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    The Body in the Library: A Miss Marple Mystery
    The Body in the Library: A Miss Marple Mystery
    The Body in the Library: A Miss Marple Mystery
    Ebook229 pages3 hours

    The Body in the Library: A Miss Marple Mystery

    By Agatha Christie

    3.5/5

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    The iconic Miss Marple must investigate the case of a girl found dead in Agatha Christie’s classic mystery, The Body in the Library

    It’s seven in the morning. The Bantrys wake to find the body of a young woman in their library. She is wearing an evening dress and heavy makeup, which is now smeared across her cheeks. But who is she? How did she get there? And what is the connection with another dead girl, whose charred remains are later discovered in an abandoned quarry?

    The respectable Bantrys invite Miss Marple into their home to investigate. Amid rumors of scandal, she baits a clever trap to catch a ruthless killer.

    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherHarperCollins
    Release dateSep 16, 2003
    ISBN9780061739521
    Author

    Agatha Christie

    Agatha Christie is the most widely published author of all time, outsold only by the Bible and Shakespeare. Her books have sold more than a billion copies in English and another billion in a hundred foreign languages. She died in 1976, after a prolific career spanning six decades.

    Read more from Agatha Christie

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    Reviews for The Body in the Library

    3.5/5

    1,426 ratings68 reviews

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    • 4/5
      England, ca 1942Mrs Bantry drømmer behageligt men vækkes brat ved at deres unge pige meddeler at der ligger et lig i biblioteket. Det er en ung, smuk pige, som hverken Mrs Bantry eller manden Oberst Bantry har set før. Ruby Keene er meldt savnet og Josephine Turner identificerer liget som værende Ruby. En skolepige Pamela Reeves er også meldt savnet og en udbrændt bil med et helt ukendeligt lig bliver fundet.Mr. Conway Jefferson er invalid efter en ulykke, hvor hans to voksne børn døde. Han bor sammen med datterens enkemand, Mark Gaskell og sønnens enke Addie Jefferson.Han var blevet sympatisk indstillet over for Ruby og hans penge ser ud til at være motivet. Rubys lig er tydeligt blevet anbragt for at kaste mistanken på nogen, men hvem? Sjovt nok viser det sig at liget er blevet flyttet to gange, så selv morderen er overrasket, da liget bliver fundet.Miss Jane Marple bliver inviteret af oberstinden og hun finder ud af at Mark Gaskell og Josie Turner er gift. De har myrdet de to piger for at få fingre i Conways penge og havde også gladeligt set en uskyldig blive dømt for mordene. Til sidst stiller Miss Marple en fælde for dem og de bliver taget på fersk gerning, da de forsøger at myrde Conway.Udmærket Miss Marple mysterie.
    • 4/5
      Another Christie novel, another murder I couldn't solve. I love Christie's stuff to bits.
    • 5/5
      That's an engaging reading. A mystery full of surprises and hard to solve. One must love Miss Marple, her cleverness and capacity to stick to details. The story flows naturally, always claiming the reader's attention. Like it a lot!
    • 5/5
      Just how did that body get in the library?I bought this book after watching the recent ITV adaptation of it, which left me suspicious as to whether the ITV denouement was as penned by Agatha. My suspicions proved correct.I'm not sure why ITV felt the need to change the original ending. Agatha Christie's is better and far more credible.I know she has her detractors, but I still think her plots are far cleverer than people give her credit for. With its twists and turns, its subplots, mazes and red herrings, The Body in the Library is up there with the best of Mrs Christie.
    • 4/5
      I found the best little copy of this book at a used book sale and needed something short and quick to read. It was well written with distinctive characters. I kept second guessing myself trying to figure out who did it.
    • 3/5
      Not one of Christie's best, I think, essentially because the conclusion is extremely convoluted, the characters aren't developed enough for us to care much about any of them and Miss Marple barely makes an appearance. It was a pleasant read, but no more than that.
    • 4/5
      When Colonel and Mrs. Bantry wake up one morning to find a dead body in their library on the hearth rug, it is a complete puzzle as to who this woman was and how in the world she got into the library! The Colonel called the constabulary, but Mrs. Bantry called her friend, Miss Jane Marple, because she has this incredible knack for solving puzzles like this one. Something always reminds Miss Marple of something similar that happened in her village years back, and Miss Marple always says that you can see just about anything in an English village if you live there long enough. This puzzle takes the two elderly ladies to a seaside resort hotel in Danemouth with an interesting set of suspects and Miss Marple solves the puzzle just a few steps ahead of Inspector Slack, who finally learns a healthy respect for the old gal's talent for unraveling a mystery.This was a very light and fast read filled with twists and turns before the solution became as clear to me as it was to Miss Marple. 4
    • 4/5
      Once again, Miss Marple is back on the case in this the second novel of the Miss Marple series. This time she is called by her friend Dolly Bantry, who lives in Gossington Hall, because Dolly's maid woke her up in the morning screaming that there was a body in the library. It turns out to be the body of a young girl, dressed in evening finery, and a quick search of missing persons turns up the name of Ruby Keene, who fits the description of the dead girl. Ruby was a dancer at a local resort, and had recently caught the eye of one Jeffrey Conway, an elderly man confined to a wheelchair, who wanted to "adopt" Ruby. But there were several people who didn't want to see that happen, and getting rid of Ruby seemed a good idea at the time. But wait! Just when you think you've got it, Dame Agatha throws you a curveball and you have to go back to square one in your thinking! I tell you, she is a master at her game.Recommended; if you like British mysteries or the English-village cozy type novel, you'll very much enjoy this one.
    • 2/5
      Another Miss Marple story! I really do like her more than Poirot: much less egotistical -- though I'm basing on that on only having read one Poirot book, I suppose, so maybe I didn't get the whole of Poirot's character. I liked that this one wasn't in the style of a first person narrator's account, like the other two I've read. Ultimately I think I preferred that, because a lot of the charm of the first Miss Marple book came from the character of the vicar, but it was nice to have it a bit different, too.

