"How the Devil Could They Get Out Again Leaving the Door Locked and Bolted on the Inside?"

"Miss Marple Tells a Story."

By Agatha Christie (1890-1976; Wikipedia HERE).

First appearance: "Specially commissioned by the BBC as a radio play and read by Christie herself on May 11, 1934" (FictionMags).

First print appearance: The Regatta Mystery (1939; Wikipedia HERE).

Reprinted in EQMM, November 1969 (today's text).

Reprinted in Murder Most Foul (1984).

Short short story (8 pages).

Online at The Luminist Archives (HERE; go to text page 73).

   ". . . just by applying a little common sense, I believe I really did solve a problem that had baffled cleverer heads than mine."

FILL in the blank: "Yesterday, upon the stair, I met a ___ who wasn't there." Miss Marple proves that, in the case of the apparently impossible murder of Mrs. Rhodes allegedly 

by her husband, the usual answer is essentially irrelevant . . .

Main characters:

~ Gwen ("you remember Gwen, my little maid with red hair?"), Mr. Petherick ("A very shrewd man and a really clever solicitor"), Mr. Rhodes ("His manner was most peculiar"), Mrs. Rhodes ("lying in bed stabbed through the heart"), Sir Malcolm Olde, K.C. ("he had indicated a certain line of defense"), Mary Hill ("Her story has never varied"), Mrs. Granby ("an Anglo-Indian widow"), and Miss Carruthers ("rather a horsey spinster who dropped her g's").

References and resources:

- The poem that begins "Yesterday, upon the stair" is "Antigonish" (1899) by William Hughes Mearns: "It is also known as 'The Little Man Who Wasn't There' and was adapted as a hit song under the latter title." (Wikipedia HERE.)

- "Mr. Alma-Tadema":

  "A painter of mostly classical subjects, he became famous for his depictions of the luxury and decadence of the Roman Empire, with languorous figures set in fabulous marbled interiors or against a backdrop of dazzling blue Mediterranean sea and sky. One of the most popular Victorian painters, Alma-Tadema was admired during his lifetime for his draftsmanship and accurate depictions of Classical antiquity, but his work fell out of fashion after his death, and only since the 1960s has it been appreciated for its importance within Victorian painting." (Wikipedia HERE.)

- "Mr. Frederic Leighton":

  "Frederic Leighton, 1st Baron Leighton, PRA (1830 – 1896), known as Sir Frederic Leighton between 1878 and 1896, was a British Victorian painter, draughtsman, and sculptor. His works depicted historical, biblical, and classical subject matter in an academic style. His paintings were enormously popular and expensive, during his lifetime, but fell out of critical favour for many decades in the early 20th century." (Wikipedia HERE.)

- "wore pince-nez":

  "Pince-nez are central to the murder mystery in the Sherlock Holmes story 'The Adventure of the Golden Pince-Nez.' Another murder mystery, Whose Body? by Dorothy L. Sayers, features a victim found dead in a bathtub wearing nothing but a pair of pince-nez. Numerous fictional characters have been depicted as wearing pince-nez. These include Hercule Poirot in the television series Agatha Christie's Poirot, who wears pince-nez that are attached to a cord around his neck . . ." (Wikipedia HERE.)

   In "The Adventure of the Golden Pince-Nez":

  "A lone piece of evidence was found in Willoughby Smith's hand: a pair of golden pince-nez glasses. Holmes examines these and from them alone deduces the following details of the murderer:

  "It is a woman;

  "She is of some good breeding;

  "She dresses like a lady;

  "She is a person of refinement and is well dressed;

  "She has a thick nose;

  "Her eyes are close together;

  "She has a puckered forehead, a peering look, and likely rounded shoulders;

  "She has been to an optician at least twice over the last few months."

  — Wikipedia (WARNING! SPOILERS! HERE) and Wikisource (HERE).

- Is Miss Marple channeling Father Brown (HERE)?

- Here are three previous ONTOS encounters with Mrs. Christie's works, by no means the only ones: The Mysterious Affair at Styles (HERE), "The Plymouth Express Affair" (HERE), and "The Case of the Distressed Lady" (HERE).

Unless otherwise noted, all bibliographical data are derived from The FictionMags Index created by William G. Contento & edited by Phil Stephensen-Payne.

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