The Thumb Mark of St Peter - Agatha Christie

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AUTHOR: Agatha Christie

SERIES: Miss Marple, Short Story #6
GENRE: Cosy Mystery.
RATING: 2.5 stars.

An interesting mystery but doesn’t suit Miss Marple.

Finally it is Miss Marple who narrates an unsolved mystery for the Tuesday Night Club. I sat up straight in my seat, expecting a cracker of a mystery. Alas, the cracker turned out to be damp and squishy.

The story concerns Miss Marple’s niece Mabel Denman who is being shunned after the sudden death of her husband. The word around is that Mabel poisoned him. The problem is that no one, including the doctor who was called, knows exactly how Mr. Denman died. His last words too seem weird to everyone. Except Miss Marple, but of course.

There’s not much deduction or discussion from the club members this time as Miss Marple narrates the whole story almost in one go. The rest are mostly passive listeners.

If this had been a story featuring Sherlock or Poirot, I would have marvelled at the deduction. But it doesn’t suit Miss Marple’s personality. Miss Marple constantly claims herself to be the observer of human nature and uses this skill to resolve the mystery. But sometimes, it isn’t human nature but intricate knowledge that she seems to possess without any justification. This is one such example. How would an old lady in a small town know something as specific as the main component of a medical solution and even the name of the element that works as its antidote? This knowledge coming from Sherlock’s or Poirot’s lips would have been plausible. Not from Miss Marple. (Unless there is something to her background that I haven’t discovered yet.) Moreover, a part of the suspense comes from the dead man’s last words. However, it is tough to believe that an ordinary man would know what the story says he knew.

On the positive side, the culprit wasn’t that easy to figure out, and after the revelation, their role in the proceedings seems logical. But again, the whole scenario is tough to accept.

2.5 stars, mostly for the development of the backstory and for the resolution of the mystery. You will enjoy it more if you want to appreciate Agatha Christie’s knowledge of poisons than to focus on Miss Marple’s deducing skills. This would have worked better as a Poirot story.

All six members of the Tuesday Night Club have now narrated a story each. I wonder where things will go next. A second round per person? There are twenty stories in this collection, so Christie would have to incorporate some modifications for sure. Let's see what the next story brings.

This story is part of the Miss Marple short story collection, [book:The Thirteen Problems|31309].

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