A Caribbean Mystery: Agatha Christie’s Miss Marple on Holiday, a Talkative Major and a Mysterious Photograph
On holiday at a resort in the Caribbean, Miss Marple is enjoying some very pleasant days, until her rest is interrupted by a crime she feels she must investigate. Major Palgrave, a garrulous old soldier full of stories, is found dead.
Author: Agatha Christie (1890–1976)
Title: A Caribbean Mystery (1964)
Format: English paperback (HarperCollins), 240 pages
Scope: Miss Marple novel
Amazon: www.amazon.es/dp/0008196605 (ASIN 0008196605)
A Photograph and a Secret
The death is at first put down to natural causes, but some suspect that the Major knew something that must not come to light. Just before he died, he had been about to show Miss Marple a photograph of a murderer. A mysterious photo and more than one guarded secret lie behind the terrible event.
Miss Marple Takes Charge
Far from St Mary Mead, among sun, palm trees and rum punches, Miss Marple must use all her wits to answer the questions that remain unanswered, with the help of an unexpected ally, the irascible millionaire Mr Rafiel.
A Gift From Raymond
Miss Marple is on the fictional island of St Honoré thanks to her nephew Raymond West, a successful novelist who thinks a winter in the sun will do his elderly aunt good after an illness. Christie enjoys the comedy of placing her heroine, with her knitting and her memories of village life, among wealthy tourists in a luxury hotel. Miss Marple, of course, soon discovers that human nature is exactly the same in the tropics as in St Mary Mead.
The Golden Palm Hotel
The hotel is run by a young English couple, Tim and Molly Kendal, and the guests include two married couples who are inseparable friends, a clergyman and his sister, and the wealthy invalid Mr Rafiel, with his secretary and his valet. Each has something to hide, and Major Palgrave’s endless stories, which nobody listens to properly, contain a clue that only Miss Marple takes seriously.
Mr Rafiel
The irritable, sharp-tongued millionaire is one of Christie’s most memorable late characters. At first he dismisses Miss Marple as a harmless old lady, but he quickly comes to respect her intelligence, and their unlikely partnership, rude on his side and serene on hers, is the highlight of the book. His regard for her is so great that it sets in motion the plot of Nemesis, written several years later.
Christie in the Caribbean
Christie visited the West Indies in the late 1950s, and the novel captures the atmosphere of the island holiday resorts of that era, with steel bands, rum punches and expatriate gossip. Some details, particularly in her depiction of local people, belong very much to their time.
Adaptations
The novel has been filmed several times: in 1983 with Helen Hayes, in 1989 for the BBC with Joan Hickson, often considered the definitive Miss Marple, and in 2013 with Julia McKenzie.
Reading Order
It can be read on its own, but it makes an excellent pair with Nemesis, which should be read afterwards.
Miss Marple Abroad
It is one of the very few Marple novels set outside England, and part of the fun is seeing how her methods travel. She has no village gossip to rely on, no local police who know her, and she is surrounded by strangers; yet she does exactly what she always does, listening, observing and comparing each person with someone she once knew at home. The final scenes, in which she rouses Mr Rafiel in the middle of the night, are among the most dramatic in the whole series.
Why Read It
Another case full of adventure, suspense and mystery, and a delightful change of scene for Miss Marple. Fans will also enjoy seeing the start of her friendship with Mr Rafiel, who returns in Nemesis.
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