      I didn't find the mystery very intriguing with this one, largely because I couldn't figure it out for myself. Possibly that was me being dim, and having a headache, etc, etc, but even when I got to the last few pages I wasn't perfectly sure whodunnit until it spelled it out.

      Still, it was pretty fun to read -- like a snack between meals.
    • 5/5
      A perfect Miss Marple and a pastiche of crime novels, a beautiful blonde is found strangled in the library of Gossington Hall. But the butler didn't do it. Miss Marple and her friend Dolly Bantry set out to discover who dunnit and why.
    • 4/5
      When Dolly Bantry and her husband, Colonel Bantry, wake to the news that the body of a strange woman is in their library, Colonel Bantry calls the police. Dolly calls her friend, Miss Jane Marple, because Miss Marple is “good at bodies”. Actually, Miss Marple is good at reading character, and her ability to see similarities between the behavior of strangers and the behavior of the inhabitants of St. Mary Mead helps her to solve a case that has the police baffled. The suspects with the best motive for murder had no opportunity, and the suspects with opportunity had no motive.Dolly Bantry is one of my favorite characters from the Miss Marple mysteries, so I've always had a fondness for this book. Miss Marple has a bigger role in this book than she did in The Murder at the Vicarage, but she's still absent during much of the police's investigation and the questioning of witnesses. She learns all she needs to know to solve the murder in a relatively short space of time. Even with the advantage of listening in to the police's interviews with suspects and witnesses, Miss Marple still beat me to the murderer's identity! This time around I listened to the audio version narrated by Stephanie Cole, who might be familiar to many listeners as Diana from the British sitcom Waiting for God. I had high expectations for the audio version, and I wasn't disappointed.
    • 3/5
      The body of a beautiful blonde is found in the library of Gossington Hall. What the young woman was doing in the quiet village of St. Mary Mead is precisely what Jane Marple means to find out. Amid rumors of scandal, Miss Marple baits a clever trap to catch a ruthless killer.This is an early, and therefore, good, Ms. Marple book. It's very, very English, and very very much of the period between WWI and WWII, and either you like that type of mystery or you don't.
    • 3/5
      This one is delightful to read because Christie has such fun with the conventions of a village-cozy, almost-locked-room mystery. The local police and "film people" add much amusement.
    • 4/5
      One of my favorites. I prefer Miss Marple to Hercule Poirot. Christie is the master of Golden Age British mysteries.
    • 4/5
      Reading these short stories is like spending time with an old friend. The stories are intriguing, complicated, and completely obvious if you stop to think about it. Some of the stories remind me of the stories of Miss Seeton.
    • 4/5
      A classic a rainy day read. Agatha Christie set herself the challenge of using the trope of "a body in a library" and planted a highly sensational dead blonde into the library of Miss Marple's friends the Bantrys. The fluffy cosy atmosphere hides some very nasty goings on that only Miss Marple's experience can correctly interpret (and as always with classic Aggies, we get an interesting insight into culture and class in the UK in the early 20th century).
    • 4/5
      A dead young girl is founded out liying in the Colonel Bantry library. Nobody in the house knows who is she and why she has been dropped there... except miss Marple
    • 4/5
      Once again Christie astounds as she leads us all on a merry ride amongst red herrings, dummy killers and the most suspicious group of characters possible. I have to say truthfully that this genre is not my favourite, however, when seeing this book in the local charity store, I couldn't help buy it as my next read and it didn't disappoint.
      Agatha Christie has a special way of creating characters and situations completely unpredictable until the end and you don't see much unpredictability nowadays! She has a charm throughout her writing which is, though simple, entrancing. I read the book cover to cover in one sitting.
      If you like a mystery with a hint of murder, Christie is the woman for you.
    • 4/5
      "The truth is, you see, that most people - and I don't exclude policemen - are far too trusting for this wicked world. They believe what is told them. I never do. I'm afraid I always like to prove a thing for myself" -Miss Marple (198).When a friend calls, having discovered a body in her library, Miss Marple is only too pleased to meddle and gossip her way to the truth of the matter. Chock-full of anecdotes about the St. Mary Mead townsfolk, and set on solving the crime, Miss Marple is a deceptively cunning old maid. Who wouldn't trust a sweet old lady? As a devoted fan of Murder, She Wrote, it is a natural fit that I would enjoy this character so much. Recommended to mystery fans anywhere!
    • 4/5
      Another great Agatha Christie novel featuring Miss Marple. Loved it.
    • 4/5
      This is the first of Christie's Miss Marple Mysteries that I've read and I think I liked the character of Miss Marple more than the mystery itself, although that didn't disappoint either. The way that Christie managed to write mysteries that were both simple and complex makes reading them satisfying in a way that contemporary mysteries just can't fulfill. I enjoyed this one & look forward to discussing it with my book club.
    • 2/5
      The Body in the Library: Marple, Christie

      &#9733 &#9733

      Ok; another slur against Italians..... makes me wonder if her books sold well in Italy!

      Let's see Mrs. & Colonel Bantry are woken up by a hysterical maid... something about there being "A Body in the Library".... When Dolly Bantry goes down to the library to check on the hysterics, yes indeed there is the body of a strangled young woman in a white spangled evening dress in the library.....

      Miss Marple,a close friend of Mrs. Bantry, is called in immediately to nose around (investigate)......

      They find out from the police that the body seems to be that of Ruby Keene, a dancer at the local hotel; and the soon to be adopted ward of Mr. Conway Jefferson, and invalid whose family perished in an accident, and who is being taken care of by his son-in-law & daughter-in-law.

      Not much afterwards a Girl Guide come up missing and it seems as if it her her that is found in the charred remains of a local's car.

      Almost 1/2 way through Miss Marple announces to Dolly Bantry that she knows who did it..... But she isn't going to tell, as there are other loose ends to tie up & need for proof positive.

