Reviews with content warning for Murder - The Body in the Library

Reviews tagging 'Murder'

The Body in the Library by Agatha Christie

35 reviews

awebofstories's review against another edition

lighthearted mysterious medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Plot
Strong character development? No
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? No

3.0

I'm now 2 novels and a handful of stories in the Marpleverse, and I'm sure of one thing: these are quite different from the Poirot novels. These seem to be cozier and more prone to dip into comedy. All this is fine and good, but I did have to adjust my expectations.

Jane Marple is such a fun character, but, like in her first novel, I wish she were more in the action. In this one, she seems to always be on the outskirts of things...until it is clear that the police can't solve this and Miss Marple is their only hope.

The mystery here is quite good--there are plenty of clues, but they are woven into the narrator that the reader will most likely not catch them at first. I also love the friendship between Miss Marple and Mrs. Bantry; it is a completely realistic relationship between two women, especially at the time.

Unfortunately, I had to put this book aside when I was about halfway through so I could finish some other books before their book club discussions. While I could easily sink back into the story when I returned to it, I think it may have hurt my momentum. The second half felt too long--which is ironic for a short novel. This mystery may have worked better as a longer short story than a shorter novel.

While this wasn't a perfect novel, and I think I'm still adjusting to the Marpleverse, it was worth the time to read, and I'm eager to meet up with Jane Marple again.

Content Warnings

literarywreck's review against another edition

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lighthearted mysterious relaxing medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? It's complicated
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0

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violetaalseide's review against another edition

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challenging dark mysterious tense fast-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? No
Loveable characters? No
Diverse cast of characters? No

3.5

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zakcebulski's review against another edition

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dark emotional mysterious fast-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Plot
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

3.75

The queen is fucking back.
It has been a long time since I read anything by who I have come to see as one of my favorite authors.
I am so glad to be back in the world of Christie.
I have read most of Christie's best known works, and now I am delving more in to what would be her lesser known works.
I have a stack of Christie's works- I usually find them for $3 or so whenever I go to a used book store by my house- and I will grab one or two, so I have a back catalog.

I picked up this book more out of interest for the subject matter- a body is found murdered in the library of a wealthy person under mysterious circumstances.
The set up for this book is so simple, but so immediately fascinating and that is what I can praise about this book immediately- it grabs hold of you and takes you on a damn ride.

Now, this is my first Christie book featuring Miss Jane Marple, and I have to say that I absolutely loved her in this role. I have read so many stories where Poirot is the main detective it was very nice to have a change of pace and character. That being said, I did feel like Miss Marple was sort of a stand in for Poirot. I would have loved a little bit more separation from Poirot.
I thought that the rest of the characters were well done and had a nice personality diversity to them. What I can praise Christie for is that she is exquisite at writing characters who have different motivations for why they would commit this crime.
This book is so choc full of red herrings you would be a satiated pescatarian.
But, she writes them in such a way where I never once felt that they were forcibly inserted. Rather, they were just people who had a red herring air to them and it is up to the reader to figure out what the fuck is going on.

I adore how Christie puts everything out there for the readers to solve while the story is being told. That is something that I think resonates so much with me is that her stories are solvable as you are reading them, whereas so many other mystery authors have a twist, or a character come out of fucking nowhere or was introduced in the last 11 pages be the culprit, Christie doesn't. She gives you all of the pieces and, if you are savvy enough, you can solve it!
I am not savvy enough but I still have a great time reading through the tales that she spins.
I did get to the end of this book and actually did sort of guess as to what was going to happen, but, damn, it was still a good reveal.
The end sees that the murdered girl and another girl were murdered and their bodies were modified so as to appear as each other in order for a pair to get the inheritance. I love that this whole story is set up to not make sense, but, in the way it unfolds it seems that the sheer absurdity of this story is one in which the absurdity seems to be the only answer.
But, Miss Marple says balderdash to that, and solves the mystery by a steady stream of breadcrumbs laid out. I love that Miss Marple was written to be an actually useful small town busybody, because she is fucking great and I am so excited to go and read more stories where she is the detective!

If you have not read any Agatha Christie please for the love of literature, go and read some of her books, you will not be disappointed. They are endlessly fascinating and the fact that so many stories, so many mysteries can come out of one mind shows that not all creative minds are created equal!

Content Warnings

justagenericfangirl's review against another edition

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dark mysterious reflective medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Plot
Strong character development? No
Loveable characters? No
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? No

3.25

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readingelli's review against another edition

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lighthearted mysterious

3.0

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saltycoffee's review against another edition

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mysterious medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Plot
Strong character development? No
Loveable characters? No
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? No

3.0

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ishouldbereading's review against another edition

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dark mysterious fast-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Plot
Strong character development? No
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? No

4.0

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beca_reads's review against another edition

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mysterious medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Plot
Strong character development? No
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? No

2.5

I spent way to much time trying to figure out who everyone was in this book, there were just too many characters to deal with, and their link to the murder. This ruined the book for me and made this book hard work to read. I also was disappointed with the ending as I felt it was obvious half way through the book who had done it. This is my least favourite Christie book I've read so far.

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aargot1's review against another edition

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slow-paced

3.0

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