Product Description

BBC Radio 4 full-cast dramatisation starring June Whitfield as the deceptively mild spinster sleuth. A Pocket Full of Rye With only one bizarre clue to the agonizing death of a wealthy financier, Miss Marple must unravel a mystery hidden in a child's nursery rhyme that is to prove one of the strangest cases of her life.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #42048 in Books
• Published on: 2005-03-21
• Released on: 2005-03-21
• Format: Audiobook
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Audio CD

Customer Reviews

Not many suspects, but buckets full of red herrings.
Almost every formula, idea, and trick that Agatha Christie used in her detective fiction works proved to be entirely successful and won her an enormous reading public. Making use of nursery rhymes was one such formula. Nursery rhymes can reawaken the sense of wonder, mystery and enchantment in any reader. They also can carry symbolic levels of meaning, and some are allegories.

In this her 1953 offering she makes use of the nursery rhyme "Sing A Song Of Sixpence". Appropriately it is one of her Miss Marple books. Although her elderly spinster sleuth has little to do here, and is late making her appearance, it is she who perceives and urges the significance of the nursery rhyme. "Don't you see, it makes a pattern to all this."

The murders occur in the disfunctional family of Rex Fortescue, a financier, and the action occurs in his London office and in the family home, Yew Tree Lodge. The opening chapters are wonderfully engaging. Agatha Christie, when she took the trouble, could sketch characters vividly. Amongst all of them in this book, there are not more than a handful of suspects. To compensate, Mrs Christie throws in buckets full of red herrings.

You'll enjoy the puzzle, and having innumerable theories suggested and dismissed. The solution, when it comes, however, is no more plausible than is the likelihood of a blackbird pecking off a maid's nose.

If you can obtain the unabridged reading of the book by Rosemary Leach, your enjoyment will be enhanced. Rosemary Leach is unusually skilled at "doing" the voices of a large cast of characters, male and female.

Not many suspects, but buckets full of red herrings.
Almost every formula, idea, and trick that Agatha Christie used in her detective fiction works proved to be entirely successful and won her an enormous reading public. Making use of nursery rhymes was one such formula. Nursery rhymes can reawaken the sense of wonder, mystery and enchantment in any reader. They also can carry symbolic levels of meaning, and some are allegories.

In this her 1953 offering she makes use of the nursery rhyme "Sing A Song Of Sixpence". Appropriately it is one of her Miss Marple books. Although her elderly spinster sleuth has little to do here, and is late making her appearance, it is she who perceives and urges the significance of the nursery rhyme. "Don't you see, it makes a pattern to all this."

The murders occur in the disfunctional family of Rex Fortescue, a financier, and the action occurs in his London office and in the family home, Yew Tree Lodge. The opening chapters are wonderfully engaging. Agatha Christie, when she took the trouble, could sketch characters vividly. Amongst all of them in this book, there are not more than a handful of suspects. To compensate, Mrs Christie throws in buckets full of red herrings.

You'll enjoy the puzzle, and having innumerable theories suggested and dismissed. The solution, when it comes, however, is no more plausible than is the likelihood of a blackbird pecking off a maid's nose.

If you can obtain the unabridged reading of the book by Rosemary Leach, your enjoyment will be enhanced. Rosemary Leach is unusually skilled at "doing" the voices of a large cast of characters, male and female.

A Great Read
This is a brilliant miss Marple novel and it is one of my favourite Agatha Christies books. It isn't too complicated but it is not simple either.

It is about the leader of a financial industry ( Rex Fortescue ), who gets poisoned during work and dies shortly after. The obvious suspect is his wife but is this actually the case? Two more murders shortly follow and miss Marple is called in to help the investigation. She quickly discovers that the murders are following the nursery rhyme Sing A Song Of Sixpence.

The clues are, a connection with the blackbird mines and a family called the MacKenzie's, Rex's will, why the murderer chose to kill according to the rhyme. There are lots more clues aswell.

I think this is a great book and most people will really enjoy it. If you like this type of book, another equally brilliant one, that is similar to this one, is Crooked House.