Film star Marina Gregg buys Gossington Hall and hosts a fête where a local woman dies after drinking a poisoned cocktail apparently intended for Marina. A brief expression on the actress’s face before the death becomes central to Miss Marple’s understanding of the case.
The novel places Hollywood celebrity within a St Mary Mead altered by new housing and post-war social mobility. It explores public fascination, maternal grief and the unintended consequences of intimate contact between admirers and famous people, while Miss Marple reconstructs a motive hidden in a moment that most witnesses interpreted only as glamour or shock.
Jacqueline Winspear
20 books
Rhys Bowen
53 books