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The Body in the Library

The Body in the Library

ClassicsCrime
Pages
154
Published
1984
Language
English

Synopsis

The morning routine at Gossington Hall shatters when a maid discovers the body of an unknown young woman sprawled on the library floor. The dead girl is a platinum blonde in a cheap evening dress, a stranger to the respectable household of Colonel Arthur Bantry and his wife Dolly. As gossip threatens to brand the Colonel a suspect in his own home, Dolly turns to her shrewd friend from St. Mary Mead, an elderly spinster who understands village human nature better than anyone. The victim is soon identified as a dancer from a nearby seaside resort hotel, a young woman who had drawn the devotion of a wealthy, grieving invalid and the resentment of his relations. The local police pursue alibis and motives through the hotel's bright world of bridge tables and exhibition dances, while the spinster watches, listens, and draws her own quiet parallels to people she has known. A second discovery widens the case and confuses the timeline, forcing every theory to be reconsidered. Working alongside an old acquaintance from Scotland Yard and a methodical superintendent, she sifts the small inconsistencies others overlook. The investigation moves between the orthodox calm of an English country house and the restless energy of resort society, where appearances rarely hold. What seems an impossible intrusion proves to be a carefully arranged crime, and only patient attention to character reveals the design behind it.

Prose complexity
4/10

Vibe

CozyIntellectualAtmospheric
BetrayalSecret IdentityMystery Box

Genres

Classics Crime Mystery Amateur Sleuth Suspense

About the author

A
Agatha Christie

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...

Characters

Miss Jane MarpleSupporting

An elderly spinster of St. Mary Mead whose understanding of village human nature lets her read a crime through everyday parallels.

Dolly BantrySupporting

Mistress of Gossington Hall who summons Miss Marple, refusing to let the scandal taint her husband's name.

Colonel Arthur BantrySupporting

The respectable owner of Gossington Hall, embarrassed and quietly threatened by the rumour that surrounds the body in his library.

Ruby KeeneSupporting

A young dance hostess from the Majestic Hotel whose disappearance and death set the case in motion.

Conway JeffersonSupporting

A wealthy invalid who lost his family and grew devoted to Ruby, intending to provide for her.

All characters in The Body in the Library

Frequently asked questions

  • Is The Body in the Library a Miss Marple novel?

    Yes. It is the second full-length Miss Marple novel, following The Murder at the Vicarage. Miss Marple investigates at the request of her friend Dolly Bantry.

  • Where does it fall in the Miss Marple series?

    It is the second Miss Marple novel, published in 1942, roughly twelve years after the first, The Murder at the Vicarage (1930).

  • Did Agatha Christie write this book to play with a cliché?

    Yes. In her author's foreword Christie notes that the body in the library is a stock cliché of detective fiction, and she deliberately set out to keep the library conventional while making the body itself improbable and sensational.

  • Whose body is found, and where?

    The body of an unknown young blonde woman is found on the floor of the library at Gossington Hall, the home of Colonel and Dolly Bantry. She is later identified as Ruby Keene, a dancer from a nearby seaside hotel.

  • Has it been adapted for television?

    Yes. A well-known three-part BBC adaptation aired in December 1984 with Joan Hickson as Miss Marple, and the story has also been adapted in later Marple series.

  • Does the plot involve a question of identity?

    Yes. The case turns on uncertainty about who the dead woman really is, a device of substituted or mistaken identity that Miss Marple must unravel.

  • Do other detective characters appear alongside Miss Marple?

    Yes. The investigation involves the police, including Superintendent Harper, and Sir Henry Clithering, a retired Scotland Yard official who recommends Miss Marple's judgment.

  • Do I need to read the Marple books in order?

    No. The mysteries are largely self-contained and can be read on their own, though reading in publication order shows how the recurring characters develop.

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