There are some Authors whose books you read and think "How did they think of that?" Their stories are so unique. Agatha Christie is one such author and Sleeping Murder is one such book that keeps you in a constant state of excitement with all its twists and turns all the while wowing you with its amazing story and its awesome conclusion. :)"Sleeping Murder" is Miss Marple’s last case, published posthumously in 1976, although Agatha Christie had written it during the Second World War. Miss Marple investigates a murder that has happened 18 years ago.I am a great lover of detective mysteries and when it comes to books written by Agatha Christie I just can’t stop myself. Her books are unique, expertly written with plots so novel and intriguing that if such crimes were to happen in the present day they will leave the police as baffled as in the books.This book is no different and here we meet Gwenda, who is newly married and has recently bought a house in Devon. She has recently returned to England from New Zealand where she was raised by her Aunt after her parent’s death.One glance at the old victorian house and Gwenda knows that she has found a home for herself. It seems like she has a connection to the place. But these happy thoughts are interrupted when she begins to believe that she must be psychic, as she seems to know things about the house which she could not possibly know like the location of a connecting door that has been walled over, the pattern of a previous wallpaper, a set of steps in the garden that are not where they should be, and so on. Becoming increasingly uneasy, she accepts an invitation to stay for a few days in London with Miss Marple's somewhat pretentious nephew Raymond West and his wife Joan.During a performance of the Duchess of Malfi, she has a vision of a murder at the house she has bought and flees screaming. She believes that she has seen someone utter the same lines, as uttered by the Actor, in the past while standing near a dead woman with a blue face whom he called "Helen" but tells Miss Marple that she doesn't know anyone by that name!"Cover her face. Mine eyes dazzle, she died young …"She is convinced that she is going mad, but she is helped by Miss Marple, whose nephew, Raymond West is a distant cousin of Gwenda’s husband, Giles. It’s a most baffling ‘cold case’, because first of all they have to discover who, if anyone, has been killed, and then determine the where, when and the why. The fact that Gwenda has come for the first time to England as she was born in India and taken directly to New Zealand complicates matters as she couldn't possibly have witnessed any murder in the house to which she has come to for the first time !The story is thrilling with a sense of the supernatural which keeps us constantly in a state of suspense. You cannot afford to slip as each and every occurrence plays a part in completing the puzzle and solving the mystery. "Sleeping Murder" is a satisfying puzzle and I liked this last view of Miss Marple, compassionate and shrewd and this description of her appearance:"Miss Marple was an attractive old lady, tall and thin, with pink cheeks and blue eyes, and a gentle, rather fussy manner. Her blue eyes often had a little twinkle in them. "Agatha Christie yet again proves that she is the Queen of crime for a reason. The crimes that she writes are exemplary in their planning and execution as well as evergreen. In spite of being written decades before they are still as valid as they were then. All in all a deserving read and a very well written last novel featuring Miss Marple.It’s a keeper and deserves a 5 on 5 for its cohesive plot, well developed characters, success in giving the reader the chills and the thrills, excellent planning and execution of the crime, skilled writing and a story that binds us till the very end and then leaves us astounded and impressed with the Author.This review is also available on http://njkinny.blogspot.in/
I first read SLEEPING MURDER in Fall, 1976, as soon as copies hit the stores - it was, as it turned out, the last Christie book that remained for me to read! Although it was subtitled (and publicized) as "Miss Marple's Last Case" it really wasn't (I don't think current reprints even carry that line anymore) - the setting of the story actually occurs somewhere between THE MOVING FINGER (1942/43) and A MURDER IS ANNOUNCED (1950) - in fact, the performance of the play DUCHESS OF MALFI, which sets things in motion, firmly sets SLEEPING MURDER in 1945, for John Gielgud is cited in the text as the star. It was long thought that Christie had written SLEEPING MURDER early in the 1940s, when she wrote CURTAIN, Hercule Poirot's last case (perhaps because she herself stated this in AN AUTOBIOGRAPHY) but her Notebooks now suggest that the novel gestated during the mid-1940s and was probably written in the late 1940s - along with the Poirot novel, it resided in a bank vault, heavily insured, with the title COVER HER FACE (a direct quote from DUCHESS) - by the early 1960s, of course, that title had been used by P.D. James for her debut novel, and though there's no law about two novels having the same title, an alternative title was chosen, though whether by Christie herself or by her daughter and/or publisher, isn't known. What is known is that SLEEPING MURDER is at best average Christie, and not really quite up to the standards of several of her other 1940s works. Coincidence plays a big part in this book, and though coincidences do indeed occur in real life, as Miss Marple assures Gwenda Reed, we're asked to remember that a young woman of 21 or so would have no memory of having lived in England as a child, let alone unknowingly buy the very house she'd lived in for a time!I'm also quite sure that in 1976 I zipped through SLEEPING MURDER in an evening, most likely in heated anticipation of learning Miss Marple's fate -or perhaps finished it the next day - not the case this time!Christie's British characters were still distrustful of non-whites and foreigners at the time she wrote SLEEPING MURDER, and when it is most likely set: In the Collins (UK) edition, one of the characters, an old man who's done service in India, recalls former inhabitants of Gwenda's house: "Used to send out tracts. Plain women, all of 'em --- Took an interest in niggers --- Sent 'em out trousers and bibles. Very strong on converting the heathen." In the US edition published by Dodd, Mead "niggers" has been replaced by "the natives." Of course, at this time, Christie's classic AND THEN THERE WERE NONE was still published in the UK under its original title, TEN LITTLE NIGGERS.Also, the US typesetter must have needed glasses: the first chapter of the novel is "A House" in the British edition (which is quite appropriate), and "A Mouse" in the US version (which, of course, makes no sense at all)!!!3/24/11: If SLEEPING MURDER has a particular drawback, I'd say it's the one it has in common with several Christie books: intertia. Because it's more or less of the 'murder in retrospect' variety, not much really happens aside from a lot of discussion or thought about what might have happened 18 years before - various characters enter the story at different points, but basically all they do is talk (though developments pick up the pace a bit in the last 40 pages or so, which actually makes the ending seem sort of rushed).It's also worth noting that NEMESIS (the last Marple novel Christie wrote) and SLEEPING MURDER (the last Marple novel published) written at least 20 years apart, share a common factor: both are 'murder in retrospect' novels concerning the death of a young woman who wanted to break away from a smothering, unhealthy relationship, and both young women were murdered by someone who loved her - too much.
