From the Bookshelf of Reading the Detectives…

Nemesis (Miss Marple, #11)

Agatha Christie

Start date: December 1, 2017

Finish date: December 31, 2017

Discussion: Group Challenges

Find A Copy At

Libraries

Group Discussions About This Book

Showing 2 of 166 topics — 7,784 comments total

Group Challenges

* Sept 25: The Mystery of the Blue Train (1928) by Agatha Christie
By Susan · 14 posts · 16 views

last updated Sep 02, 2025 12:08AM

* Sept 25: The Mystery of the Blue Train (1928) - SPOILER Thread
By Susan · 4 posts · 12 views

last updated Sep 01, 2025 04:16PM

showing 5 of 5 topics view all »

What Members Thought

Feb 03, 2018 Jan C rated it really liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: mystery, 2018, rtd-2017-missmarple-challenge

One of my favorites of Miss Marple's stories. Not sure why. Maybe it is the promise of riches (to her) at the end or danger she puts herself in. Or just the fact that she is traveling around rather staying in one (relatively) safe place.

Jason Rafiel, whom she met when her nephew sent her to the West Indies, gave her the sobriquet of Nemesis and is dying, leaves her some funds if she will resolve a situati0n. He doesn't really tell her what the situation is, and his lawyers don't really know much ...more

15 likes · Like · see review

Sep 24, 2023 Bev rated it really liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: bought-2018, british-mystery, mount-tbr-2023, mystery, silver-age-mystery

Several years ago Miss Jane Marple and Jason Rafiel shared a murderous adventure in the Caribbean. Miss Marple had shown up in Rafiel's room late one night with a pink wooly scarf around her neck and, in the persona of Nemesis, had asked him to help prevent another murder. When Rafiel began making plans to see justice done in another matter, he included Miss Marple (all unawares) in those plans. So, when Rafiel dies Miss Marple has an invitation to visit his solicitors where she will receive an Several years ago Miss Jane Marple and Jason Rafiel shared a murderous adventure in the Caribbean. Miss Marple had shown up in Rafiel's room late one night with a pink wooly scarf around her neck and, in the persona of Nemesis, had asked him to help prevent another murder. When Rafiel began making plans to see justice done in another matter, he included Miss Marple (all unawares) in those plans. So, when Rafiel dies Miss Marple has an invitation to visit his solicitors where she will receive an unusual request through a letter he left with Mr. Broadribb:

Our code word, my dear lady, is Nemesis....I want you to investigate a certain crime. I have ordered a certain sum to be placed so that if you accept this request and as a result of your investigation this crime is properly elucidated, the money will become yours absolutely.

And that's pretty much all she's told about Rafiel's request. There's a crime to be investigated--either one that already occurred and justice was not done OR one that will occur and the wealthy businessman wanted to be sure justice would be done. The solicitor, Mr. Broadribb, knows no more about it than she does.

She decides to take on the task and makes some tentative efforts to learn more about Mr. Rafiel's life (beyond what she knows from their brief encounter in the Caribbean). Her best bet is to try and find Rafiel's former employees and see what they can tell her. She meets, as if by accident, Rafiel's former secretary who tells her that there had been some scandal involving the businessman's son, but she knows little beyond the fact that there was a scandal. Miss Marple cannot find the valet/masseur who attended him and she begins to think her investigation will be over before it's barely begun when she receives two more communications.

The first is another letter from Rafiel telling her that since she's accepted his request, she will receive a second message in two days time. She does and it is from a tour company telling her that Mr. Rafiel had reserved a space for her on their Tour No. 37 of Famous Houses and Gardens in Britain. Miss Marple doesn't know if the purpose of the tour is to introduce her to one of her fellow passengers of to take her to a particular place where crime has happened...or will happen, but she is prepared to find out. She meets several people who are able to tell her more about the scandal surrounding Michael Rafiel. Two girls--including one named Verity that Michael supposedly love--disappeared several years ago. Verity was found strangled with her face beaten in. The other girl was never found. And Michael was convicted of Verity's murder. But when one of Miss Marple's fellow passengers is killed by a falling boulder, she decides that her job must be to find out the truth of Verity's death--because Miss Elizabeth Temple knew Verity and had told Miss Marple that she was on a pilgrimage to find out the truth as well?

This is one time that Dame Agatha didn't pull the wool over my eyes. I recognized the clues and picked up on the culprit right away. But that didn't detract from my enjoyment. Nemesis is enjoyable for a reason that normally doesn't attract me. Often I find when an author takes a favorite detective and places them outside their normal locale that I don't much care for the story (most of the Nero Wolfe stories that take him out of the brownstone for extended periods of time--Death of a Dude and The Black Mountain, for instance). But taking Miss Marple out of St. Mary Mead and placing her on the bus tour, put her at the center of the action for most of the novel and I liked that a lot. It was interesting to watch her go from having no idea what Jason Rafiel wanted her to investigate to picking up pieces bit by bit and finally fitting them all together. Excellent read.

First posted on my blog My Reader's Block. ...more

4 likes · Like · see review

Feb 08, 2017 Nanosynergy rated it liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: series, mysteries-thrillers-espionage, british, 2017read, reviewed, fiction-1970s, fiction

Wealthy and eccentric businessman Jason Rafiel, whom Miss Marple met while vacationing in the West Indies in A Caribbean Mystery, dies and leaves a mystery for her to solve for him (and even some money should she be successful). He pays for her to go on a garden tour which is really just the first step in a pre-planned breadcrumb-like set of clues to guide her to the players involved. A quirky mystery for the "old pussy" (as she is referred to regularly in this series). She is certainly not a wa ...more

3 likes · Like · see review

Jul 23, 2016 Franky rated it really liked it

Shelves: mystery

In this installment of the Miss Marple series, Miss Marple has been given a rather unique mystery to solve: one with very little details or clues. To begin, she has to figure out exactly what it is that needs to be solved, and then proceed. She is given details and notes from the late Mr. Rafiel which direct her somewhat, but she has to trust her own intuition to figure out what course of action to take. Mr. Rafiel has provided her the opportunity to go on a tour of famous British houses, and th ...more

1 like · Like · see review

Jan 07, 2019 michelle+8 rated it really liked it

Shelves: 2019

I don't know if this book really started out as slow as it felt to me, or if it was just because I kept starting it and then getting distracted by one thing or another. Once I got into the main story, though, it was a fully engrossing read. How is Miss Marple going to solve the mystery when she doesn't even know what mystery she's solving? She's surrounded by a cast of characters -- each of whom could be important players in an unsolved murder, or merely innocent bystanders -- and struggles to s ...more

Like · see review

Jan 30, 2013 Amy rated it it was ok

I loved all the charm of the earlier books in the Miss Marple series but poor little Jane Marple with Victorian tendencies just doesn't fit in the 1970's and it took me out of the story to hear references to mini-skirts and guys with long hair. This book also lacked the charm of relating her experience to people we knew from St. Mary's Mead and the mystery felt rather disjointed. I would skip this unless you are the most die hard of Christie fans. After reading it I felt rather sad that so much ...more

Like · see review