Miss Marple – Boondock Ramblings

It’s time for our Sunday morning chat. On Sundays, I ramble about what’s been going on, what the rest of the family and I have been reading and watching, and what I’ve been writing.

Last weekend my daughter and husband found a couple of cassette tapes in my late aunt’s old dresser. My aunt passed away in 2018 and I’m not sure how we didn’t see these tapes before but there they were — recordings that someone had made, we are not sure who, of my grandfather, great-grandmother and another relative on one cassette singing and, at least according to the label, my grandmother and grandfather on another cassette singing.

My grandfather played the harmonica and the Hawaiian steel guitar and had a band with his brothers at one time. I really didn’t know if my grandmother sang but apparently she did some with my grandfather, based on these recordings.

My mom is 81 (82 in August) and she said she wasn’t totally sure it was her parents, since it had been so long since she’d heard their voices. The more she listened, though, she thought it must be, but when they were much younger, which is why they didn’t sound as familiar.

I have not heard my grandmother’s voice since 2002 since she died in early 2003, but something about the laugh made me thin it was her.

I was only 9 when my grandfather died, so I can’t be sure it was him either.

My mom was certain the other woman on the other cassette was her grandmother. The first time we listened to it she was trying to hear the voices, be sure it was them. The second time we listened she cried, but didn’t say why, only saying it wasn’t about being sad. I think a lot of good memories of her grandmother came back hearing those songs.

I texted my great aunt and she confirmed that the voice on the one cassette tape were her brother (my grandfather) and her mother.

Grandpa played bluegrass-style music, or maybe it would be described as Apalachian-style.

The songs we heard on the cassettes were mainly hymns, with some instrumentals on either the Hawaiian steel guitar, the dobro, guitar, or harmonica.

I don’t know why, but I ended up with one of my grandfather’s harmonicas when he died.

I only saw my grandfather once a year since he lived in North Carolina and we lived in Pennsylvania, so I wasn’t very close to him. From what I hear, he wasn’t an easy man for anyone to get close to, but that’s another story for another day.

Quick update on the older cat: she’s doing much better but still not eating well. She is moving better, wants to cuddle more, and is on the mend, even though her left eye is still goopy. The other cats seem fully recovered and are actually back to being a bit annoying.

What I/We’ve Been Reading

Just Finished

I just finished The Cat Who Brought the House Down by Lilian Jackson Braun.

It was a very, slow, light cozy mystery with a pretty dark ending (though not described in detail). I enjoyed it even though it was more like reading a gentle vintage fiction book than a mystery. And that ending…it was like a Christie ending. Not bad, actually good, but really out of place for the rest of the book.

In Progress

I am slow reading Stillmeadow Daybrook by Gladys Taber. Since each chapter is a month, I plan to read a chapter a month. I am also reading Mere Christianity by C.S. Lewis, but had put it aside for a bit. I hope to pick it up again this week.

Stolen Past by Tara Randel, an Amish Inn Mystery, and The Silver Chair by C.S. Lewis.

Up Soon

I’ll be reading The Murder of Roger Ackroyd by Agatha Christie soon for the 2026 Christie Reading Challenge.

What The Family is Reading

The Husband is on assignment for the paper so I didn’t get a chance to ask him what he’s been reading. Little Miss and I took a break from Heidi this week but are picking it back up this upcoming week during our last week of homeschool for a month.

New arrivals to my bookshelf

No new arrivals for now.

What I/We’ve Been Watching

This past week I watched The Other Bennett Sister, The Letter (a movie with Bette Davis that I wrote about), and A Caribbean Mystery – a Miss Marple Mystery with Joan Hickson.

A Caribbean Mystery was so well done and very close to the book. The people they cast for the characters were absolutely perfect — especially Mr. Rafiel. I am glad they got rid of a three of the characters from the book, though, because it was a little confusing at times and would have been even more confusing in a movie.

There were a few other changes from the novel, including a more prominent role of Island resident Inspector Weston in the movie/TV show. The actor was excellent and I actually enjoyed him being more involved.

The one woman’s American/Southern accent was atrocious though. I really wish the British productions would hire actual Americans for these roles or get someone who doesn’t butcher a Southern accent at least.

There were these horrid crickets or tree frogs or something sounding during many of the nighttime scenes and I wondered why they didn’t cut the sound out but toward the end I realized it created an unsettling feeling that added to the story/mystery.

What I’ve Been Writing

On the blog I shared:

What I/We’ve Been Listening To

I am listening to Murder, She wrote: The Maine Mutiny by Donald Bain. It’s slow going because I usually only listen to audiobooks when I am driving and I have not been driving a lot lately. Or at least alone.

Photos From Last Week

Some Housekeeping

Erin (Still Life, With Cracker Crumbs) and I host a monthly bookish link party called A Good Book and A Cup of Tea. This link-up is for book and reading posts or anything related to books and reading (even movies based on books!). Each link party will be open for a month. You can find that link up for this month here.

Each week, I host the Weekend Traffic Jam Reboot with some great hosts. It goes live Thursday night, but you can share any kind of blog posts (family-friendly) there until Tuesday of each week. You can check my recent posts on the sidebar to the right for the most recent link party.

Now It’s Your Turn

What have you been doing, watching, reading, listening to, or writing?

This post is linked up with The Sunday Post at Kimba at Caffeinated Reviewer, Deb at with Deb at Readerbuzz, and Book Date: It’s Monday! What are you reading hosted by Kathyrn at The Book Date and Stacking the Shelves is hosted by Reading Reality.

Hello! Welcome to my blog. I am a blogger, homeschool mom, and I write cozy mysteries.

You can find my Gladwynn Grant Mystery series HERE.

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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?

Boondock Ramblings

Tag: Miss Marple

Sunday Bookends: Old recordings from relatives found and watching an old Miss Marple and a new “Miss Bennet”