If you’ve read around in any of Agatha Christie’s work you know that one of the things that characterizes her mysteries is their theatrical nature. Murder is rarely a spur-of-the-moment sort of thing. It’s not just planned and premeditated but scripted, along with prepared costumes and very exact timings built into the plot.
If you’re playing along at home, these mysteries are often the most difficult to figure out. You may correctly guess whodunit but throw your hands up at how they did it because the “how” is so layered. One of the prime instances of this is Death on the Nile, but this short story is another good example. I think I knew right away who was going to kill Miss Greenshaw, and the way the murder was presented was so ridiculously dramatic made clear that it was being stage-directed, but I didn’t have it all figured out. In part because I don’t think that would be possible based on the evidence we’re given. As one critic remarked, this story is “a notable example of Miss Marple’s habit of drawing solutions from a hat, with hardly a trace of why or wherefore.”
At least the murderer had the good sense not to leave the body in the library. We’d already been down that road before with Miss Marple, and it was as much a cliché as it was then as it clearly is here. “The only thing the library needs is a body,” the collector of “monstrosities” opines. “Those old-fashioned detective stories about murder in the library” knew what they were about. So instead we settle for the drawing room. Bonus points though if you know what the reference to “Paul and Virginia” is to. They are, apparently, the subjects rendered in a “colossal bronze” found in the library of Greenshaw’s Folly. My guess is that they represent the lovers in an eighteenth-century French novel of the same name.
Alex Good 
So there’s no way to work out yourself how it was done? Seems a bit remiss for the reader, and possibly disappointing.
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You know that it was carefully planned and stage managed. And you’ll guess where someone was playing a role. It’s all quite a stretch though.
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I don’t suppose it matters much if it’s a good read anyway.
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It is a bit of fun. Miss M’s nephew Raymond is in it and he livens things up a bit. I don’t find Miss M herself very interesting I have to say.
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No, can’t say I’m enthused to read any, Mrs.Pollifax is way more fun.
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Christie is not nearly as much fun as an author as either Gilman or Stout.
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You still grumpy?🤣
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I’m doing better. Sunny and the job went well.
But not happy, yet. Another 2hrs for that…
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one down now 🙂
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I’ll be Booky is always happy and is known as Mr. Sunshine in at work. He just pretends to be a grump online.
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Hahaha right! 🥴
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And home! Life is now good 😀
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I’m rather grumpy this morning. Everything I’ve typed so far (and I’ve tried 3-4 times) comes out super critical and blaaaah.
I guess it is a good thing I stopped reading golden age mysteries when I did…
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You just need a bottomless stack of pancakes with golden syrup waterfalls to cheer you up!
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Oh yum!
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Well, hot water and an energy drink are what I’ve got right now. Not quite the same 😦
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That’s better than me this morning. I ate a bag of cheesy twists.
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Sounds good to me!
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Theatrical is okay; it’s when they use actual actors as characters that I pull back. And Christie likes to do that. The first EQ had a bunch of actors. I prefer the normal professions or just regular people.
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Actors sometimes do get involved in Christie. Also a lot in Ngaio Marsh as I remember, but she had a theatrical background. I don’t mind it, but it’s a really fanciful notion of how a murder is committed. The killers are impresarios putting on a show.
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