I really enjoyed listening to the twists and turns within this Miss Marple mystery although in the novel she appears a lot less than she does in the BBC version starring Joan Hickson...
The sheer spitefulness of these malicious and venomous poison pen letters soon disturbs the peace and tranquility of this quiet English backwater... but beneath the surface there are depths of emotion just waiting to be revealed.
I don't want to spoil the plot for anyone who has not read the book, but two horrible murders are committed using the poison pen letters as a screen to hide behind.
The narrator telling the story is a young man called Jerry Burton who moves into a rented house with his sister Joanna. He is recovering from a flying accident and has been told to go to live somewhere quiet to aid his recuperation.
While he becomes friends with the local doctor and helps the police to find the killer and author of the letters, he falls in love with the strange girlish step daughter of the local solicitor, whose wife has supposedly commited suicide, and initially, she refuses his offer of marriage.
Unfortunately for me... I was listening to the book on a rather scratched library audio book and the story had bounced, stuttered and jumped through 5 CD's... On the 6th CD it was pretty much okay until Chapter 19 where I discover who the murderer is, who the author of the letters was, and the rescue of the damsel in distress... I am about to find out if the guy got the girl or not... when ... sputtering and making a nasty scratchy noise the CD ground to a halt... argh!
