A Pocket Full of Rye

Agatha Christie

Miss Marple #7

Summary:
King Rex was in his counting house, counting out his money. The Queen was in the parlour…

But where and why the blackbirds?

There are baffling similarities between the rhyme and the action and it takes all Miss Marple’s ingenuity to find them…

Plot:

Another epic ‘who dunnit’ murder by the queen of crime herself. Those of you who are familiar with Christie’s stories knows that she is a master at surprise endings, and pulling all the little random facts, scattered throughout the story, together. This book was no different. And I honestly can’t say too much, because I don’t want to give anything away, but I loved how the murders connected in a seemingly random way through a nursery rhyme…I mean…how do you come up with something like that?

Characters:

The characters are pretty much the same in all Christie’s writing, but the story is usually so fascinating you don’t even notice them that much, except as could be murderers. Mrs. Marple, the  ‘detective’ in this story is an old grandmotherly type lady and a wonderful character. She has a way of finding out things through the most roundabout ways, and it never seems strange that an elderly woman would be able to solve a crime, because it’s always through cool use of intellect, of which she has a lot. She uses that gift some women had of sticking their noses into other people’s business and puts it to good use. I find her fascinating.

Who should read this?

10+, while this is a crime book, and contains murder, the descriptions aren’t gruesome or even very detailed, so I feel the violence in this book is quite mild for one of its genre. There aren’t any other mature content, maybe some references to a woman being unfaithful to her husband. The style in which this book is written is not complex, or confusing, even if the story can be, but some of it may be hard to understand for younger readers. I think fans of Sherlock Holmes should enjoy this and, of course, any fans of Christie’s, because we all know she’s brilliant.

My rating:

I thoroughly enjoyed this book and I don’t have anything bad to say about it. So 4/5, although I probably would’ve given it a higher rating if I wasn’t familiar with Christie’s work, since I know now to expect the unexpected, so the ending is still very surprising, but I know it’s going to be. If that makes any sense…

Quote:
“Nobody believes in magicians any more, nobody believes that anyone can come along and wave a wand and turn you into a frog. But if you read in the paper that by injecting certain glands scientists can alter your vital tissues and you'll develop froglike characteristics, well, everybody would believe that."