The Body in the Library

The Body in the Library by Agatha Christie, 191 pages

When the body of a strangled showgirl appears in the library of a manor house, the lady of the house calls upon her good friend Miss Marple to help solve the mystery. Suspicion rotates through the retired army colonel who owns the manor, a shady Hollywood executive that lives nearby, the victim's various coworkers, and the family of an elderly man who had taken a shine to the victim. But the police are flummoxed, leaving Miss Marple to use her nosy, gossip-filled ways to track down the murderer.

This is the first Miss Marple book I've read, and I've gotta say that I love the elderly spinster, who sprinkles gossip throughout her conversations and seems to have a village parallel to everyone she encounters in the course of the investigation. Her intuitions and observations about human behavior are so much more likeable than Hercule Poirot's methods. I see a lot more Marple in my future.