Sleeping Murder in Reading the Detectives

Mar 15, 2017 Susan rated it really liked it · review of another edition

Although this is listed as the thirteenth Miss Marple novel, and was published in 1976, it was actually written during WWII and shows her as a fairly sprightly lady, compared to some books. According to the Agatha Christie website, it should sit between “The Moving Finger,” and “A Murder is Announced,” and that is where I have positioned it in my re-reading of these books.

Gwenda Reed has arrived from New Zealand, charged with buying a house for her, and her new husband, Giles; who is due to join ...more

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Mar 21, 2017 Lady Clementina ffinch-ffarowmore rated it really liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: british, mystery, miss-marple, agatha-christie, murder

Book 5 for the Miss Marple challenge. I was excited to read this one as this is the first of the books in the Miss Marple challenge that I had not read before. I also only discovered because of the challenge that though this book was published last, it was written much earlier and chronologically also falls early in the series. This one was in a way Miss Marple’s Five little Pigs, a murder that has happened years ago, without even clarity on whether it was a murder but based on a (then) child’s Book 5 for the Miss Marple challenge. I was excited to read this one as this is the first of the books in the Miss Marple challenge that I had not read before. I also only discovered because of the challenge that though this book was published last, it was written much earlier and chronologically also falls early in the series. This one was in a way Miss Marple’s Five little Pigs, a murder that has happened years ago, without even clarity on whether it was a murder but based on a (then) child’s memory of events. Gwenda Reed arrives in England to find a house for herself and her husband and ends up finding the “perfect” house, only to have some mysterious things happen. It turns out that she has been there before, and lived as a child in that very house, but not only that she may have also witnessed a murder. Miss Marple urges Gwenda and Giles to leave matters be but the two set out to investigate, and she soon joins them using her “social network” (the kind there was before the days of Facebook and such) to get introduced to Dillmouth society. They identify and look up people from Gwenda’s family’s past, meet and interview them trying to pick up clues into what happened all those years ago and whether Gwenda’s memories were all real or mixed with fancy somehow.

The mystery/puzzle itself was very enjoyable and I would have been entirely surprised by whodunit (only I remembered suddenly from a TV adaptation that I’d seen some time ago) since for most of the book I was thinking on the wrong track. That did slightly spoil the surprise element for me but I nevertheless enjoyed the characters and how once again it is what people are “inside”—their true natures—that holds the key to how they act, irrespective of the facade they put on for us to see in everyday interactions.

Miss Marple in this one I found getting closer to the image of Miss Marple one has in one’s mind—using the same skills and still grey haired and rather frail but not as lacy and fluffy as in the earlier books. Also, she has a far more active part in this one, getting herself to Dillmouth, and participating in the investigation. Needless to say, I enjoyed it very much!
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Aug 25, 2018 Kavita rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

Shelves: mystery, uk

This is the last Miss Marple book, and I finally come to the end of my journey with the old lady. The thirteenth novel in the series is about a young woman who decides to settle down in England with her husband. She finds a very suitable house and discovers that she has a keen sixth sense about its past. This frightens her and it only gets worse when she gets the image of a murdered woman lying in her house in her mind suddenly. Miss Marple befriends the young couple and helps them unravel the m ...more

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Mar 24, 2012 Marilyn Maya rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

I joined Goodreads to review this book. I had read every one of Christie's books in younger days. I still love cozy mysteries as well as pychological dark ones. But I needed to say that in this book, Christie reveals her personal ideas and life more than any other. There is a character in the book who I think Christie patterned after her personal life. There is an unattractive woman who is married to a very charming man and everyone feels sorry for the husband whose wife is a jealous unhappy wom ...more

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Mar 19, 2017 Damaskcat rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

Gwenda and Giles Reed have bought a house in a small village on the South coast of England. Gwenda keeps seeing a body lying in the hall with the murderer standing over it and quoting from Webster's The Duchess of Malfi. Is there a ghost or is she experiencing flashbacks?

Could she have lived in the house as a child? Gwenda meets Miss Marple through the novelist Raymond West and she advices Gwenda to leave well alone and not try and find out what happened. But Gwenda and Giles are curious and dec ...more

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Apr 04, 2017 Jill rated it really liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: agatha-christie

Good story but I did actually guess the muderer in this one. Very unusual for that to happen with a Christie.

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Jul 22, 2017 Damaskcat rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

Shelves: miss-marple

Gwenda and Giles Reed have bought a house in a small village on the South coast of England. Gwenda keeps seeing a body lying in the hall with the murderer standing over it and quoting from Webster's The Duchess of Malfi. Is there a ghost or is she experiencing flashbacks?

Could she have lived in the house as a child? Gwenda meets Miss Marple through the novelist Raymond West and she advices Gwenda to leave well alone and not try and find out what happened. But Gwenda and Giles are curious and dec ...more

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Jun 05, 2018 Pranit rated it liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: miss-marple

What started as a dream soon turned out to be much more gruesome and definitely NOT a dream. How a murder which happened years ago, resurfaces & Miss Marple jumps to help solve this. I thought this very similar to Five Little Pigs where Hercule Poirot solves a murder which is based on similar lines. Still, it was fun to read.

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Aug 14, 2017 Sandy rated it liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: xmiss-marple-challenge-2017

Gwenda and Giles move into a old house and Gwenda keeps having strange happenings in it. She wonders if it is haunted. Miss Marple steps and alleviates her fears and helps her solve the mystery. Fun read but rather predictable who the culprit is.

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