A wonderful collection of eight short stories, six of which feature Christie's elderly amateur consulting detective, Miss Marple. Born in Torquay in 1890, Agatha Christie began writing during the First World War and wrote over 100 novels, plays and short story collections.

Whether in St Mary Mead or further afield, there is always much wickedness lurking below the surface, should, like Jane Marple, you have the eyes to see it. The stories The Tape-Measure Murder, The Case of the Perfect Maid and Sanctuary were adapted as episodes for the BBC Radio 4 radio drama series Miss Marple's Final Cases, starring June Whitfield as Miss Marple and dramatised by Joy Wilkinson. The story I most enjoyed in the collection was not a murder one to my own surprise but the “Perfect Maid”, which was such fun―I remembered the solution from a previous read but wouldn’t have guessed otherwise.I also enjoyed the social changes taking place with each of the books, Miss Marple’s reactions to them, the characters (that AC herself was a great observer of human nature stands out in so many), and even the changes in Miss Marple herself who (when I read the first book this time) was so very different to the impression I had of her and changed as the books progressed.

Her stories are also generally concise and to-the-point: everything you need to know is on the page, but it isn’t in your face either so you need to be particularly looking out for it. To calculate the overall star rating and percentage breakdown by star, we don’t use a simple average. Of the actual mystery stories in this collection, perhaps The Tape-Measure Murder or Sanctuary were my favourites.A young man has a vision of a beautiful woman being strangled in the room next to his while at a house party. This is a story of a rich uncle who leaves his niece and nephew (who want to get married) to hunt for his fortune after he dies.

This collection was originally published in 1979 but the individual stories date variously from the 1930s to the 1950s.

Christie's travels with Mallowan contributed background to several of her novels set in the Middle East. A wonderful example of this posthumously published collection of short stories by the Queen of Crime, Agatha Christie. The Dressmaker's Doll - Creepy tale of a doll who seems alive, and moves around the rooms, apparently on her own steam, freaking out the workers in the dressmaker's establishment. Many of the mysteries were excellent―the puzzles keeping me guessing ( A Murder is Announced, The Body in the Library, 4:50 from Paddington, Sleeping Murder, among them) but there was so much more to them as well.

The Greenway Estate in Devon, acquired by the couple as a summer residence in 1938, is now in the care of the National Trust.Gallery images of our book boxes show an example of what may be included – treat and gift content may differ. For all ebook purchases, you will be prompted to create an account or login with your existing HarperCollins username and password.