The Thirteen Problems

Agatha Christie
Collins Crime Club

The Tuesday Night Club is a venue where locals challenge Miss Marple to solve recent crimes...One Tuesday evening a group gathers at Miss Marple's house and the conversation turns to unsolved crimes...The case of the disappearing bloodstains; the thief who committed his crime twice over; the message on the death-bed of a poisoned man which read 'heap of fish'; the strange case of the invisible will; a spiritualist who warned that 'Blue Geranium' meant death...Now pit your wits against the powers of deduction of the 'Tuesday Night Club'.

The next in the shelf full of Ms Marple's I have here is actually the first in that it contains the first ever Marple story; 'The Tuesday Night Club'.

The collection consists of 13 short mysteries, the first 12 of which follow a distinct pattern as each person tells of a mysterious happening that the others around the fireside (in the first 6) and the dinner party (in the second 6) have to solve.  It is, of course, the good lady who cuts straight to the heart of the matter as all human life can be related to the goings on in St Mary Mead.

The final story finds her engaging retired police commissioner Sit Henry Clithering - the only other constant in the 13 stories - to investigate a murder by handing him a piece of paper with the murderers name on it and then letting him do the investigating.

I've got to admit I'm enjoying the hell out of these Marple books.  I've always loved the various TV shows (Geraldine McEwan being my particular favourite) but the books are witty and inventive and the characters are fun and idiosyncratic  filled with foibles and all the inconsistencies that make people so much frustrating fun.  I have another 9 of these lined up and 2 more still to find and this makes me very happy indeed.

But it here -  The Thirteen Problems (Miss Marple)