Finally a good Miss Marple story. The setting is familiar, with Miss Marple invited to a dinner at the Bantry estate, where she listens to a ghost story about the wife of a friend of Colonel Bantry being frightened to death by a strange prophecy. Or at least so it seems. But Miss Marple isn’t having any of it: “You see, if I were going to kill anyone – which, of course, I wouldn’t dream of doing for a minute, because it would be very wicked . . . I shouldn’t be at all satisfied to trust to fright.” Instead there’s a complicated plot involving the usual ruses (chemicals, poison, disguise). But the solution comes by way of a single clue that is nicely slipped in and that plays fair. What I mean is that you don’t have to know about hundreds and thousands or Somerset House, but just pay attention to something that gets said in passing that is revealed to be significant later when something else is said, again in passing. It’s the sort of thing you can smile at and say “OK, I missed that, but it was very clever.” I think that’s the most you can say for a short mystery story, so well done!

Marple index