Marple Bk2: Thirteen problems (2/13)

The Idol House Of Astarte (Dr Pender, old clergyman relates)

Murdered
=> Richard Haydon was struck by something while running to Diana
->Diana, just trying to be playful, said she would strike Richard with the magic of Astarte if he won't back down.
-> Richard had stabbed heart wound but no weapon was found.

Danger:
Elliot (lying exact spot as Richard, not dead). A thin bronze weapon was shot and pierced though his shoulder when he reached exact spot as Richard. Did Eilliot self-inflicted himself? Or was he being struck by the Astarte Magic?
He had shot himself in the war to escape from going into the battlefield.

Suspects:
1) Diana (priestness of Astarte) -> threw nothing visible at Richard. There was still a distance to her when Richard dropped dead. Scared by Richard's death, fainted, brought back into the house before Richard.
(Violet's account, only her): she saw Diana had a dagger in her hand.
2) Elliot, went back alone to find any clue at where Richard was struck. He was holding on to a piece of jewel when struck by the bronze rod.
3) Violet, (lady mannering)-> found Eillot struck with a rod, gathered everyone, offered to look after Elliot's jewel and went to call for police.

Leads=> The weapon was brought by richard and no one knew about it.

Analogy: At Lady Sharpley's garden party, a man tripped over something and lost his conscious.

Marple Bk2: Thirteen problems (1/13)

Tuesday Night Club (Sir Henry relates)

Mystery at the Supper: 3 eaten
2 fell ill: Mr Jones & Miss Clerk
1 died: Mrs Jones, the difference is she took a glass of cornflour water from her husband.

Suspects:
1) Mr Jones-> took cornflour water to his wife to drink
2) Miss Clark-> Mrs Jones's companion, claims Mrs Jones did not want to drink it and offered it to her, so she drank the cornflour water instead.
3) Maid Gladys-> Housemaid, prepared the cornflour water. She was terribly agitated when the doctor spoke to her.

Marple's analogy: Mrs Hargraves' husband leaving all his money to another family. The mistress happened to be once their housemaid.

Marple Bk8: 4.50 from Paddington

Murdered
=> (an old lady's account): unknown lady lady was strangled by a man in a train carriage which was traveling next to her train.
-> It could be Martine, a french lady married to late Edumund Cradderdon and left the house
->could be Anna, a french dancer who knew Martine and went away with a man.
=>Alfred, elder son in the family, killed by Arsenic.

Danger & life threats
Found Arsenic in curry which was served to the family.

Suspects:
1)Emma-> middle aged woman, Alfred's sister, engaged to Dr Quimper
2)Cradderdon family's grandfather-> had not yet passed away, still holding on children's inheritance.
3)Alfred-> elder son who was once Marple's primary suspect before death, was a gambler.
4)Dr Quimper-> family doctor

Marple BK3: Body in the library

Murdered :=> Ruby keene
An attractive young lady, strangled by a waistbelt in Mrs Bantry's library.
Wearing an evening dress, with clipped or bitten finger nails. She was last seen at the nightclub dancing with Geogre at night of murder.

Pamela

A schoolgirl was later known to be burnt in George's car. Her friend spoke about Pamela had been poached by a star hunting company which offered to train her to be an actress. Pamela mentioned to her about having a photo taking.

Suspects:
The four suspects with alibi at the night of Ruby's deaths are Joise,Raymond, Adeline Jefferson and Mark. All four continuned to play Bridge at a nightclub after Ruby told Joise that she was intending to return to her dressing room. Joise and Mark left for toilet break for a short while and resumed the game. They could not have the time to send Ruby to Mrs Bantry's place as the journey would take an hour ride.

Joise=> Ruby Keene's cousin, a good dancer
She helped to identify the body in the library which belonged to Ruby. She rolled Ruby into nightclub dancing and introduced her to Conway Jefferson. On the night of Ruby's death, she was playing bridge with Adeline Jefferson, Raymond and Mark. She was jealous of Ruby's youth, beauty and her amateur dancing popularity. She didn't feel sad for Ruby's death because she was her distant cousin.

Raymond=> male dancing panther of both Ruby and Joise, tennis coach of Adeline
He is popular with ladies, especially with Joise. He could possibly have secret affair with Ruby.

