Nemesis
A Miss Marple Mystery
Large Print - 2012 | Center Point large print ed


Opinion
From the critics

Community Activity
Quotes
Add a QuoteMiss Marple: "I was talking to myself, I'm afraid. [...] I'm afraid one does at my age."
'D'you know,' said Miss Marple to herself, 'it's extraordinary I never thought about it before. I believe, you know, I could be ruthless...'
Miss Marple: If you expect me to feel sympathy, regret, urge an unhappy childhood, blame bad environment; if you expect me in fact to weep over him, this young murderer of yours, I do not feel inclined so to do. I do not like evil beings who do evil things.
Professor Wanstead: Girls are said to mature earlier. That is physically true, though in a deeper sense of the word, they mature late. They remain childish longer [...]. They wish not to become adult--not to have to accept our kind of responsibility. And yet, like all children, they want to be thought grown-up and free to do what they think are grown-up things.
Age Suitability
Add Age Suitability
Comment
Add a CommentIn this later work of Christie’s, Miss Marple is drawn into solving a mystery by an acquaintance. The catch is the acquaintance Mr. Rafiel, has recently died. Also he tells her nothing of the crime he wants her to investigate. Miss Marple is too intrigued by the request to turn it down.
Not one to sit around Miss Marple immediately began engineering situations to ask questions of Mr. Rafiel’s circle. Luckily she doesn’t have to wait long as Mr. Rafiel has thought ahead. Mr. Rafiel’s ability to set Miss Marple up to, not only figure out what she’s intended to investigate but also determine the truth, is similar to Christie’s ability to set up a murder mystery: precision down to the last detail.
I appreciate Christie’s new way of connecting Miss Marple to a crime, as well as her consistency in writing Miss Marple. Miss Marple never thinks much of her investigation skills, even though she is quite shrewd and knows all the right questions to ask.
Miss Jane Marple receives an unusual request: prove the innocence of a dying man's nephew, convicted and incarcerated for murder. With little guidance and information she does so during a bus tour of holidayers.
A dud. I read the first 50 pages and gave up. This was my 4th Marple, and these novels work well when she's a secondary character who arrives on the scene only after the perpetration of some evil deed, and then observes her way into connecting the dots. Nemesis, however, finds Christie operating in quasi-experimental mode. It's Miss Marple from the first page on, and on every page after that, wondering how she will ever solve a crime when there are no clues whatsoever nor awareness of what crime, if any, has taken place. I wished the gambit had worked, but it's deadly boring. From time to time she muses whether the bequest to solve this crime-less crime is some sort of a prank played on her. This reader felt the same way. There's an interesting chat about gardening in chapter one, and it's downhill from there.
This has to be in my top five Agatha Christie novels. Miss Marple solved multi-murders with little to no clues from the beginning.
Very interesting, not the usual plot turns and twists that I expected. Much more psychological suspense and intrigue. Although I understand why she would include a character from a previous mystery for continuity, it initially made me feel that I had to look up that mystery again, which I did, but realized later it would probably not have hurt my overall enjoyment of the novel. It just bothers me when there are references to characters I don't remember
This was the last of the Miss Marple books I had to read and I'm glad it was a good one.
The cryptic nature of this mystery was quite fun though I felt for Miss Marple's frustration with not knowing what she was supposed to investigate.
Another excellent book by Mrs. Christie, with one of my favorite characters: Miss Jane Marple. Her prior book, Passenger to Frankfurt, written when she was 80, got quite negative reviews. Critics called her prose “incomprehensible muddle” and “idiotic conventions”, and ridiculed her by dubbing her an “old dear.” In this book I see Miss Marple as Christie’s alter-ego. She complains constantly (to herself) what a muddled brain she is becoming, etc, yet, single-handedly unveiled the truth and found the criminal! And so Mrs. Christie took revenge on the condescending critics: at 81, she wrote another best-seller! (Just don't watch the movie before you read the book: it is way better, more intricate, although Joan Hickson does a wonderful Marple.)
Very entertaining! I am always impressed by Agatha Christie's use of language.
I waspleased that I fingered the mruderer long before the end. Perhaps I have read too much of Agatha Christie but I enjoy her so.
A great read - always.
This book is really good.
Miss Marple mystery, one of the last