      I found this to be a rather benign story with flat characters, none of whom I cared about...... This could have been so much more appealing & interesting, but it seems as if Christie was writing just to be writing.
    • 4/5
      This is only the second Christie novel I've read, but I'm definitely hooked. The mystery was enjoyable, with a colorful cast of characters. The body of a young platinum-dyed blonde is found in the library and the Lady of the house calls in Miss Marple to help solve the crime. Though Miss Marple appears cliche in a post Murder She Wrote world, Marple came first! This was a very quick read.
    • 4/5
      Miss Marple is a somewhat improbably detective, but since this is a highly unusual Christie, she's not actually doing much until about half way through the book. And then we get to see how wonderfully smart she really is as she manages to use her wonderful judge of human character to sort through this seemingly impossible mystery.
    • 3/5
      A dead body is discovered in a library... Miss Marple helps the police discover who committed the murder. A good story with some unexpected twists.
    • 4/5
      Colonel Bantry wakes one morning to find the dead body of young girl completely unbeknownst to him. His wife sees this tragedy not as that but as an opportunity to watch a real-life mystery unfold from a front-row seat. Mrs. Bantry consequently calls on her friend, Miss Marple, to use her amateur sleuthing skills to crack the case.This is the second Miss Marple book I picked up, and it was interesting to see the changes from the first book in the series. There is now an omniscient third-person narrator and, while I had some quibbles with the vicar narrating first-person in The Murder at the Vicarage, I did find that I missed some of his insights, especially about the characterizations of the people in the village. However, the narration in The Body in the Library allows the reader to get more information from a variety of sources, including the police force and another private detective hired for the case. The second significant change is that Miss Marple is a bigger character in this book. She is immediately recognized for her ability to solve complex cases and is thus given entry to crime scenes and provided information by the police and the other private detective on the case. The mystery itself is similar to the first one in the series, in that it is sufficiently complex while also basically simple. I didn't guess who the culprit was at all but once revealed, it all made perfect sense.The various side characters once again made the book. While I didn't necessarily like them per se, they are varied and interesting. Christie has a knack for writing mostly believable characters who display an array of emotions, motives, etc. There is quite a bit of classism in this book, although I'm never quite sure if that is merely a reflection of certain characters' opinions or if it is also a bit of Christie's own thoughts on the matter. All in all though, I enjoyed this book as a light, quick, and entertaining read. I've put further Miss Marple books on hold for the moment while I catch up on other reading, but I will probably revisit this series again in the near future. For the audiophile, the narrator of this book (Stephanie Cole) was good, but not necessarily great.
    • 4/5
      I'm not normally a Miss Marple fan, but this is one of the few Miss Marple mysteries I did like. The action began from chapter one and for once Miss Marple didn't sit around thinking about village life. There was some of that, but she actually got out and asked questions and investigated. The highlight of this mystery, in my opinion, was Mrs. Bantry. I loved her spunk and determination to figure out what happened to protect her husband. She was extremely amusing and brought life to Miss Marple.
    • 3/5
