Author: Agatha Christie
Published Year: 2011
Type: Mystery
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On the high-speed railway back to my workplace in the summer of 2024, I started to read this fiction. This story was adapted for the first episode of the sixth season of ITV’s Agatha Christie's Marple, which I first watched at the beginning of COVID-2019 and later re-watched many times for fun. Both the fiction and the television drama are (very) good! In the following I just list some impressive quotes, among which the second one has been engraved in my mind since I heard it from the drama.
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An elder man who needed a listener so that he could, in memory, relive days in which he had been happy. Days when his back had been straight, his eyesight keen, his hearing acute. —— Chapter 1, Major Palgrave Tells a Story
Señora de Caspearo: How ugly are old men! Oh how they are ugly! They should all be put to death at forty, or perhaps thirty-five would be better. —— Chapter 7, Morning on the Beach
Mr. Rafiel’s smile broadened. “Conversations with you might be dangerous,” he said. “Conversations are always dangerous, if you have something to hide,” said Miss Marple. —— Chapter 17, Mr. Rafiel Takes Charge
Canon Prescott: In the midst of life we are in death. —— Chapter 18, Without Benefit of Clergy
Dr. Graham: People, even when they think they want to commit suicide, often don’t really want to do it. They manage not to take a full overdose. It’s not always deliberate deceit, it’s just the subconscious looking after itself. —— Chapter 22, A Man in Her Life?
Miss Marple: Murders always find it difficult to keep things simple. They can’t keep themselves from elaborating. —— Chapter 25, Miss Marple Uses Her Imagination