Sleeping Murder

Agatha Christie – Sleeping Murder

Yes, I do realise I’m on an Agatha Christie trip and you guys are probably wondering when, if ever, I’ll get off it. Well, the luxury of 366 is exactly that it allows us to read new books as well as revisit old favourites when we like! 😀

And that’s great, particularly when the story is as creepy as this one!

Have you ever been in a room and been constantly haunted by the feeling that you’ve been there before? Have you found yourself walking towards a wall with the distinct feeling that there ought to be a door there? Or been haunted by the feeling that the house has known murder … or soon will …

21 year-old newly married Gwenda Reed journeys to Devon, England from New Zealand to find the perfect house for herself and her husband. And find it she does. In fact, the instant she sees the house she knows it’s the one she’s been looking for. And yet living in that house turns out to be much harder than Gwenda bargained for as uneasiness creeps behind her on silent feet wherever she goes. She finds herself making uncanny observations about doors that are no longer there and wallpapers that once covered walls and garden steps that should be just so. How does Gwenda know the house so well though? She’s never even been to England before. Becoming increasingly uneasy, she accepts the invitation of well-known writer, Raymond West and his wife, to spend a few days with them in their London home. And that’s where she meets West’s aunt, Ms Marple.

As always, interested in everyone around her, Ms Marple entertains Gwenda during her stay. And her curiosity is piqued further by Gwenda’s rather disproportionate reaction to the famous line, “Cover her eyes; mine eyes dazzle, she died young” from The Duchess of Malfi as she screams and flees from the theatre. She’s heard the line before she says, just before a woman was murdered.

But whose murder was it? And what’s the house got to do with it? ‘Let sleeping murders lie,’ Ms Marple cautions the Reeds. Was she right?

This one gets a 5 too!