A question very hard to answer,it is But if i give it a thought i can say 4.50 From Paddington , A Pocket Full Of Rye , A Murder is Announced and a Mirror Crack'd From Side To Side! Although i like Miss Marple's little cozy ways of dealing with problems.... And i am always amazed by them i must say.
Writers often take events, people, anecdotes, and other material and add it into their stories and Agatha Christie often did this. Poirot's The Hollow is a great example of this. But this post is about favorite Miss Marple books. One of my favorite Miss Marple's is A Murder Is Announced. Now one of the characters had the medical condition "goiter". I was reading through a book called "Duchess of Death" which is an unauthorized biography of Agatha Christie and I don't know how fully reliable it is but I know that there has to be some truth in what's contained in this book. Anyways, I wonder if the idea behind the character with "goiter" is based on this: "A year after Agatha returned to Torquay, she invited to Florence as the guest of Clara's friend May Sturges, who had traveled from America to the Alps to be operated on for a disfiguring goiter, which hung rather obviously from her neck. After successfully enduring the surgery, May traveled with her nurse Stengel to Italy, where she asked Agatha to join her for several weeks while she recuperated."
Interesting piece of information, @ChristieFanForLife . Once I've read about the little things that happens on everyday life and AC took to write her books. And A Murder is Announced is certainly one of the best AC books. The way Miss Marple solves the crime is outstanding!
Nemesis could have easily been an outstanding book and possibly could have stood next to A Murder Is Announced as one of the best AC books in the Miss Marple series, but what got in the way was its wordiness and repetitions. If only the book got through another round of exceptional editing and polishing, it could've stood out as one of the later Christie books, on the level of Endless Night and The Pale Horse. I mean, the premise and story idea is fantastic and very original and the use of its theme, "love", adds a haunting tone to the book. It's the middle of the book that could've been worked on and tweaked a bit more. I don't have a problem with the characterization, such as Elizabeth Temple or the Bradbury-Scott sisters, and we get some peeks into Miss Marple's thinking patterns, and Chapter 18, "Archdeacon Brabazon" is so beautifully written:
"And I will tell you this, Miss Marple. I know--none better, I have done a lot with young people, I have married a lot of young people and I have seen them come to grief, I have seen them unexpectedly turn out well--but I know this and recognize it. I know when a couple are really in love with each other. And by that I do not mean just sexually attracted. There is too much talk about sex, too much attention is paid to it. I do not mean that anything about sex is wrong. That is nonsense. But sex cannot take the place of love, it goes with love, but it cannot succeed by itself. To love means the words of the marriage service. For better, for worse, for richer, for poorer, in sickness, and in health. That is what you take on if you love and wish to marry. Those two loved each other. To love and to cherish until death do us part."
A.C. still demonstrates her wonderful ability at writing and dialogue, but if only her editors edited a bit more, this book would have been more memorable in the Marple corpus.
I think for me what demotes Nemesis to 2nd Favourite although I have 3 favourites is that it is lacking a Policeman although Professor Wanstead takes that role and the fact it lacks that cozy feeling which others give me although I possible get that feeling with Books that other people don't get that feeling, I agree, It could have been as good as Murder At The Vicarrage and in many ways it is, perhaps I have changed my opinion and I now have 4 Favourite Miss Marple books; A Murder Is Announced, 4.50 From Paddington, Sleeping Murder and now Murder At The Vicarage, I have always thought that one on a par with Body In The Library so when I re-read that shortly I may have 5 Favourite Miss Marple Books.
Nemesis is my favourite book, I find it not only the darkest of the Miss M stories, but the most engrossing too. It lacks the comfy village vibe that even A Caribbean Mystery has, it's an exceptional read. A Murder is Announced is also hugely absorbing.
I've been enjoying Miss Marple since I watched the new version of "Murder on the Orient Express" back in March. Just finished reading "4:50 from Paddington," which left a smile on my face at the conclusion of the mystery. So far my favorite Miss Marple book still is "A Murder is Announced" with "A Murder at the Vicarage" & "The Body In the Library" tied for second place
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And A Murder is Announced is certainly one of the best AC books. The way Miss Marple solves the crime is outstanding!