      Colonel and Mrs. Bantry wake up to the maid's cry that there is a dead woman in the library. Mrs. Bantry calls in her friend Jane Marple, the local village sleuth. to assist in finding out who the girl is and who killed her. There are the obvious suspects and then those who seem innocent until details start to come out. Am important character in the novel is Conway Jefferson who is handicapped and is supported emotionally by his son-in-law and daughter-in-law while doing likewise for them financially. He has plans to adopt a young woman to lift her from her low station but this angers people who feel they are entitled to the money.Marple is a Christie regular and in this novel she really only makes an impression on the story in the latter portions of the novel.
    • 4/5
      Compared to the first Miss Marple novel (The Murder at the Vicarage), The Body in the Library had its flaws. The original murder plan is not bad and I had no justified idea who did it until the end, but the story itself was too stiff in the center section. Christie’s characters are not really believable this time even though the ones like George Bartlett are interesting and humorous. The work of Melchett, Harper and Slack isn’t really entertaining and you immediately know that they will miss the point of the case and go just for the red herrings. Miss Marple’s reasoning in the final stages is really good though and one feels a bit stupid for not seeing it her way beforehand. But then even Miss Marple’s skills are not solely based on rational decisions; for example how she deceides to talk to Florence Small again is a bit lame and constructed. The Body in the Library isn’t as good as the first Miss Marple novel and if it weren’t for Christie herself I would give a 4.5 out of 5 rating. But compared to other Christie masterpieces this one is just not as good as it could have been.
    • 4/5
      Miss Marple novel with, yes, a body in the library. The library in question belongs to an old friend of Miss Marple, but the dead blonde doesn't. Unfortunately for Colonel Bantry, it's far too delicious a piece of tittle-tattle for the villagers to believe that the Colonel has never seen the girl before, and Mrs Bantry is well aware that her husband will be broken by the gossip if the real murderer isn't found, even if the police believe him to be innocent. So her immediate reaction is to call in her friend Miss Marple for help.The victim is soon identified, along with several people who might have had a motive to kill her. But those with strong motives have strong alibis, and those with weak alibis have weak motives. Adding to the confusion is the second murder of a young girl. Miss Marple has good reason to find the solution, both to clear the names of the innocent -- and to prevent a third murder.AS usual with Christie, many of the characters are cardboard, but very skillfully painted cardboard, with real motivations and consistent characterisations. One of the final elements really does seem to come out of nowhere, but the groundwork for it has been carefully laid. This is a beautifully constructed mystery, with all the clues you need, mixed in with a whole shoal of convincing red herrings.The strength of Christie's books is always her dissection of human behaviour, but here she's particularly good at showing the dark side of the interest in gossip that Miss Marple uses to bring justice for the dead.A week or so after reading the book, I listened to the abridged audiobook from Macmillan Digital Audio, read by Ian Masters. It's a good abridgement on 3 CDs which manages to retain the necessary plot elements without signalling them too broadly, and Masters does a good job of reading the text. In particular, he manages to read the dialogue for the female characters without the over-exaggerated high pitch used by male actors on a few of the audiobooks I've listened to recently.

