This has been going slowly. I put together all the clues to try to find a solution and blanked out. So here is all we know so far - maybe someone else will spot something I didn't.
Tommy said:
I didn't Die Because I saw too Much
I didn't Die because I was Greedy
I didn't Die for Misdirection
I died so others could die.
And his answers to questions (and my conclusions) are:
A Miss
Marple story that was published after 1952, so I think it is in one of the following:
The victim
was not murdered and there was no rehearsal for murder.
There is a
doctor in the book but he wasn’t a suspect.
Victim had
children, he/she/they were not suspects.
Not Major
Halliday from “Sleeping Murder”, Carrie
Louise’s first husband from “They do it with mirrors”, Jason Rafiel from “Nemesis, Major Palgrave from “Caribbean”, or Goedler, Belle’s husband from “A Murder is
announced”
Tommy hinted that he was wistling a tune from the film, so probably it was made into film that has distinctive music.
I just thought of a weird possibility - is it Colonel Bantry? He dies sometime between "The body in the library" and "The mirror cracked", and because he dies, his widow sells Gossington hall, which is eventually bought by Jason Rudd the movie director, thus indirectly causing three murders.
I'm "gobsmacked". I'd never have thought of him if not for eliminating all the others. I'll take a couple of days to think of a riddle - meanwhile, if anyone else thinks of one, feel free to take my turn. Tommy, which music did you mean you were whistling - the end of the Joan Hickson version?
No, the person I'm thinking of isn't Norton (I take it you are thinking of Mr. Norton from "Curtain" and not Norton Kane from Double Sin, but it isn't either of them). I'll have to reread "Curtain" to see whether Norton also fits my clues.
Comments
Is it Goedler, Belle's husband from "A murder is announced"?
Tommy said:
I didn't Die Because I saw too Much
I didn't Die because I was Greedy
I didn't Die for Misdirection
I died so others could die.
And his answers to questions (and my conclusions) are:
A Miss Marple story that was published after 1952, so I think it is in one of the following:
1. A Pocket Full of Rye (1953)
2. 4.50 from Paddington, or What Mrs. McGillicuddy Saw! (1957)
3. The Mirror Crack'd from Side to Side, or The Mirror Crack'd (1962)
4. A Caribbean Mystery (1964)
5. At Bertram's Hotel (1965)
6. Nemesis (1971)
7. Sleeping Murder (written around 1940, published 1976)
Victim is male and British.
The victim was not murdered and there was no rehearsal for murder.
There is a doctor in the book but he wasn’t a suspect.
Victim had children, he/she/they were not suspects.
Not Major Halliday from “Sleeping Murder”, Carrie Louise’s first husband from “They do it with mirrors”, Jason Rafiel from “Nemesis, Major Palgrave from “Caribbean”, or Goedler, Belle’s husband from “A Murder is announced”
Tommy hinted that he was wistling a tune from the film, so probably it was made into film that has distinctive music.
No the there is nothing striking about the persons appearance and no it is not Mr McKenzie from Pocketful of Rye, it is not anyone from that book.
I was my last victim's victim
Before he was mine
Death is not the only tragedy
Stars...
Norton
Do both the Victim and the Victim's Victim appear in the Book?