From the Bookshelf of Reading the Detectives…

The Thirteen Problems (Miss Marple, #0.5)

Agatha Christie

Start date: February 1, 2017

Finish date: February 28, 2017

Discussion: Group Challenges

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Group Challenges

* Nov 25: Black Coffee (1950) By Agatha Christie
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What Members Thought

Feb 03, 2017 John Frankham rated it it was amazing

Shelves: crime-detective

Enjoyed a re-read.

Very rarely do I really like short stories, but this coherent and character-establishing book of thirteen Miss Marple stories was an exception. Well-written, lots of sly humour at the characters involved. A set of six murder cases narrated at a meeting at Miss Marples', then six more at her friend Dolly Bantry's. Only Miss Marple could solve these problems, although I did solve one! Then the last story is of an actual murder in St Mary Mead, and Miss Marple is able to tell the ...more

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Dec 29, 2023 Rosario rated it really liked it

I loved the premise of most of the stories, of a group of people getting together and telling each other stories, with Miss Marple always being the only one to immediately zero in on the answer. I loved seeing her logic for it. The stories themselves were all fine, no real standouts. But a really good variety of themes, settings and characters. A good collection.

2 likes · Like · see review

Feb 06, 2019 Marina rated it really liked it · review of another edition

Basically, in this collection of short stories, Miss Marple and her friends were having a gathering of somekind. Each of them shared mysterious stories and the rest tried to guess what happened or who did it. As a reader, it’s just incredibly fun to make my own guess. ⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀
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I want to say that there were interesting dynamics between older and younger generation. And my favourite comment from Miss Marple on this subject is, ‘I hope you dear young people will never realise how very wick ...more

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Apr 17, 2023 Laura Hannaway rated it it was amazing

Shelves: readchristie2023

#ReadChristie2023

Brilliant collection of very clever stories.

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Mar 29, 2015 Dipanjan rated it it was ok

Shelves: own-in-kindle

"The Thirteen Problems" is the second appearance of Miss Marple. But, this is rather an anthology of short mysteries with Miss Marple at the helm. In this anthology, we enjoy the little old Miss Jane Marple, a maiden aunt with a razor-sharp mind. Her intelligence belies her appearance.

In this book, she and the company propose a game: that each one tells of an otherwise unsolved mystery that only they know the solution to, and see how many among them can tumble to the correct answer. The game is ...more

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