The Tuesday Club Murders

Agatha Christie

A group of people are sitting around one evening discussing mysteries and murder. The group includes an actress, a lawyer, a doctor, an ex-director of Scotland Yard, a social couple, a young man, and his maiden aunt from the village of St. Mary's Mead - Miss Jane Marple. One of the group proposes a game. They will meet on Tuesday evenings and each present a true mystery that has touched their life. The rest of the group has to solve the mystery.

Throughout the weeks, other people float in and out of the group. At first most of the members wonder why Miss Marple insists that she be part of the group. She's from a village. What can she know? Miss Marple knows people, of course. She proves time and again that people are the same whereever they are. It is her perception of people that leads her to the correct solution each time.

This book is a collection of 13 short stories featuring Miss Jane Marple, one of Agatha Christie's talented characters. They are puzzlers. The clues are there in almost all the stories (I'm still not sure about the actress' story - it's presented differently). The dedicated sleuth has a chance of solving the mystery along with Miss Marple. The stories do not feel dated except for some of the slang. I could not have solved one mystery because I didn't know the cooking term used - it has probably fallen to the wayside by now. Otherwise it is easy to forget these were written 70 or so years ago. If you like to solve the mystery being presented, you'll enjoy The Tuesday Club Murders. If you're like me, and follow along without trying too hard to solve them, you'll still enjoy this book.

The included stories are: "The Tuesday Night Club," "The Idol House of Astarte," "Ingots of Gold," "The Blood-Stained Pavement," "Motive Versus Opportunity," "The Thumb Mark of Saint Peter," "The Blue Geranium," "The Compassion," "The Four Suspects," "A Christmas Tragedy," "The Herb of Death," "The Affair at the Bungalow," and "Death by Drowning."