Knowing whodunit, rereading is still pleasure. Christie cleverly complicates and confounds. Christie, at her best, makes stereotypical eccentrics believable, plucks essential clues, weaves questionable motivations and messy realisms to confound the reader before extricating the solution. Hotel guest death among rumors of heart trouble, blood pressure pill bottle found in room, is incident "soon forgotten. Life here was sunshine, sea, and social pleasures" p 27. Until hotel maid Victoris returns pill bottle to Greg Dyson, is stabbed. Then peroxide-blonde Lucky is drowned in the creek. Jane calls on rich old Mr Rafiel to help serve justice 'Nemesis'. Miss Jane Marple "by nature a very truthful person .. when she considered it her duty .. could tell lies with a really astonishing verisimilitude", "an apologetic little cough" p 23. Multisyllables roll on the tongue. The elderly village spinster holidays at the St Honoré Golden Palm Hotel, newly taken over by lean dark Tim Kendal 30s and naturally blonde wife Molly 20s, who breaks down in paranoia and blackouts p 72. "Major Palgrave, purple of face, with a glass eye, and the general appearance of a stuffed frog" p 1 "garrulous .. club-bore" p 27 pulls out blurry photo of murderer beside flower bush. Spouses repeatedly die after first suicide/accident fails. His repetition and rambling leave listener confused on details - was killer man or woman? Next day Palgrave dies, but Dr Graham 65 cannot find photo for Jane. "Everything pointed in too many different directions at once. Once admit that you didn't believe a word that anybody had said to you, that nobody could be trusted ... where did that lead you?" p 154. Gossip adds more motives. The first Mrs Dyson died after buttoned-up Edward Hillington bought pills. Greg quickly remarried poor relative 'Lucky' (Miss Greatorex p 125). Edward confesses to wife Evelyn, wants to leave Lucky p 77. Jane has "one weapon only - and that was conversation" p 33. "Conversations are always dangerous, if you have something to hide" p 114. She reminds "One only knows, doesn't one, what they choose to tell you about themselves" p 130. Chapter titles clarify, intrigue, remind: "Exit Victoria Johnson", "Uses of a Shoe", "Jackson on Cosmetics". "Nemesis" is a later book (and film), returning the wealthy wheelchair-bound Mr Rafiel, here kind of a Holmes' Watson, or Poirot's Hastings to misdirect the reader p 109. "How different, thought Miss Marple, everything had seemed at first" p159. Under Molly's mattress, Jane finds a layman's guide to "persecution mania " and "allied complaints" p 146.Observations, philosophy, and humor interweave. "Do you think a murderer ought to be a happy man?"Miss Marple coughed. "Well, they usually have been, in my experience.""I don't suppose your experience has gone very far," said Mr Rafiel.In this assumption, as Miss Marple could have told him, he was wrong. But she forbore to contest his statement. Gentleman, she knew, did not like to be put right in their facts. p 112"It's young people who commit suicide easily, out of despair from love, sometimes from sheer anxiety and worry. But old people know how valuable life is and how interesting" p 115. How about the sick and aged who can only feel pain, no more joy in life? She echoes fear from daily news (and Francis's Silks). "Oughtn't you to tell what you know - do something about it?""Why should I? What good would it do? I couldn't prove anything. What would happen anyway? People get let off nowadays so easily... A few years in prison and you're out again, as right as rain" p 157. (view spoiler)[ Palgrave has a glass left eye, recognizes the villain in the right, Tim. Tim stabs Victoria when she hints for money, mistakenly drowns bleach-blonde Lucky wearing same green shawl. Jane orders Mr Rafiel's valet Jackson to stop Molly from drinking glass of water Tim has fatally dosed with narcotic. Tim bought drinks for Arthur Jackson, who snooped in Rafiel's will at large bequest for secretary Esther Walters. Esther blurts out "Tim darling, it's not true" p 171. Tim curses "damned b- .. want to get me hanged? p 173. (hide spoiler)]
