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A Caribbean Mystery

A Caribbean Mystery

ClassicsCrime
Pages
249
Published
1964
Language
English

Synopsis

Sent abroad by her nephew to recuperate from an illness, Jane Marple finds herself at a sun-drenched resort on the West Indian island of St Honoré. The palm trees and warm sea make pleasant company, but the elderly amateur sleuth quietly misses the human texture of her village, where she knows everyone and reads people effortlessly. To pass the hours she half-listens to the garrulous Major Palgrave, an old soldier who spins one tall tale after another. When he begins a story about a man who got away with murder and offers to show her a snapshot of the killer, he suddenly stops short and changes the subject. The following morning the Major is found dead, and the convenient explanation of high blood pressure does not quite satisfy Miss Marple. With little to go on but a vanished photograph and her own instinct for ordinary human wickedness, she begins to observe the other guests: holidaying couples, the young pair who run the hotel, a watchful staff. Confined by age and unfamiliar surroundings, she finds an unlikely ally in Mr Rafiel, a sharp-tongued, gravely ill millionaire whose mind remains as fierce as his temper. Working through quiet conversation and patient deduction, Marple races to identify a murderer who has already killed and may be preparing to kill again. The result is a tightly plotted puzzle set far from her familiar lanes, in which a paradise of leisure conceals very old and very human motives.

Prose complexity
4/10

Vibe

AtmosphericIntellectualTense
BetrayalSecret IdentityMorally Grey

Genres

Classics Crime Mystery Amateur Sleuth Suspense Travel

About the author

Agatha Christie's avatar
Agatha ChristieMystery · Classics1890–1976

Dame Agatha Christie (1890-1976) is the best-selling novelist of all time and the writer the world calls the "Queen of Crime." Born Agatha Miller in Torquay, Devon, she came to fiction on a dare: her sister Madge bet she could not write a convincing detective story, and the result, The Mysterious Affair at Styles, introduced the Belgian detective Hercule Poirot. Her dispensing work in a hospital pharmacy during the First World War, repeated again during the Second, gave her the expert knowledge of poisons that runs through her plots. She is best known for Poirot, the village sleuth Miss Jane Marple, the standalone And Then There Were None, and the stage thriller The Mousetrap, the longest-running play in the world. Her output is staggering: 66 detective novels and 14 short-story collections, plus six psychological novels published for nearly twenty years under the secret pen name Mary Westmacott. Two episodes set her apart. In 1926 she vanished for eleven days, sparking a national manhunt before she was found at a Harrogate hotel. In 1930 she married the archaeologist Max Mallowan and joined his excavations across the Middle East, mining those journeys for novels such as Murder on the Orient Express. She was made a Dame (DBE) in 1971.

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Characters

Mr Jason RafielSupporting

A cantankerous, gravely ill millionaire with a quick mind and an unexpectedly kind streak who comes to admire Marple.

Major PalgraveSupporting

A garrulous old soldier fond of spinning tales of murder, whose story about a killer precedes his sudden death.

Esther WaltersSupporting

A widowed assistant who attends to the ailing Rafiel's needs at the resort.

Arthur JacksonSupporting

A masseur and personal attendant whose servant status colours how others regard him.

Tim KendalSupporting

Runs the Golden Palm with his young wife; charming and outwardly devoted.

All characters in A Caribbean Mystery

Frequently asked questions

  • Where and when was A Caribbean Mystery first published?

    It is a detective novel by Agatha Christie, first published in the UK by the Collins Crime Club on 16 November 1964.

  • Was the novel inspired by Christie's own travels?

    Yes. The book is dedicated to John Cruikshank Rose 'with happy memories of my visit to the West Indies,' and its tropical island setting draws on Christie's travels in the Caribbean.

  • Which character introduced here returns in a later Miss Marple novel?

    The millionaire Mr Jason Rafiel first appears in this book and returns, posthumously, in Nemesis, where he sets Marple a case specifically because of how she solved the events of A Caribbean Mystery.

  • What makes this Miss Marple novel unusual within the series?

    Marple operates far from her home village of St Mary Mead, solving a case while on holiday abroad rather than relying on her familiar network of village acquaintances.

  • How does the mystery begin?

    The talkative Major Palgrave starts to tell Marple about a man who got away with murder and offers to show a photo of the killer, then abruptly stops; he is found dead the next day, which prompts her suspicion of foul play.

  • Has A Caribbean Mystery been adapted for television?

    Yes. Helen Hayes starred in a 1983 US TV movie, Joan Hickson played Marple in a 1989 BBC adaptation, and Julia McKenzie starred in a 2014 ITV version.

  • Where does the story take place?

    It is set at a resort hotel on the fictional Caribbean island of St Honoré, where Marple has been sent to recuperate after an illness.

  • Do I need to read other Miss Marple books first?

    No. It stands alone as a complete mystery, though reading it before Nemesis enriches that later novel, which directly references this case.

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