From the Bookshelf of Reading the Detectives…

Nemesis (Miss Marple, #11)

Agatha Christie

Start date: December 1, 2017

Finish date: December 31, 2017

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* Sept 25: The Mystery of the Blue Train (1928) by Agatha Christie
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Nov 14, 2017 Susan added it · review of another edition

This year I have been reading (or rather re-reading) all of the Miss Marple books. Although I have one book of short stories left, this is the final novel, published in 1971 (Christie died in 1976). Many of Christie’s later books are not considered up to par with her greatest works, mostly published in the 1930’s. Certainly, Christie – through her characters – is a little crotchety in this outing. Young women are referred to in rather unkind terms, showing the author’s displeasure with the more This year I have been reading (or rather re-reading) all of the Miss Marple books. Although I have one book of short stories left, this is the final novel, published in 1971 (Christie died in 1976). Many of Christie’s later books are not considered up to par with her greatest works, mostly published in the 1930’s. Certainly, Christie – through her characters – is a little crotchety in this outing. Young women are referred to in rather unkind terms, showing the author’s displeasure with the more relaxed society of the late Sixties and early Seventies. However, although her views are questionable, I simply love the feeling of plunging into any Agatha Christie novel and can forgive her virtually anything for all the joy and pleasure her writing has brought me over the years.

In a sense, this is, unusually, something of a sequel. Mr Jason Rafiel, the wealthy financier we first met in, “A Caribbean Mystery,” has died. To her surprise, Miss Marple receives a letter, asking her to visit a solicitors. A sum of money has been set aside, if she will accept a certain proposition. Mr Rafiel wants Miss Marple to investigate a crime – the problem is that there are no real instruction or information. Of course, Miss Marple accepts and is later invited to take a tour – to be specific Tour 37 of the Famous Homes and Gardens of Great Britain.

Knowing Mr Rafiel, Miss Marple expects that she will find out what she is meant to be investigating by being herself; asking questions and being the nosy, elderly woman that everyone expects. Along the way, she is approached by various people that Mr Rafiel has contacted before his death. For he trusted Miss Marple to solve an earlier injustice and, of course, she doesn’t let him down.

This has an interesting plot, with an unusual setting and a good cast of characters. I enjoyed the parts of the novel which featured Miss Marple on the coach tour, trundling around various stately homes and wondering which of her fellow passengers were of interest. Although I look forward to reading the last volume of short stories, I am both glad to have read all of the novels in order and saddened that I have come to the last in the series.

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Apr 02, 2018 Kavita rated it it was ok

Shelves: uk, mystery, movie-was-better

This book hinges heavily on a previous Marple book A Caribbean Mystery, in which Miss Marple meets a rich old man and they collaborate over a mystery and prevent a murder. Mr Rafael gains immense respect for Miss Marple and decides to send her off in pursuit to solve a personal tragedy.

A week after the death of Rafael, Miss Marple gets a letter from his lawyers and a proposal is put forth. She is supposed to solve a problem but she is not told what it is and what she is even supposed to do. But This book hinges heavily on a previous Marple book A Caribbean Mystery, in which Miss Marple meets a rich old man and they collaborate over a mystery and prevent a murder. Mr Rafael gains immense respect for Miss Marple and decides to send her off in pursuit to solve a personal tragedy.

A week after the death of Rafael, Miss Marple gets a letter from his lawyers and a proposal is put forth. She is supposed to solve a problem but she is not told what it is and what she is even supposed to do. But being a good sport, Marple gets on the historical houses and gardens tour arranged for her by Rafael and starts hunting around for clues. On the tour, she meets a character who talks about Rafael's son to her and the girl he was in love with about a decade ago. He was now in prison for the murder of the girl. Then the old lady is invited to spend a couple of days at a local manor house, and she realises that this is where the young girl lived before she died. The hunt begins and the case is solved eventually.

The book takes about seven chapters to even take off, making it one of the most boring of the series. Miss Marple ruminates over the same things again and again until you want to throw the book against a wall. Every new bit of information has to be gleaned through immense patience. I am used to Christie's crisp pace and this was terrible reading for me. There were also plot holes in the narrative, the major one being: why did Rafael (and everyone else) wait for ten years to pursue justice for his own son?

What makes the book worse is the constant misogyny by various characters. Christie was never a progressive but she had refrained from being a rape apologist for most of her writing career. I guess that in her old age in the free love era, she was simply unable to handle the social change and turned towards victim blaming big time. Several characters repeatedly mention that girls 'nowadays' seduce young men and then call it rape. This is repeated so many times that I suspect it was some sort of sexist agenda of the author.

Michael, the rapist, the forger, and the violent delinquent, could not possibly have murdered anyone. He, however, always lacked a moral compass apparently, which is no one's fault. Unlike the girls who choose their own sexuality, Rafael gets a free pass. Apparently his complete neglect of his son had nothing whatsoever to do with his violent criminal tendencies. Nothing at all! Only girls seduce and call it rape. Negligent fathers are not responsible for anything as long as they are financial whizzes and make more and more money. Fuck off, Christie!

The only saving grace was that the atmosphere was rich in this book. If Marple had dithered a little less and was more her usual self, I might even have enjoyed the plot. As it stood, the writing was bad, the plot made little sense, and the sexism was horrendous. Marple also constantly refers back to A Caribbean Murder constantly, so I recommend reading that one before you pick up this one. Or rather, just read the other one and leave this one alone! I would suggest watching the episode in Agatha Christie's Marple starring Geraldine McEwan instead. ...more

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Nov 24, 2017 Lady Clementina ffinch-ffarowmore added it

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

Book 13 of the Miss Marple Challenge. Miss Marple’s final full length mystery has her looking into a most unusual mystery―one where she doesn’t know even what she’s investigating. Miss Marple has received an interesting offer from Mr Rafiel, who she met and who was her “ally” in solving the Caribbean Mystery. Mr Rafiel has died recently and in his will proposed a bequest of £20,000 to Miss Marple contingent on her solving a problem using her special set of skills. But he doesn’t tell her what th ...more

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

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

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Jul 09, 2015 Ellen rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

Shelves: mystery-sleuth, my-favorites, christie, miss-marple

Nemesis by Agatha Christie.

Miss Marple receives word from the solicitors of an old acquaintance that she is to meet with them at her earliest convenience. She is informed that Mr. Rafiel has left her instructions which she must follow in order to inherit a substantial sum of money from his estate. The confusion lies in Mr. Rafiel's instructions. What exactly does he want from her? She has a tour already paid for her to join and then it's up to Miss Marple to glean whatever clues she can from her ...more

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May 21, 2024 Jazzy Lemon rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

Shelves: classics, english-authors

Miss Marple is an Old Pussy with a taste for evil!

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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

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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

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Dec 31, 2018 Pranit rated it it was amazing

Shelves: miss-marple

This story can be seen as a continuation to A Caribbean Mystery. However, you need not read to the previous novel to understand this one. It is very curious case which Miss Marple deals with. I liked the way the whole crime was set up & the challenges Aunt Jane faces before figuring out the culprit. This is one of those novels which I can see emerging as a movie in the near future.

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