加勒比海之谜

In A Caribbean Mystery, we once again join Miss Jane Marple but as the title suggests? We’re far from the quaint English village of St. Mary Mead but rather, on the Caribbean island of St. Honoré. Miss Marple is there to ease her rheumatism thanks to the kindness of her nephew, author Raymond West.I think what initially always hits home when I read (or watch) A Caribbean Mystery is that we know Miss Marple is already an elderly lady but now, her age has slightly caught up with her at least physically and it makes me sad. Perhaps because I have enjoyed these stories since I watched Joan Hickson portray her and thanks to IMDB? I now feel extremely old as I was perhaps 6 or 7 when I first watched them - she is and will always be Miss Marple to me. This fictional world and its murders have been a part of my life for nearly four decades now and I love them.A Caribbean Mystery stands out because we are far from home, and so there’s now only one familiar face and that’s of course Jane Marple. Whilst enjoying her knitting under the hot sun and watching the various hotel guests go about their day, she is as always paying a little more attention to them than perhaps is socially correct, but that’s what makes her who she is.  However, it is the story from a retired military officer that starts the chaos and murder to descend upon the many residents of this idyllic retreat. He has a photograph supposedly of a murderer… But that’s all she knows.Then murder arrives and it’s twisted, calculated and has you wondering what will happen next as is the genius of Christie’s work.Agatha Christie’s world-building is as wonderful here at bringing the hotel for the wealthy to life as she is at ensuring you’re safely ensconced among the hedgerows of St Mary Mead (which is theoretically Hampshire so beautiful). It’s as immersive as all her other books and brings to life the changes that were happening at home and abroad during the early 1960s. This is both a world Jane Marple is unfamiliar with for its locale and the new dawning decade that was a far cry from what she was accustomed to. I love these books, I know them all my heart and never tire of watching, reading or  listening to them because you’re drawn back in time, and as I have said before Agatha Christie’s skill of weaving a mystery I think remains unparalleled by modern authors.