Jane Marple , is very grateful to her loving nephew Raymond West, a popular novelist, and rich man, who paid for his aunt's vacation (she recently recovered from an illness ) . The tropics , on an island in the Caribbean Sea, doesn't sound like a place Miss Marple, would feel comfortable in, she is from rainy, cold, with just a little bit of snow, the quiet St. Mary Mead , England. An out of the way village , where nothing ever happens, that is what everyone believes ... Warm weather , a beautiful golden beach , blue skies, and still even more, prettier sea, clear, as if nobody ever swam in it. Just the perfect locale, to regain one's health. Nevertheless, how can an elderly spinster , enjoy the atmosphere? Young, happy , wealthy couples, running around the Golden Palm Hotel, that name alone says it all , but after a week in the sun , the old woman , begins to start thinking not a bad place , the West Indies, glad she came, if only something exciting would occur. Miss Marple gets her wish , maybe too much so. The cast of characters: Two well to do couples, amateur botanists, scurry about the islands, to find exotic flowers and plants, taking pictures , writing articles for the National Geographic magazine , they need something to do! Col. Edward Hillingdon, retired, a rather reserved gentleman, wife, the charming Evelyn , and Gregory Dyson, fun loving guy , his gorgeous , naughty mate , Lucky, a strange name for a woman, rumors of shenanigans between the foursome, but gossip can't be believed. Now Major Palgrave, old retired British army officer, likes to tell stories, ancient boring tales, to the hotel guests, such as hunting tigers in India, or was it elephants in Africa? That nobody wants to hear, one in particular, involving a murder. The polite Miss Marple, pretends to listen, almost falling asleep, it will be his last one, for the major. Next day he is found dead, in bed, by Victoria, the native maid, poor Miss Marple, everywhere she goes, someone dies, not a surprise to Dr. Graham, an island physician, he had high blood pressure medicine, in his room, but the ever suspicious Jane , is not so sure. The doctor then receives information, that troubles him. The worried young newlyweds who bought the hotel , Tim and Molly Kendal, know deaths in paradise is bad for business. After a quick funeral, everything is back to normal, nobody can resist the deep blue sea, besides, the deceased wasn't too liked ... Mr Rafiel, pushing eternity, but richer than anyone Miss Marple has met, helps her when another murder happens. Mrs.Kendal starts to act weirdly, mental illness? The police request gently, of the hotel guests, not to leave the island of St.Honore, they insist. The question this novel asks is , can paradise exist ever on Earth, while people are still walking on its surface?
What do You think about A Caribbean Mystery (2000)?
Latter-day Agatha Christie can be hit-or-miss - A CARIBBEAN MYSTERY was published in 1964 and was one of her better 1960s efforts. It re-reads well (I first read it in 1973, during my Mega-Christie Phase of the early 1970s), and like some of her classic puzzlers of the 1930s and 1940s such as APPOINTMENT WITH DEATH, DEATH ON THE NILE and EVIL UNDER THE SUN it has an exotic locale (the fictional Caribbean island of St. Honore) into which she sets a mixed group of travelers, some of whom have something to hide . . .Everyone agrees that Major Palgrave is a bore, with his myriad of stories about Kenya and various past adventures in which he either participated himself, or heard about second- (or third-) hand, such as the mysterious death of a woman who had attempted suicide only a short time before and was saved by her husband. "Like to see a picture of a murderer?" he asks Miss Jane Marple, who has been observing various guests and not paying much attention. Then Major Palgrave (who has a glass eye) stares fixedly over Miss Marple's shoulder - "Well, I'm damned---I mean---" and hurriedly stuffs the snapshot back into his wallet. That night the Major dies in his sleep. Had he recognized a murderer?The most engaging character in A CARIBBEAN MYSTERY is the elderly, curmudgeonly multi-millionaire Jason Rafiel, who recognizes in Jane Marple a sharp-minded woman who doesn't flinch from the truth, and it is Mr. Rafiel, from off-stage, who will set in motion the final Miss Marple novel which Agatha Christie was to write, 1971's NEMESIS, the title of which was a direct reference to the part Miss Marple plays in A CARIBBEAN MYSTERY.You can relax and enjoy this one!
