Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #14042 in Books
• Published on: 1997-07-10
• Original language: English
• Binding: Paperback
• 656 pages

Synopsis
Another four of Agatha Christie's twelve, celebrated Miss Marple novels in a single volume, bound in the stylish livery of the new series. A Caribbean Mystery As Miss Marple dozes in the West Indian sun, an old soldier talks of elephant shooting and scandals. Then he dies - shortly after offering to show her a picture of a murderer. It's not long before the deceptively frail detective finds herself investigating a most exotic murder...A Pocket Full of Rye Rex Fortescue, 'king' of a financial empire, was in his counting house; his 'queen' was in the parlour...and that's exactly where they were when they died. There are baffling similarities between the rhyme and the crime and it takes all Miss Marple's ingenuity to find them...The Mirror Crack'd from Side to Side Marina Gregg, the famous actress, witnesses a murder in her country home. But what gave her the expression of frozen terror that only Dolly Bantry saw? Dolly, of course, knows just who can find out: her old friend Miss Marple...They Do It With Mirrors To fulfil a promise to an old schoolfriend, Miss Marple stays in a country house - with 200 juvenile delinquents and seven heirs to an old lady's fortune.

One of them is a murderer - with, it seems, a talent for being in two places at once...

Customer Reviews

Vintage Miss Marple
I have to say this is a slightly mixed bag of Miss Marple mysteries: Pocket full of rye is one of my favourites, and they do it with mirrors one of my least favourite, with the other two falling somewhere in between. I think Miss Marple works best in her home village of St Mary's Mead and so having her in the Caribbean is slightly odd... still, all the Christie trademarks are here: great characters, witty writing and the sheer overwhelming ability to tell a great story and pull the wool over our eyes!

Miss Marple Omnibus 2
This collection of Miss Marple mysteries is excellent. Agatha Christie is at her very best with them. I could not put the book down until I had finished all the stories which made for a very enjoyable weekend. Each story is superbly crafted and, if like me, you always see the characters and action unfold in your imagination then you will not be disappointed.

An Elderly Spinster as Nemesis
You can hardly imagine meeting a person who is not at all acquainted with the name of Miss Marple. Buying the whole Omnibus series is an excellent way of getting to know this absolutely brilliant detective better and enjoy her company.

I've chosen the third volume of the Omnibus series for my review partially because I haven't found any synopsis next to it so I decided it could be more helpful, and also because all the four stories in it are very different one from another and equally brilliant.

As the good vicar says in "The Murder at the Vicarage", no detective in England can equal an elderly spinster with plenty of time on her hands. But in these four novels Miss Marple appears not only as a great sleith, but as a compassionate and very sensible person in constant search of Justice, however dangerous it might become. Other people are drawn by love, hate, money, - she isn't.

The third volume consists of the novels "Nemesis", "Sleeping Murder", "At Bertram's Hotel" and "The Murder at the Vicarage", and apart from the excellent mystery and some very funny remarks on human nature, contain the splendid soothing discovery: justice is not blind, she is a shrewd old spinster witha remarkably good eyesight and a particular taste for "bird-watching". Read the stories, and at the end you will most inevitably ask youself "Who would I remind Miss Marple of?"...

And then maybe you will buy a pair of binoculars, take up some knitting (not necessary, but has a certain charm) and become an excellent amateur detective!