    Book preview

    The Body in the Library - Agatha Christie

    One

    I

    Mrs. Bantry was dreaming. Her sweet peas had just taken a First at the flower show. The vicar, dressed in cassock and surplice, was giving out the prizes in church. His wife wandered past, dressed in a bathing suit, but as is the blessed habit of dreams this fact did not arouse the disapproval of the parish in the way it would assuredly have done in real life….

    Mrs. Bantry was enjoying her dream a good deal. She usually did enjoy those early-morning dreams that were terminated by the arrival of early-morning tea. Somewhere in her inner consciousness was an awareness of the usual early-morning noises of the household. The rattle of the curtain rings on the stairs as the housemaid drew them, the noises of the second housemaid’s dustpan and brush in the passage outside. In the distance the heavy noise of the front-door bolt being drawn back.

    Another day was beginning. In the meantime she must extract as much pleasure as possible from the flower show—for already its dream-like quality was becoming apparent….

    Below her was the noise of the big wooden shutters in the drawing room being opened. She heard it, yet did not hear it. For quite half an hour longer the usual household noises would go on, discreet, subdued, not disturbing because they were so familiar. They would culminate in a swift, controlled sound of footsteps along the passage, the rustle of a print dress, the subdued chink of tea things as the tray was deposited on the table outside, then the soft knock and the entry of Mary to draw the curtains.

    In her sleep Mrs. Bantry frowned. Something disturbing was penetrating through to the dream state, something out of its time. Footsteps along the passage, footsteps that were too hurried and too soon. Her ears listened unconsciously for the chink of china, but there was no chink of china.

    The knock came at the door. Automatically from the depths of her dreams Mrs. Bantry said: Come in. The door opened—now there would be the chink of curtain rings as the curtains were drawn back.

