If you are a fan of Agatha Christie's Miss Marple, be sure not to overlook one of the earliest books to feature her, 1942's The Body in the Library. It was the second Miss Marple book. The concept of a strange body found in a person's library had become something of a cliche long before then - a fact that Christie knew quite well, as she deliberately placed the mysterious body of an unknown woman in Colonel Bantry's library. I reviewed the book nearly a decade ago. Here, suitably edited, is what I had to say about it:
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Poor Colonel Bantry. Here he is, a respectable English gentleman, awakened by his wife one morning to be advised that there appears to be the body of a young woman in his library. She has been murdered. And she is a complete stranger to everyone in the house. Now what? The colonel tells his wife:
"Bodies are always being found in libraries in books. I’ve never known a case in real life."
"Perhaps you will now," said Mrs. Bantry.
Fortunately, Colonel and Mrs. Bantry have a good friend who can help. Her name is Miss Jane Marple. And the book is The Body in the Library, by Agatha Christie.
We return to Agatha Christie today for what I believe is one of her finer novels – and one of the best to feature Miss Marple, her delightful spinster detective who is able to solve quite complex mysteries based on her knowledge of human nature – a knowledge gained entirely from her life in a tiny English village. You might be tempted to sneer at Miss Marple – but you would be wrong, as a number of villains – and not a few police officers – have discovered over the years.
The concept of “the body in the library,” is deliberately meant to invoke a cliché I’m sure it probably reminds you as it does me of the old board game of “Clue” ["Cluedo" in most places except the U.S. -Ed.] – the body in the library as victim, perhaps, of Colonel Mustard using the dagger. Certainly the characters in The Body in the Library recognize and refer to the situation as being a cliché [though I should note that the game didn't appear until several years after Christie's book -Ed.].
But, of course, it is anything but a cliché to Colonel and Mrs. Bantry, or to their friend Miss Marple, or to the police. The Bantrys realize – as does Miss Marple – that unless the crime is solved, the villagers will always assume that the Colonel was having an affair with the victim and that he must somehow have been involved in the murder.
That is why Miss Marple is so willing to be drawn into the case and to offer her insights to the police. Not to the ever-industrious (if badly named) Inspector Slack, who manages to make himself disagreeable to everyone, including his superiors, but to the chief constable and the senior investigators who are working on the crime – and not getting very far.
As always, Miss Marple has the advantage of being able to draw on her extensive knowledge of human nature, as she has seen it over the years by observing the people she meets daily in her tiny village. Unlike the police, she has a pretty good idea right from the start about what really happened, and why the victim’s body was found in the Colonel’s library. The problem, as always, is one of finding proof.
It is in the discovery of that proof, and leading the police to the right conclusion, that Agatha Christie has a great deal of fun with the reader. As always with a Christie plot, the reader is carefully hoodwinked throughout. But she really does play quite fairly with the reader, providing clues – including some in Miss Marple’s own cryptic comments and parallels drawn with villagers she has known.
I think it is fair to say that the conclusion could come as a surprise to the reader – unless, of course, you have been paying very close attention – and even that may not save you. I must confess that Agatha Christie’s plots almost always manage to hoodwink me on first reading – though, as I went back over the book or even re-read it, I had to admit that I was honestly and thoroughly fooled. Mystery author Simon Brett, writing about Christie in a British reference book, observed: "it is hard to imagine that so many legitimate ways exist for an author to fool readers." I think that’s right on target.
Or perhaps we should leave the last word on the subject to Miss Marple – who tells her listeners, at the end of the book.
"As I’ve told you, I’ve got a very suspicious mind. My nephew Raymond tells me, in fun, of course, that I have a mind like a sink. He says that most Victorians have. All I can say is that the Victorians knew a good deal about human nature."
The words of Miss Marple. To find out more, you’ll have to read The Body in the Library, by Agatha Christie. It’s in print, and your mystery book dealer should be able to get a copy for you quite easily.
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To listen to the original podcast, please click here.
Next week: The Eye of Osiris, by R. Austin Freeman.
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