Book Review/Recommendation: The Body in the Library

/ Lisa R. Howeler

The Body in the Library (A Miss Marple Mystery) by Agatha Christie

Description:

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.

My impressions:

The Body In the Library is a very interesting and complex mystery that kept me turning the pages.

Part of the Miss Marple series by Agatha Christie, the book tells the story of a high society family who wakes up to find the dead body of a young woman they don’t know in their library.

The wife, Mrs. Dolly Bantry, is quite thrilled with the discovery and contacts her friend Jane Marple to help investigate, even though Col. Melchett and Inspector Slack, as well as Superintendent Harper are on the case.

“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,” Dolly tells Miss Marple.

Despite Mrs. Bantry’s fascination with it all, this is a serious crime and how serious it is becomes more apparent as the days go on. How it is going to affect her husband is becoming more clear as well. The town gossip starts up immediately. A dead body in the library of Col. Arthur Bantry? Well, well. Maybe the old man was a bit of a pervert having an affair and things went wrong, eh?

Miss Marple doesn’t think so, but she keeps her ideas mostly to herself. In the mean time Melchett, Slack, and Harper are busy questioning potential suspects and their points of view carry us through most of the story. Harper, does, however, suggest that Miss Marple be consulted.

He tells Melchett at one point, “Downstairs in the lounge, by the third pillar from the left, there sits an old lady with a sweet, placid, spinsterish face and a mind that has plumbed the depths of human iniquity and taken it all as in the day’s work….where crime is concerned, she’s the goods.”

The inspector laughs this off but as the book goes on we realize that Miss Marple enjoys being underestimated and has been formulating her idea of who is guilty all along. She even steps in for a little sly sleuthing herself, pretending to simply be a concerned neighbor. She has experience in these things because of all the “goings on” in the little village she lives in, she says, and likes to use references to those situations to draw conclusions about the current mystery.

I enjoyed the twists and turns of this one, things I didn’t see coming. I had the mystery possibly solved before the end, but that didn’t take away from the enjoyment of hearing Miss Marple explain how she’d decided who the guilty party was.

Like in Murder in the Vicarage, my first Miss Marple read last year, I wanted there to be more Miss Marple in this book because she is so fun. At the same time I like how she is always a more subtle character who the investigating officers always have to consult, whether they want to or not.

Have you read this one? What did you think of it?

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15 thoughts on “Book Review/Recommendation: The Body in the Library”

  3. Pingback: Sunday Bookends: He wasn’t even listening and already a DNF book – Boondock Ramblings

  4. This one is on my TBR! I do however, have a vintage book cover tee from Out of Print of this one, and when I wore it to work one day (when I was working at the public library), my boss asked if I was warning him/anyone, LOL

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  5. It’s been ages since I read this one but I really do love a good Aggie and as I recall, remembering through your writing, this was a good one. She rarely disappoints, does she? I have all of her books (mostly those vintage paperbacks — all with TINY print!). I love the new editions.

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  6. I like Miss Marple as a character and the idea of her mostly being a watcher, comparing the world’s way to what she experiences in her own village and drawing sharp conclusions, and I like the plots.
    I also like the idea of Poirot who is so completely different from her.
    I like Tommy and Tuppence Beresford.
    However – and I know from experience this is a very unpopular thing to say – I’m not a fan of Christie’s writing which is why I haven’t read all of her books although I have read quite a few years ago and own a few (most belonged to my ex who obviously took them with him).
    It’s not that they are too simple for me, I prefer that to books laden with long descriptions. I can’t really put my finger on it.

    Interestingly, I have the same problems with Ngaio Marsh’s books while I absolutely love Dorothy L. Sayers (Wimsey is probably my favorite detective ever). Which reminds me that I still haven’t tried Margery Allingham, I really should.

    Cat
    https://catswire.blogspot.com/

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    • I know we talked on Zoom today but I wanted to leave a comment here too, so people don’t think I ignored you. Ha! I agree with those views of Agatha Christie. I want a little more description but not too much. If there is too much description, I skim it and move on. If there is too little I want more. I guess I am never happy! 😉 So, I don’t really read Agatha for great “writing” but for ingenious plots.

      I will have to look up those other authors as well!

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