—Philip
A Sassari abbiamo una parola forte e molto espressiva che riassume la capacità di un individuo di influenzare negativamente le sorti delle persone e delle cose che stanno lui attorno, e questa parola è 'pindaccio'. Ora, se dovessi accompagnare a Miss Marple un aggettivo, questo sarebbe 'pindaccia'.E' leit motiv del 'le muoiono tutti attorno', insomma, attraverso i gialli, ce l'ha insegnato anche Arthur Conan Doyle, ci è stato insegnato che, la prima qualità di un buon detective, è quella di saper far morire la gente solo con la propria presenza, per poi indagarne eventuali cause di decesso.Si potrebbe pensare che la gente muore per qualche bizzarra congiunzione astrale di altitudine e latitudine proprio a St. Mary Mead, dove l'arzilla vecchietta sfoggia il suo intuito per incastrare assassini vari; si potrebbe pensarlo, ma si verrebbe subito sconfitti con l'argomentazione che, ANCHE AI CARAIBI, lontani di chissà quanti paralleli dalla piovosa Inghilterra, alla signorina Jane Marple, fa seguito immancabile la morte. Eppure, nonostante le scene ripetute, le morti misteriose, ma in fondo sempre scoperte, la bizzarra coincidenza del 'dove c'è la vecchietta, c'è anche qualcuno che muore pugnalato/accoltellato/avvelenato/affogato, le 244 pagine di Agatha Christie mi hanno rapita, insomma ero anche io al Golden Palm Tree Hotel che indagavo e che potevo tranquillamente essere la futura vittima dell'indomito assassino.Il 70% dei protagonisti sono dei vecchietti, tre vecchietti che mi hanno ricordato il mio paesino di provenienza dove, se non fosse per loro, buona parte dei pettegolezzi sarebbe scomparsa, così come la tipica 'attività da piazza' ossia uno sport per cui è richiesta partecipazione continua in piazza a rimuginare, riflettere, interrogarsi su vita, morte e miracoli altrui. Se il maggior Palgrave si fosse astenuto dal raccontare, non sarebbe morto. Se tutti gli altri non avessero spettegolato, gli altri non avrebbero scoperto che non è morto per cause naturali, ma per assassinio spudorato.Miss Marple, quasi centenne, raccoglie i pettegolezzi e li incastra, lavorandoli quasi come il suo lavoro di lana a maglia, per giungere a smascherare l'omicida. E poi li chiamano nonnetti, vecchi, incapaci e chi più ne ha più ne metta, in ogni caso, senza Jane Marple, a St.Honoré qualcuno starebbe ancora morendo. (Da ringrazia il fatto che abbia deciso di starsene in Inghilterra e di jellare solo lì, e non altrove)La trama, intelligente, curata, non si imbastisce su elementi di troppo, ma ricerca l'essenziale, colma di indizi sparsi qua e là che fuorviano il lettore, ma anche lo indirizzano verso la giusta intuizione dei fatti. I personaggi sono dipinti con una pennellata veloce, ma efficace al punto da farci vedere intensamente un personaggio rappresentato anche solo con tinte tenui.Consigliato agli amanti del giallo, ma anche a chi prova un forte affetto verso la propria nonnina. Io mi riservo di voler bene alla mia e di non desiderarne una come Miss Marple... potrebbe venire a mancare qualche componente dalla tavola imbandita per i parenti a Natale.
—Luana
A lot of times I forget that Agatha Christie was writing until shortly before her death in 1976. A Caribbean Mystery felt so much more modern than of her other books I've read, even the other Miss Marple books. The steel band, the talk of airlines, etc., all made me remember that the Miss Marple books actually take place in the 50's and possibly even 60's. Marple herself feels like she belongs in the 1920s, but the world around her is changing.Excellent mystery, though for once I thought it was a bit predictable. This is the first Miss Marple mystery that I've guessed the murderer before the reveal. Still, a fun read, and I loved the introduction of Mr. Rafiel. Apparently he features (posthumously) in another Marple book, and I'm looking forward to it.
—Susanna Parker
