When Rugby Keen, a young professional dancer is found murdered in St. Mary Mead, Miss Marple steps up to find out what happened to her. With patience, knowledge of human nature and observational skills she manages to carve out information to solve the crime.

I listened to the CD Audio edition of The Body in the Library (Miss Marple #3) by Agatha Christie. I found it a great option to listen to The Body in the Library as an audio book.

Miss Marple is the famous Agatha Christie character who aids police investigators with her gossipy ways, yet with a keen eye for complexities in human nature. This is story #3 about her. The Miss Marple character seems to vary slightly from story to story, but mainly she keeps to her gossipy, shrewd sleuthing manner which I so much enjoy and which makes the story work so well as a standalone.

Main character June (Miss) Marple, is famous for sleuthing out information while under some kind of unsuspicious cover. In this story she raises money for a good cause locally in St. Mary Mead. I find it impressive the way she gets access to people and manages to get them to open up and give her information they would be too afraid to give the police.

Secondary character, Basil Blake, is the party boy connected to film industry that seems very rude and has a dodgy attitude. I find him to be a very unsympathetic person who is easy to suspect of having committed some kind of criminal offence. I don’t think he would be anyone’s idea of a hero. -Certainly not mine. He is my least favorite character.

My favorite part of The Body in the Library (Miss Marple #3) by Agatha Christie was the setting of the plot. I really enjoyed the parts describing village life in St. Mary Mead and the feeling that Miss Marple very much enjoys living there.

The plot consists of all the well tested elements. The plot was intricate. Plenty of suspects, and well laid out clues for Miss Marple to investigate. The identity of the murderer was so well disguised. It felt like a surprise, as I had been looking in a completely different direction.

The writing is excellent in the trademark way of The Queen of Crime. Readers get pulled into life in a sleepy little English village where nothing much happens.

The Body in the Library (Miss Marple #3) is the exiting story of Miss Marple set in her home town St. Mary Mead. The writing is excellent and the plot expertly crafted in the way of Agatha Christie. Fans of Agatha Christie will love The Body in the Library (Miss Marple #3) with all the trademark ingredients. As will readers of crime fiction. Similar authors to explore might be Arthur Conan Doyle.
All opinions in this review are completely my own.

My rating: 4 stars / 5
Main reasons: Expertly crafted plot, interesting characters, surprise ending