There's a good reason why virtually all of Agatha Christie's mysteries are still in print: she was, above all else, a wonderful story-teller. That's evident in her novels, to be sure, but perhaps even more so in many of her short stories, where the limited length also limited the scope of the story and allowed Christie's genius to shine more brightly.
Take the case of Miss Marple, that quintessential "little old lady" who proves to be more than a match for any number of criminals and evildoers over the course of her fictional career. The earliest Miss Marple stories come from "The Tuesday Club Murders
"The Tuesday Club Murders" is based on a simple premise: there is a small group of people in the tiny English town of St. Mary Mead who gather every Tuesday to discuss some mystery and attempt to solve it. The participants include an ex-commissioner of police, a lawyer, a clergyman, a writer and his fiancee - and Miss Jane Marple. Guess which one of them is able to see through the deceptions and irrelevancies to unmask the true solutions of these fascinating problems.
Christie began writing these stories in 1927, and this collection was first published in 1932 (as "The Thirteen Problems"). The stories feature Christie - and Miss Marple - at their best. The reader may be mystefied, but Miss Marple uses common sense and her own everyday experiences of village life to cut through to the solution every time. One of these stories at bedtime beats the chocolate on the pillow as a good-night treat.
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