & proper Belgian with the many "little grey cells," of whose exploits she occasionally tired & whom she brought back again & again chiefly because of her audience's undying demand - there are only twelve Miss Marple novels & twenty short stories: while no small featin any other author's body of work, just over one tenth of the lifetime output of the writer justifiedly dubbed The Queen of Crime.
This posthumously-published compilation, first publishedin 1979, unites the last seven short stories revolving around St. Mary Mead's elderly village sleuth. Though Miss Marple had actually --in addition to the novel "A Murder at the Vicarage" (1930) -- even been introduced to readersin a canon of originally six and, after an expansion for republicationin book form, later thirteen short stories, Christie's readers would soon come to cherish her mostly on the basis of the aforementioned twelve novels, each & every one of which is a gem of detective fictionin & of itself. As a short story character, however, after the initial "Thirteen Problems," Miss Marple later only made rare intermittent appearances, whereas the majority of Christie's later short stories centered either around Hercule Poirot, or not around any of Christie's recurring characters at all.
In those stories that do, however, feature St. Mary Mead's most famous (and beloved) resident, readers of course also meet a number of other acquaintances from her novel-length adventures; first & foremost her doting nephew - thriller novelist Raymond West - & retired Scotland Yard Commissioner Sir Henry Clithering, as well as village solicitor Petherick, & of course the Bantrys (who would move center stage, much to their embarrassment,in "A Bodyin the Library," 1942). Add to these Raymond's new flame, artist Joyce (later reincarnated as his wife Joan); as well as,in the later stories gatheredin this collection, Miss Marple's niece Diana "Bunch" Harmon, who is married to the vicar of Chipping Cleghorn, a village not unlike St. Mary Mead (see "A Murder Is Announced," 1950), St. Mary Mead's Dr. Haydock, several maids called Gladys, & of course Inspectors Slack & Craddock & Colonel Melchett of Melchester C.I.D. & village Constable Palk, plus the usual cast of other unique characters, many of whom could just as well figurein one of the elderly lady's "village parallels," those seemingly unimportant events summing up her knowledge of life, & on which she unfailingly drawsin unmasking even the cleverest killer.
Avid Christie readers will also recognize certain other character types, plot snippets, settings & other features here & there; for Dame Agatha was known to draw repeatedly on devices she found to have worked before, & she tended to use her short stories as mini-laboratories for elements later expanded onin novels. Caveat, lector, of premature conclusions, however, for Christie was equally known to throwin a little extra twistin such cases: what is a real cluein one instance may well be a red herringin another & vice versa, & one story's innocent bystander may easily be the next story's murderer.
Miss Marple's final cases are:
From "The Regatta Mystery & Other Stories" (1939):
* "Miss Marple Tells a Story:" Miss Marple assists Mr. Petherickin the case of a client accused of having murdered his wife.
From "Three Blind Mice & Other Stories" (1950):
* "Strange Jest:" A rich iconoclast's final joke - at the expense of his heirs?
* "Tape-Measure Murder:" Miss Marple's knowledge of village life & human nature (once more) corrects the all-too straightforward path of Inspector Slack's investigation of an elderly lady's murder.
* "The Case of the Caretaker:" Dr. Haydock's story about a rural rascal, a poor little rich girl, an old estate & its grumpy caretaker.
* "The Case of the Perfect Maid:" Domestic service & burglaryin a Victorian estate-turned-apartment building.
From "The Adventure of the Christmas Pudding" (1960):
* "Greenshaw's Folly" (republishedin "Double Sin," below): A reverse-locked-room mystery at an eccentrically-built country estate.
From "Double Sin & Other Stories" (1961):
* "Sanctuary" (first published 1954, a/k/a "The Man on the Chancel Steps"): The last secret of a man found dying on Chipping Cleghorn's church steps.
A must for Miss Marple�s fans - By: Miguel M. Santos, 05 Apr 2005 
Miss Marple is my favourite of all of the recurrent Agatha Christie's characters & this collection of nine short stories didn't disappoint mein the least. Of the nine, two do not include the famous sleuth but are rather of a supernatural nature (calling them ghost stories would be a bit too much) & one of the Miss Marple's stories is taken from another book. All nine are very good, some of them among Christie's best plots. I loved the book & I strongly recommend it.
