A Caribbean Mystery Summary

Today, we will be reviewing A Caribbean Mystery by Agatha Christie, the 9^th book in the Miss Marple series. Find out what we thought of this novel and whether you should add it to your reading list or skip it!

A Caribbean Mystery Summary

Miss Marple is vacationing on the Caribbean island of St Honoré, a trip gifted to her by her nephew. She is enjoying the trip but wishes she had something interesting to do and that is what happens when a murder takes place on the just so happens at the Golden Palm resort that she is staying at.

Marple is listening to Major Palgrave tell her stories about his travels and is bored out of her mind. Palgrave notices Marple’s boredom and decides to show her a picture of a murderer. But as he is about to show her the picture, he sees someone and puts the picture back in his wallet.

The next day, Major Palgrave is found dead in his room by a maid named Victoria. The death is considered to be natural but Miss Marple doesn’t think that it is. Marple starts asking around, trying to find out more about Palgrave and meets Mr. Jason Rafiel, a millionaire who is in a wheelchair and aided by his two assistants. 

Marple learns a lot of things about Palgrave and discovers that he has told his murder story to a few people. But nobody really remembers the exact details. What Marple does know is that the murderer is most likely here and killed Palgrave to shut him up. And now, the murderer will strike again soon and it is up to Miss Marple and her new friends to prevent another murder and to bring Major Palgrave justice. 

Commentary

A Caribbean Mystery was released in 1964 in the U.K. and the following year in the U.S. We see Christie use the Caribbean as a plot and that is partly due to Chrisitie’s vacation to the Caribbean. She has used settings from places she visited in many novels and who can blame her.

I enjoyed this novel a lot more than some of the previous books in the Miss Marple series. The plot is fresh and hooks you in fast. The cast of characters were interesting and we have two characters in this novel that end up making an appearance in a future Miss Marple series called Nemesis which I also enjoyed a lot.

The more Christie novels I read, the more I am able to correctly guess the murderer. And I did just that after weighing all of the information provided. In this novel , the information comes slowly and you don’t even know who the suspects are. And as usual, Christie has a big plot twist that will throw off most people.

Conclusion

While I did enjoy this novel a lot, I do wish that Christie used the setting a little more in the plot. That was my only complaint as I enjoyed this book a lot. This is a novel I would recommend to fans of mystery novels and one I will be thinking about for a while. Happy reading!