Sleuth Extraordinaire
by Art Taylor

Readers of Agatha Christie first met Miss Jane Marple in 1930 in the drawing room of Vicar Leonard Clement's home in St. Mary Mead. As the reverend recalls in The Murder at the Vicarage:

“Four of my parishioners were assembled there with teacups. I shook hands all round and sat down between Miss Marple and Miss Weatherby. Miss Marple is a white-haired old lady with a gentle, appealing manner—Miss Weatherby is a mixture of vinegar and gush. Of the two Miss Marple is much the more dangerous."

(And if that description is too subtle, readers will get a second assessment just pages later when the Vicar’s wife calls Miss Marple a “nasty old cat.”) Nearing 70 when first introduced, Miss Marple is tall, thin with pink cheeks and blue eyes. She enjoys knitting, reading the newspaper, doing the crossword and taking tea. She is equally fond of gardening and bird-watching with binoculars, though as the good vicar lets us know, these latter pastimes are not entirely innocent: “Miss Marple always sees everything. Gardening is as good as a smoke screen, and the habit of observing birds through powerful glasses can always be turned to account.” And though the vicar reprimands her for her tendency to gossip, her retort is all too telling:

"'Dear Vicar,' said Miss Marple, 'you are so unworldly. I’m afraid that observing human nature for as long as I have done, one gets not to expect very much from it. I dare say idle tittle-tattle is very wrong and unkind, but it is so often true, isn’t it?'"”

So how does an old maid who admits, "I hardly ever go out of St. Mary Mead," find herself calling someone else "unworldly"?

The world is, of course, what you make of it.

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