A Caribbean Mystery by Agatha Christie #ReadChristie26

In this mystery set on a fictional island in the Caribbean, Miss Marple’s quiet vacation is (surprise!) interrupted by murder. Her nephew Raymond had thoughtfully paid for her to travel to the West Indies to recuperate after a bad bout of pneumonia, and now Miss Marple is doing what she does best: listening. 

Major Palgrave likes having an audience and as he rambles about past experiences, she thinks her own thoughts, not really paying much attention when he describes an incident about a man whose wife died under odd circumstances – more than once. She would not have thought twice about it except for two things: 1) that Major Palgrave abruptly stops talking when several men from their hotel approach and 2) he dies in his sleep that night!

Miss Marple’s face was grave. She had to take a decision. Was she, or was she not, going to allow Major Palgrave to remain quietly in his grave? Might it not be better to do just that? She quoted under her breath. “Duncan is dead. After Life’s fitful fever he sleeps well!” Nothing could hurt Major Palgrave now. He had gone where danger could not touch him. Was it just a coincidence that he should have died on that particular night? Or was it just possibly not a coincidence? Doctors accepted the deaths of elderly men so easily.

Without Miss Marple, Major Palgrave and his death would have been forgotten in a day or so. She notices people making unsubstantiated assertions about his health and wonders if it is just gossip or something more purposeful. Eventually, she starts asking questions, which is her own preliminary to a full-fledged investigation. While it seems odd to find her sleuthing outside Britain, an intimate hotel is just a variation on a small village and Miss Marple (at one point frustrated to be away from home where she has connections to law enforcement) uses the resources available to her – pretending her knee is hurt so she can ask the doctor questions about the Major’s death, befriending the gossipy sister of a minister, and coaxing information from an eccentric millionaire, all of whom contribute to her solving of what turn out to be multiple murders.

Helen Hayes as Miss Marple

In turn, Mr. Rafiel, the elderly and wealthiest guest at the hotel, has been observing Miss Marple and is more perceptive than most:

“D’you know,” said Mr. Rafiel, studying her attentively. “I made a mistake about you. I don’t often make mistakes about people. There’s a lot more to you than I thought there was. All these rumours about Major Palgrave and the stories he told. You think he was bumped off, don’t you?”

He proves to be a useful sounding board for Miss Marple (something every detective needs!) and their interaction is the most entertaining part of the story, exactly because she is not the sort of person he usually tolerates. This was one of those books where I couldn’t tell if the murderer was obvious or if the plot was coming back to me after having it as a teen. It was one of Christie’s later books and quite readable, if not in the very top tier. The Agatha Christie Companion opines that she based the island on St. Lucia, which she had visited.

This was the Read Christie 2026 choice for April and it’s my twelfth book for the Cloak and Dagger Reading Challenge.

Title: A Caribbean Mystery
Author: Agatha Christie
Publication: William Morrow, trade paperback, originally published in 1964
Genre: Mystery/series
Source: Library