Conway Jefferson=> rich,wheel chair bounded old man. A bomb fell upon his house and killed his son and daughter. His family is then left with daughter in-law, Mark and son in-law, Adeline. He was the one who reported to the police of the disappearance of Ruby. Ruby was his confidant and he liked Ruby's company very much. His will is to left a vast portion of inheritance to Ruby. He has good top torso, but wheel chair bounded. Could he possibly have the strength to murder Ruby? If not, he is quite safe from being a suspect.

Mark=> daughter in-law of Conway, in gambling debts.

Adeline=> son in-law of Conway, mother of a few children.

Basil Blake=> photographer, married man.
(Ruby's account): Basil known to be seen with Ruby in which he denied knowing Ruby.
(Conway's account): saw a photo of Basil in Ruby's purse. Ruby also denied knowing Basil.

George=> danced with Ruby before at the night of murder.
Reported car stolen. A schoolgirl suspected to be burnt to death in his car. A timid guy with low self esteem. He saw Ruby feeling uncomfortable when dancing with him, thought that Ruby must have be bored dancing with him. (His account): Ruby went back to her dressing room.

Curious: The fingers of Ruby's body were clipped. A fashionable dancers wouldn't clipped their fingers. Nails found in Ruby's dressing room.
The mysterious link of another murder.

Mystery Solver: Tommy & Tuppence

How nice and romantic it must be when you take on a trail of adventurous detective job with your lovers! After the success of solving their first mystery 'The Secret Adversary', Tommy & Tuppence married and they were rolled into a detective firm which they didn't even know who their boss was. After a few books and short stories, they retired as an old couple which loves mystery very much.

Characters
Tommy & Tuppence, is a classic match of personalities when it comes to teamwork in solving cases. Tommy is more of a slow thinker and a cautious character who makes a perfect foil for Tuppence who is more rash and brilliant detective. Tuppence often head out on her own for investigation and risk falling into perilous situation. Tommy comes backing up fortunately.

Books

5Books & 10 short stories.

Mystery Solver: Miss Jane Marple

Marple, unlike Poirot, is just an ordinary old folk who dwells in a simple village, St. Mary Mead. Despite this fact, she has the answers to many mysteries occurred in other foreign lands. Many, including the novel characters, have questioned this. Marple's answer is that she has seen many wickedness in her village life. The stunning thing in her statement is that the 'wickedness' in her village is just some simple people affairs which involve no murder and death. It is really brain teasing to try to understand the rationale of her village affair analogy in solving the case. Like another old folk, she is hard to be comprehended.

Character

She is said to be able to understand the evil in human nature.
Is not gullible at all at her age and easily distrusts others.
Solve cases by gossiping and then associate her past encounter with the case.
Seems to like to poke her nose around.
Love to solve mystery even if she is not being paid.
Resilient in solving the case. Sometimes her primary suspects die. How interesting...

Supporting Character

Raymond- Marple's nephew, a charismatic, famous author. He comes in handy as Marple's walking stick and a companion. Often, the stories will end with a suspense of his romantic development of him and a pretty female lead.

Mrs Dolly Bantry- Marple's friend. Her common role is to feed Marple with yet another mystery.

Books

12books & 20 short stories.

Mystery Solver: Hercule Poirot

Hercule Poirot is a Belgian private detective. This Belgian refugee from the First World War began his career as a police officer. Christie needed him to have professional knowledge as a police officer to begin with. This egg shelled head Belgian with a fanciful toothpaste moustache often blabbers in his Belgian language. Readers maybe frustrated when they come across with a non-english phrase. Just look at the bright side, this is to further illustrate his eccentric mannerism, which is often ridiculed by the local policemen.

Character
He works on his own.
A type of person who will not mince his words when he thinks that suggestion raised by other police officers is useless.
Egoistic, always think that he is ahead of other with the leads.
He often ends the case with a dramatic unraveling of the plots. Seizing the opportunity to denounce the culprit.


Supporting Characters
Chief Inspector Japp

Books:
33 books &54 short stories

Agatha Christie Mystery Context

To understand the plot well, one must understand Agatha Christie Mystery Context well. She was writing in the context of England from the period between 1920s and 1980s.
She had been working as a nurse in a Red Cross hospital during wartime. That's when she worked in dispensary where she got to know about medical drugs and poisons.
Her first husband had left her for another woman. This experience could be the factor for her natural writing about the secret affairs among her characters.
She had also accompanied Max, her latter husband on his annual archaeological expeditions for nearly 30 years. This stretched her imagination of dead corpse buried beneath the ground.