What do You think about Sleeping Murder (2003)?
The minute I starting reading this book I couldn't put it down, I had to find out who was the murder and I wasn't all that surprise when I did. Its always someone you least suspect and I knew it had to be Dr. Kennedy. When I read his character, I could tell there was something off about him, I call it a hutch I guess. Now Miss Marple. I love Miss Marple. She sort of reminded me of Angela Lansbury from Murder She Wrote lol, every time I read about her when she would comes into a scene that's who
—Razzleteddy (Shiera)
In the beginning, a personal anecdote:As a child, I was troubled intermittently by a nightmare. I am walking around the compound of my maternal grandfather's ancestral home, when I reach a dilapidated building in a secluded corner. I open it and enter, even though my better sense counsels against it. Inside, it is a prayer room dedicated to evil gods. Their pictures are hung all over the walls, and their ugly idols leer up at me. Also, the place is full of the images of the tortured victims of these deities, their silent screams, mutilated bodies and blood.I wake up in a cold sweat.The mystery of this dream was solved later. It was only a poster of Naraka (the Indian hell) which I saw as a child, in that house, which left a lasting impression on me. I will not dwell on the Freudian aspects of this incident: just point out the fact that childhood traumas, however trivial, have lasting impacts. I speak from personal experience.Onward with the review.***What if one has witnessed a murder as a toddler? What if one's childhood psyche had repressed that incident, until it came back to haunt one as a distorted vision in one's beautiful new home which one suddenly realises is none other than the venue of that Sleeping Murder?One would go mad...that is what nearly happened to Gwen. Fortunately, she had Miss Marple to help.Gwenda and Giles Reed return to England from New Zealand. She has no memories; as far as she knows, she has never been in England. However, buying the dream home she had set her eyes on, Gwen begins to be troubled by memories, which she thinks are from another life. She runs away to London to escape. However, watching a performance of the Duchess of Malfi, and hearing the words “cover her face; mine eyes dazzle; she died young” brings a terrifying image into her mind… the blue strangled face of a beautiful young girl, and she herself watching it through the bannisters… and the monkey’s paws…Gwen is convinced that she is mad. But thankfully, she had chosen to stay with Raymond West, who most fortuitously had his Aunt Jane Marple on the premises. The old lady is not ready to go for a supernatural explanation. She has a much more prosaic one: Gwen has actually seen somebody murdered in the same house, where she has stayed as a child – a memory which has been suppressed.The young lady and her husband soon find out that Miss Marple had hit the nail on the head. Gwen had stayed in the house as a little child, along with her father and her flighty stepmother Helen, who had disappeared, presumably run away with one of her many young men. However, Gwen’s father was convinced that he murdered her, and ultimately was committed and died in an asylum. But it is now possible that he may not have been mad – that Helen was actually murdered (though not by him). However, the tantalising question arises… if she was murdered, who is the killer?Thus begins a murder investigation into the past by the young couple, against the counsel of Miss Marple to “leave sleeping murder lie”. Once she is convinced that they will not let go, Miss Marple agrees to join them, if only to keep them safe.And thus begins a rollercoaster ride, one of Christie’s most suspenseful novels.***As a mystery, Sleeping Murder is rather predictable. There was no “aha!” moment at the end, because I already had a good idea who the murderer was. But I give the novel four stars for its structure and breakneck pace, rather like a Hitchcock movie… and also for the personal experience I quoted at the beginning. I could sympathise with Gwenda.
—Nandakishore Varma
Cînd vine momentul Agatha Christie, e nedetronabil. Vine rar, dar total. Pentru Misterul crimei fără cadavru am suspendat o zi, adică, de la un punct încolo, mi-am zis că n-are nici un rost să-mi mai propun să mă apuc de ceva. Nu săriţi cu invidia: am zis deja că momentul Agatha Christie vine rar! Rarisim.Misterul crimei fără cadavru (îmi place foarte tare titlul, cred că o să-l scriu de multe ori!) e un roman (tradus de Andreea Năstase, Ed. Rao) cu Miss Marple. Inutil să amintesc cît respect, admiraţie şi curiozitate îmi inspiră această venerabilă detectivă. E plasat într-o localitate micuţă, din sudul Angliei, Dilmouth, unde Gwenda Reed, o tînără abia căsătorită (cu Giles Reed) decide să cumpere o casă. Gwenda Reed e din Noua Zeelandă, dar va rămîne în Anglia. Mai exact, şi-ar dori să se stabilească în încă agreabila staţiune Dilmouth, unde şi cumpără o proprietate.Casa către care e instinctiv atrasă va declanşa toată intriga poliţistă. Gwenda are tot felul de senzaţii stranii odată ce se instalează acolo. Îşi imaginează, de exemplu, un anumit model de tapet pentru o cameră şi descoperă, în interiorul unui dulap blocat, că exact acelaşi model fusese de fapt, folosit, la un moment dat în respectiva încăpere. (recenzie: http://bookaholic.ro/regina-agatha.html)
—Bookaholic
