A Caribbean Mystery is a work of detective fiction by Agatha Christie and first published in the UK by the Collins Crime Club on November 16, 1964 and in the US by Dodd, Mead and Company the following year. The UK edition retailed at sixteen shillings (16/-) and the US edition at $4.50. It features the detective Miss Marple.

Plot summary

"Would you like to see a picture of a murderer?", Jane Marple is asked by a stranger whilst on a luxurious holiday in the Caribbean. But before she has a chance to answer, the man abruptly changes the subject, and is found dead the next morning. Why has the photo vanished? Why is the hotelier prone to nightmares? Which guests are hiding secrets from their pasts or are not being forthright about their identities? And will Miss Marple be able to prevent the next murder?

Literary significance and reception

After lukewarm reviews of her two previous novels, Francis Iles (Anthony Berkeley Cox) felt that the writer was back on form in his review in The Guardian's issue of December 11, 1964: "Mrs Agatha Christie has done it again. In A Caribbean Mystery she tells the reader explicitly what is going to happen; and yet when it does, nine out of ten will be taken completely by surprise – as I was. How does she do it? For the rest, it is Miss Marple this time who is in charge of the story; and all one can guess is that the setting is a Caribbean island.

Maurice Richardson in The Observer of November 15, 1964 began, "A most encouraging return to somewhere very near her best unputdownable form." He summed up thus: "Suspicion nicely distributed among guests, many of them raffish adulterers. Not very hard to guess, but quite suspenseful. Good varied characterisation including a particularly excellent octogenarian tycoon. Towards the end of the year, Richardson again commented on the book in a special Books of the Year: A Personal Choice column when he said, "Agatha Christie makes one of those gratifying veteran's comebacks."

The Daily Mirror of November 21, 1964 said, "Not quite at the top of her form. A Miss Marples (sic) story which addicts won't find as unsolvable as usual.

Robert Barnard: "In the tradition of all those package-tour mysteries written by indigent crime writers who have to capitalize on their meagre holidays. Nothing much of interest, but useful for illustrating the 'fluffification' of Miss Marple. Reuses a ploy from Appointment with Death.

'There is no more cunning player of the murder game than Agatha Christie' SUNDAY TIMES

'Throws off the false clues and misleading events as only a master of the art can do' NEW YORK TIMES

References in other works

The millionaire Jason Rafiel appears again, posthumously, in Nemesis where he sends Miss Marple on a case specifically because of her success in solving the events related in A Caribbean Mystery.

Film, TV or theatrical adaptations

A 1983 US TV movie adaptation starred Helen Hayes as Miss Marple. A BBC TV adaptation starring Joan Hickson was shown in 1989 version as part of the series Agatha Christie's Miss Marple. Donald Pleasance co-starred as Mr Rafiel.

Publication History

• 1964, Collins Crime Club (London), November 16, 1964, Hardcover, 256 pp
• 1965, Dodd Mead and Company (New York), Hardcover, 245 pp
• 1966, Fontana Books (Imprint of HarperCollins), Paperback, 157 pp
• 1966, Pocket Books (New York), Paperback, 176 pp
• 1976, Ulverscroft Large-print Edition, Hardcover, 316 pp
• 1979, Greenway edition of collected works (William Collins), Hardcover, 256 pp ISBN 0-00-231072-4
• 1979, Greenway edition of collected works (Dodd Mead), Hardcover, 256 pp
• 2006, Marple Facsimile edition (Facsimile of 1964 UK first edition), March 6, 2006, Hardcover, ISBN 0-00-720857-X

The novel was serialised in the Star Weekly Novel, a Toronto newspaper supplement, in two abridged instalments from January 16 to January 23, 1965 with each issue containing an uncredited cover illustration.

References

External links

• A Caribbean Mystery at the official Agatha Christie website