    But there was no chink of curtain rings. Out of the dim green light Mary’s voice came—breathless, hysterical: "Oh, ma’am, oh, ma’am, there’s a body in the library."

    And then with a hysterical burst of sobs she rushed out of the room again.

    II

    Mrs. Bantry sat up in bed.

    Either her dream had taken a very odd turn or else—or else Mary had really rushed into the room and had said (incredible! fantastic!) that there was a body in the library.

    Impossible, said Mrs. Bantry to herself. I must have been dreaming.

    But even as she said it, she felt more and more certain that she had not been dreaming, that Mary, her superior self-controlled Mary, had actually uttered those fantastic words.

    Mrs. Bantry reflected a minute and then applied an urgent conjugal elbow to her sleeping spouse.

    Arthur, Arthur, wake up.

    Colonel Bantry grunted, muttered, and rolled over on his side.

    Wake up, Arthur. Did you hear what she said?

    Very likely, said Colonel Bantry indistinctly. I quite agree with you, Dolly, and promptly went to sleep again.

    Mrs. Bantry shook him.

    You’ve got to listen. Mary came in and said that there was a body in the library.

    Eh, what?

    "A body in the library."

    Who said so?

    Mary.

    Colonel Bantry collected his scattered faculties and proceeded to deal with the situation. He said:

    Nonsense, old girl; you’ve been dreaming.

    No, I haven’t. I thought so, too, at first. But I haven’t. She really came in and said so.

    Mary came in and said there was a body in the library?

    Yes.

    But there couldn’t be, said Colonel Bantry.

    No, no, I suppose not, said Mrs. Bantry doubtfully.

    Rallying, she went on:

    But then why did Mary say there was?

    She can’t have.

    She did.

    You must have imagined it.

    I didn’t imagine it.

    Colonel Bantry was by now thoroughly awake and prepared to deal with the situation on its merits. He said kindly:

    "You’ve been dreaming, Dolly, that’s what it is. It’s that detective story you were reading—The Clue of the Broken Match. You know—Lord Edgbaston finds a beautiful blonde dead on the library hearthrug. Bodies are always being found in libraries in books. I’ve never known a case in real life."

    Perhaps you will now, said Mrs. Bantry. Anyway, Arthur, you’ve got to get up and see.

    "But really, Dolly, it must have been a dream. Dreams often do seem wonderfully vivid when you first wake up. You feel quite sure they’re true."

    I was having quite a different sort of dream—about a flower show and the vicar’s wife in a bathing dress—something like that.

    With a sudden burst of energy Mrs. Bantry jumped out of bed and pulled back the curtains. The light of a fine autumn day flooded the room.

    "I did not dream it, said Mrs. Bantry firmly. Get up at once, Arthur, and go downstairs and see about it."

    You want me to go downstairs and ask if there’s a body in the library? I shall look a damned fool.

    You needn’t ask anything, said Mrs. Bantry. "If there is a body—and of course it’s just possible that Mary’s gone mad and thinks she sees things that aren’t there—well, somebody will tell you soon enough. You won’t have to say a word."

    Grumbling, Colonel Bantry wrapped himself in his dressing gown and left the room. He went along the passage and down the staircase. At the foot of it was a little knot of huddled servants; some of them were sobbing. The butler stepped forward impressively.

    I’m glad you have come, sir. I have directed that nothing should be done until you came. Will it be in order for me to ring up the police, sir?

    Ring ’em up about what?

    The butler cast a reproachful glance over his shoulder at the tall young woman who was weeping hysterically on the cook’s shoulder.

    I understood, sir, that Mary had already informed you. She said she had done so.

    Mary gasped out:

    I was so upset I don’t know what I said. It all came over me again and my legs gave way and my inside turned over. Finding it like that—oh, oh, oh!

    She subsided again on to Mrs. Eccles, who said: There, there, my dear, with some relish.

