It's very dangerous to believe people, I haven't for years.
Sleeping Murder
by Agatha Christie
Genre: Murder Mystery
About: Gwenda has never fancied herself clairvoyant or believed in the supernatural. But when she moves to England and finds what she thinks is the perfect home for her and her new husband, she begins to experience strange phenomena. Feelings of unease, knowing things about the house that shouldn't be possible, and seeing visions of a strangled woman she's sure was named Helen... Only Miss Marple can convince her she isn't going mad - and only Miss Marple can solve the mystery.
Thoughts
This was a really interesting case. The murder has happened nearly twenty years ago so there are plenty of things we don't know and can't know about the victim or the people around her at the time. Or even if there really was a victim as, without a body, Helen is not assumed to be dead and no investigation ever happened. I enjoyed the build up of information. It starts off with a very creepy atmosphere with Gwenda seeming to be losing her mind as mystery on top of mystery plagues her and the secrets of the house have a tinge of the supernatural to them. The tone then shifts after Miss Marple explains the extraordinary into the ordinary, though a sense of unease never quite leaves. Danger and madness lurk in the past and Miss Marple urges Gwenda and her husband not to going looking.
Of course the young couple doesn't listen to this advice and suspects begin to emerge. All were interesting candidates for murder and although I did guess correctly the culprit, I do think there were some great red herrings and a strong theme throughout to never trust a person's word. Everybody lies and the innocence of Gwenda and Giles in their investigation is juxtaposed well with Miss Marple's years of experience. She might seem like a quiet, unassuming old lady, but she knows human nature and her methods worked well to give us the gossip and clues we needed to see the truth.
The one thing that I thought was strange and made the story seem more of a stage story than a real mystery, was that the murderer stands over his victim and actually quotes from a play. That line is what stirs Gwenda's memory decades later when she hears, coincidently, the line uttered in the play she's taken to see. It was dramatic, of course, but didn't seem believable that a murderer would quote from a play at such a moment, or that Gwenda would happen to go see that same play years later.
Overall, I loved the creepy atmosphere this one had. The suspects were all well thought out and Christie really did make you doubt everyone. The reveal ties everything up neatly and Miss Marple shines - unlike in other Marple's I've read, her methods are really the ones focused on here. Detectives and even the young couple don't get in the way of us seeing her brilliance in solving everything.
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