The one time Miss Jane Marple left England to take a warm, peaceful rest cure on a Caribbean island, it proved to be the undoing of a particularly vicious murderer. It also happened to be one of Agatha Christie's best mysteries about the formidable "little old lady" from the village of St. Mary Mead. I reviewed A Caribbean Mystery (1964) on the Classic Mysteries podcast several years ago. I liked it very much then - and I still do. Here's a transcript of that audio review - as usual, slightly edited. I hope you enjoy it - and, if you haven't read the book yet, by all means please do so!
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Major Palgrave had one bad habit: he talked too much. He would sit quite happily and repeat the same long, boring stories over and over, to whatever companion he had managed to corner at the Caribbean beach resort of St. Honoré. The others at the resort had learned how to pretend to be interested in what he was saying while generally ignoring him. But this never stopped Major Palgrave. So when he began talking to Miss Marple – offering to show her a photograph of a murderer – she really paid no attention to him. And then the Major died – quite suddenly. Too suddenly. And Miss Marple began to wonder whether the Major’s bad habit of talking too much had led to his death. It happens in A Caribbean Mystery, by Agatha Christie.
A Caribbean Mystery, first published in 1964, marks the only time Christie took her detective, Miss Marple, out of England to solve a case. Miss Marple’s nephew generously sent his aunt to the Caribbean after she had suffered from a bout of pneumonia, and travel to a warmer climate was recommended. So Miss Marple wound up at a resort on the fictional island of St. Honoré, a place apparently frequented by several British tourists, a few guests from other countries, and owned and managed by a young English couple.
As an elderly spinster, Miss Marple quickly attracted the attention of Major Palgrave, one of those bluff former-military Englishmen who do seem to inhabit many of these mysteries. He is a crashing bore, to be sure, fond of telling long, generally pointless anecdotes about incidents in his own past, and his listeners – including Miss Marple – have developed the fine art of listening politely, making polite interjections such as “Oh, really?” or “You don’t say,” and paying little or no attention to what was being said.
So when Major Palgrave, talking about murder cases he had known about, asks Miss Marple if she would like to see a snapshot of a murderer, she pays little attention – although something peculiar happens: Major Palgrave starts to pull a photo out of his wallet…then suddenly stops, because he sees something or someone behind Miss Marple…and loudly changes the subject. Miss Marple cannot be sure precisely who, or what, Major Palgrave saw.
And, the next day, Major Palgrave is dead. Apparently it was his high blood pressure; perhaps he wasn’t taking (or took too much of) that blood pressure medication in his room. But it certainly wasn’t a surprise.
Although nobody seems to be quite sure who it was who began talking about the major’s high blood pressure.
And Miss Marple can’t help wondering if that photo in the major’s wallet – a photo which now seems to have disappeared – might have had something to do with the major’s death…and that, perhaps, his sudden death wasn’t all that natural.
It’s a lovely base for a story – and, of course, Miss Marple is right to be asking questions. And there are a number of very interesting, well-developed characters here, including a very rich and very old millionaire who becomes involved in the case along with Miss Marple.
And, as usual in Agatha Christie, the reader is given all the necessary clues to help them solve the case along with Miss Marple…if they can be sharp-eyed enough to spot the clues. I suspect that most readers will be surprised and fooled, however; few authors were as talented at sending their readers off on false trails as Agatha Christie. There will be more deaths before Miss Marple is able to help the official investigators unravel the truth and expose a particularly unpleasant killer.
A Caribbean Mystery remains in print and available in paper, audiobook and e-book editions. I’d recommend it quite heartily; I think it’s one of the best of her later books about Miss Marple.
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You can listen to the complete original podcast version of the review by clicking here.
Next: Diabolic Candelabra, by E. R. Punshon.
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