NEMESIS Agatha Christie

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NEMESIS. Agatha Christie. 1971. This edition published by William Morrow.

In the next-to-last Miss Marple novel, the elderly amateur detective is sent on a mission by a deceased acquaintance, Mr. Rafiel, who gives her precious little information on exactly what it is he wants her to do, The two met during A Caribbean Mystery, in which the old lady saw herself as "Nemesis," a role that Rafiel wants her to continue in. Miss Marple learns that the dead man has booked her on a tour of stately British homes and gardens, and that somehow as the trip continues she will figure out what it is she needs to do -- right some wrong, fix an injustice, solve a murder. She later learns that there is a dead girl, and Rafiel's son is somehow involved. Also owing to the manipulations of Rafiel Sr., she winds up in the home of three sisters who live in a crumbling mansion, and were intimately acquainted with the dead young woman. Miss Marple sets out to solve the crime and succeeds. For much of its length Nemesis is intriguing and suspenseful, although Miss Marple -- and Christie -- tend to repeat themselves too often, and some readers might feel that the solution to this mystery is a little too obvious. Nemesis is hardly the best of Christie's Miss Marple novels, but it does provide a couple of hours of solid entertainment. 

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