    Mary is naturally somewhat upset, sir, having been the one to make the gruesome discovery, explained the butler. She went into the library as usual, to draw the curtains, and—almost stumbled over the body.

    Do you mean to tell me, demanded Colonel Bantry, "that there’s a dead body in my library—my library?"

    The butler coughed.

    Perhaps, sir, you would like to see for yourself.

    III

    Hallo, ’allo, ’allo. Police station here. Yes, who’s speaking?

    Police-Constable Palk was buttoning up his tunic with one hand while the other held the receiver.

    Yes, yes, Gossington Hall. Yes? Oh, good morning, sir. Police-Constable Palk’s tone underwent a slight modification. It became less impatiently official, recognizing the generous patron of the police sports and the principal magistrate of the district.

    "Yes, sir? What can I do for you?—I’m sorry, sir, I didn’t quite catch—a body, did you say?—yes?—yes, if you please, sir—that’s right, sir—young woman not known to you, you say?—quite, sir. Yes, you can leave it all to me."

    Police-Constable Palk replaced the receiver, uttered a longdrawn whistle and proceeded to dial his superior officer’s number.

    Mrs. Palk looked in from the kitchen whence proceeded an appetizing smell of frying bacon.

    What is it?

    Rummest thing you ever heard of, replied her husband. Body of a young woman found up at the Hall. In the Colonel’s library.

    Murdered?

    Strangled, so he says.

    Who was she?

    The Colonel says he doesn’t know her from Adam.

    Then what was she doing in ’is library?

    Police-Constable Palk silenced her with a reproachful glance and spoke officially into the telephone.

    Inspector Slack? Police-Constable Palk here. A report has just come in that the body of a young woman was discovered this morning at seven-fifteen—

    IV

    Miss Marple’s telephone rang when she was dressing. The sound of it flurried her a little. It was an unusual hour for her telephone to ring. So well ordered was her prim spinster’s life that unforeseen telephone calls were a source of vivid conjecture.

    Dear me, said Miss Marple, surveying the ringing instrument with perplexity. I wonder who that can be?

    Nine o’clock to nine-thirty was the recognized time for the village to make friendly calls to neighbours. Plans for the day, invitations and so on were always issued then. The butcher had been known to ring up just before nine if some crisis in the meat trade had occurred. At intervals during the day spasmodic calls might occur, though it was considered bad form to ring after nine-thirty at night. It was true that Miss Marple’s nephew, a writer, and therefore erratic, had been known to ring up at the most peculiar times, once as late as ten minutes to midnight. But whatever Raymond West’s eccentricities, early rising was not one of them. Neither he nor anyone of Miss Marple’s acquaintance would be likely to ring up before eight in the morning. Actually a quarter to eight.

    Too early even for a telegram, since the post office did not open until eight.

    It must be, Miss Marple decided, a wrong number.

    Having decided this, she advanced to the impatient instrument and quelled its clamour by picking up the receiver. Yes? she said.

    Is that you, Jane?

    Miss Marple was much surprised.

    Yes, it’s Jane. You’re up very early, Dolly.

    Mrs. Bantry’s voice came breathless and agitated over the wires.

    The most awful thing has happened.

    Oh, my dear.

    We’ve just found a body in the library.

    For a moment Miss Marple thought her friend had gone mad.

    "You’ve found a what?"

    I know. One doesn’t believe it, does one? I mean, I thought they only happened in books. I had to argue for hours with Arthur this morning before he’d even go down and see.

    Miss Marple tried to collect herself. She demanded breathlessly: But whose body is it?

    It’s a blonde.

    A what?

    A blonde. A beautiful blonde—like books again. None of us have ever seen her before. She’s just lying there in the library, dead. That’s why you’ve got to come up at once.

    "You want me to come up?"

    Yes, I’m sending the car down for you.

    Miss Marple said doubtfully:

    Of course, dear, if you think I can be of any comfort to you—

    Oh, I don’t want comfort. But you’re so good at bodies.

    Oh no, indeed. My little successes have been mostly theoretical.

