Monday, August 20, 2012

Crime Fiction Alphabet: N is Nemesis by Agatha Christie

Nemesis by Agatha Christie

Book Blurb:

In utter disbelief, Miss Marple read the letter addressed to her from the recently deceased Mr. Rafiel—an acquaintance she had met briefly on her travels. He had left instructions for her to investigate a crime after his death. The only problem was, he had failed to tell her who was involved or where and when the crime had been committed. It was most intriguing.

Soon she is faced with a new crime—the ultimate crime—murder. It seems someone is adamant that past evils remained buried. . . .

My views:

Miss Marple had met Mr Rafiel in A Caribbean Mystery. She reads about his death in the newspaper and later contacted by his lawyers and given a letter by him. She has to solve the mystery of his death. If she succeeds she will get a share of his fortune. The money does not interest her but she has to investigate his death. There are some references to a rape, which seems outdated but given the time of the writing, the mindset of the people prevailed as mentioned in the book. Similar mindset persists in India, even now....

7 comments:

Anonymous said...

Gautami - Thanks for reminding me of this outing of Miss Marple's. I always liked it that Christie a character from one novel play a role in another as happens here. And I like Miss Marple's bit of flair for the dramatic in this story, too.

You make an interesting about attitudes towards rape too. I think I'll have to re-read this one and think about that....

Margaret @ BooksPlease said...

I read this book a few years ago and really can't remember very much about it. It sounds so intriguing that I'll have to re-read it - if only to find out about the attitude to rape ...

srivalli said...

Agatha Christie is my all time favourite author. I don't much remember about this book. Intersting post!

Marce said...

This one sounds good, I have only read the popular And Then There Were None which I loved. I do want to read more by her.

Peter Reynard said...

Nemesis is a great choice for N especially since I picked the only other Christie story starting with an N - N or M?

It's been a while since I read Nemesis but I vaguely remember it as not being one of Christie's best efforts. However, I'll have to go back and read it again to be sure.

Scott said...

Another classic. :)

TracyK said...

I have not read a Jane Marple book in quite a while. I think I would like to read them in order. Enjoyed your post.