This collection of short Miss Marple stories was enjoyable. While Agatha Christie mostly follows her pattern of “the most vulnerable-looking person is most suspicious”, I don’t read mysteries for the plot, so I didn’t care all that much. But the characterisation of poor old Miss Marple was very entertaining to read! I remember how this narration device got boring and even annoying when I read most of the Miss Marple books in one go, but over longer intervals, it works very well.
After reading this book and a Poirot one back to back, my current preference of the Detection Club era that I’ve read is: Dorothy Sayers, Agatha Christie, Arthur Conan Doyle, Chesterton. And I think it’s no accident that female writers are leading my list: First off, to be recognised as a good writer as a woman you had to perform to higher standards than men, of course. But also, I think you write better characters if you’re more observant, and marginalisation strengthens observation skills.
