Agatha Christie

"Agatha Christie's Short Stories" by Agatha Christie

This is a book of short stories featuring Miss Marple that I would title "The Tuesday Night Club". I bought this book at Home Plus for very little and it contains six stories. Unfortunately, this slim book is half English and half Korean; but when in Korea you take what you can get. Still, I enjoyed reading this book, some of the stories were ones I had read before and some were new to me. None of the stories were only partial but the entire ones which is a joy for I love reading Christie.

There is a reason, to my mind, that Christie wears so well after so many years. It is because she wrote uncommonly well. She wears well. The prose is crisp and clean and easily understood. The descriptions are clear and concise. Many of the older mystery writers tend to be wordy when read today but not Christie. Her books and short stories are virtual time capsules that today's reader can view the world that Christie was writing about without any difficulty. It is more than describing the people and the British times, it was the atmosphere and a period of time that no longer exists.

Everyone at the Tuesday Night Club assumes that the little old lady sitting in with them would not know about the things and events the rest of them were talking about let along come up with the solutions to the mysteries they were discussing; but Miss Marple does time after time. Even her own nephew does not think much about his dotty old aunt. Those who tell the stories all find out that Miss Marple is one great criminologist. There is no sleigh of hand by the author. The mysteries are solved and the reader can see how the crime was done and Miss Marple illustrates how easily the events in the world is very much like the events in a small British village.