Cannonball Read 17

Sticking It to Cancer One Book at a Time

Guinness book of world records, record for least Miss Marple in a Miss Marple book.

The Moving Finger (Miss Marple, #4) by Agatha Christie

by 1 Comment

This was fun, but it felt much less like a whodunit than I wanted it to, and Miss Marple came in late to the story even for Miss Marple. I think it may be a record of some sort, how little and how late she was in this book (and her parts were the best parts). Our narrator is actually Jerry Barton, a man who has moved to the small village of Lymstock on the advice of his doctor. Jerry is recovering from a plane […]

“Breakfast with the Borgias.”

A Pocket Full of Rye (Miss Marple, #7) by Agatha Christie

by Leave a Comment

This one was really good! I think it might be my favorite of the Miss Marple books I’ve read so far, which is about half of them. (Until now I liked A Murder is Announced the best, because it had so much of Miss Marple in it, but this one barely features her at all, and it was quite good, so who knows what my standards even are anymore.) This is one of her infamous nursery rhyme mysteries (I think she did three or four […]

Miss Marple Solves It Again (and Again and Again)

Miss Marple: The Complete Short Stories by Agatha Christie

by Leave a Comment

Keeping up my summer tradition of an Agatha Christie re-read I picked up Miss Marple: the Complete Short Stories. Hercule Poirot has always been my favorite Christie sleuth – it must be the Virgo in me that loves his precise mode of detection. I like a few of the Miss Marple novels, but wasn’t as familiar with the short stories. What’s great about Christie is that her books, no matter how intricately plotted, are (like Stephen King’s) character-driven. So, even if you have read them before […]

A Tidy Little Mystery

Murder at the Vicarage by Agatha Christie

by 4 Comments

I’m in the process of reading all the Hercule Poirot mysteries, but the waitlist for the ebooks at my library is ridiculously long. When I saw that the first Miss Marple mystery was available as an audiobook, I thought it might be a good choice while I wait. The Murder at the Vicarage audiobook is read almost like a play, with a different person voicing each character, and I thought that might be fun as well. The title pretty much sums up the plot: Colonel […]

Miss Marple is in this one from the beginning!

by Leave a Comment

I think I’ve come to the conclusion that I prefer Poirot books to Marple ones, but this one started off really well! One of the reasons I usually like Poirot better is that he’s usually more involved in the narrative. Miss Marple usually sidles in at the last moment and mostly does her work off page. But here, she was present from page one. Unfortunately, I just lost my motivation about halfway through as the mystery itself didn’t really hold my attention. Miss Marple’s childhood […]

Nothing like a cozy murder to get you through the holidays

by 3 Comments

While romance is my genre of choice, when I stray it is always to mysteries.  Lately my mystery reading has taken me to the historical and paranormal sub-genres, but my first love was of the cozy variety.  I read many of Agatha Christie’s books back in high school but hadn’t read any in 20+ years.  I remember liking almost everything she wrote, but the Miss Marple mysteries were my favorite.  Something about a woman who is underestimated and overlooked but outwits everyone is very appealing […]



Help Our Mission

You can donate to CBR via:

  1. PayPal
  2. Venmo