    "But you’re very good at murders. She’s been murdered, you see, strangled. What I feel is that if one has got to have a murder actually happening in one’s house, one might as well enjoy it, if you know what I mean. That’s why I want you to come and help me find out who did it and unravel the mystery and all that. It really is rather thrilling, isn’t it?"

    "Well, of course, my dear, if I can be of any help to you."

    "Splendid! Arthur’s being rather difficult. He seems to think I shouldn’t enjoy myself about it at all. Of course, I do know it’s very sad and all that, but then I don’t know the girl—and when you’ve seen her you’ll understand what I mean when I say she doesn’t look real at all."

    V

    A little breathless, Miss Marple alighted from the Bantry’s car, the door of which was held open for her by the chauffeur.

    Colonel Bantry came out on the steps, and looked a little surprised.

    Miss Marple?—er—very pleased to see you.

    Your wife telephoned to me, explained Miss Marple.

    Capital, capital. She ought to have someone with her. She’ll crack up otherwise. She’s putting a good face on things at the moment, but you know what it is—

    At this moment Mrs. Bantry appeared, and exclaimed:

    Do go back into the dining room and eat your breakfast, Arthur. Your bacon will get cold.

    I thought it might be the Inspector arriving, explained Colonel Bantry.

    He’ll be here soon enough, said Mrs. Bantry. That’s why it’s important to get your breakfast first. You need it.

    So do you. Much better come and eat something. Dolly—

    I’ll come in a minute, said Mrs. Bantry. Go on, Arthur.

    Colonel Bantry was shooed back into the dining room like a recalcitrant hen.

    "Now! said Mrs. Bantry with an intonation of triumph. Come on."

    She led the way rapidly along the long corridor to the east of the house. Outside the library door Constable Palk stood on guard. He intercepted Mrs. Bantry with a show of authority.

    I’m afraid nobody is allowed in, madam. Inspector’s orders.

    Nonsense, Palk, said Mrs. Bantry. You know Miss Marple perfectly well.

    Constable Palk admitted to knowing Miss Marple.

    It’s very important that she should see the body, said Mrs. Bantry. "Don’t be stupid, Palk. After all, it’s my library, isn’t it?"

    Constable Palk gave way. His habit of giving in to the gentry was lifelong. The Inspector, he reflected, need never know about it.

    Nothing must be touched or handled in any way, he warned the ladies.

    Of course not, said Mrs. Bantry impatiently. "We know that. You can come in and watch, if you like."

    Constable Palk availed himself of this permission. It had been his intention, anyway.

    Mrs. Bantry bore her friend triumphantly across the library to the big old-fashioned fireplace. She said, with a dramatic sense of climax: There!

    Miss Marple understood then just what her friend had meant when she said the dead girl wasn’t real. The library was a room very typical of its owners. It was large and shabby and untidy. It had big sagging armchairs, and pipes and books and estate papers laid out on the big table. There were one or two good old family portraits on the walls, and some bad Victorian watercolours, and some would-be-funny hunting scenes. There was a big vase of Michaelmas daisies in the corner. The whole room was dim and mellow and casual. It spoke of long occupation and familiar use and of links with tradition.

    And across the old bearskin hearthrug there was sprawled something new and crude and melodramatic.

    The flamboyant figure of a girl. A girl with unnaturally fair hair dressed up off her face in elaborate curls and rings. Her thin body was dressed in a backless evening dress of white spangled satin. The face was heavily made-up, the powder standing out grotesquely on its blue swollen surface, the mascara of the lashes lying thickly on the distorted cheeks, the scarlet of the lips looking like a gash. The fingernails were enamelled in a deep blood-red and so were the toenails in their cheap silver sandal shoes. It was a cheap, tawdry, flamboyant figure—most incongruous in the solid old-fashioned comfort of Colonel Bantry’s library.

    Mrs. Bantry said in a low voice:

    "You see what I mean? It just isn’t true!"

    The old lady by her side nodded her

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