***100 Days of Summer Reading 2023***
Prompt: Book set in a rural area/small community.
12 sided dice roll: 2
I was a bit disappointed that Miss Marple appeared so late in the game in this book. We spent a remarkably short time with her and had little opportunity to observe her process. Much different from The Body in the Library. I still enjoyed the book—I was rather fond of Jerry Burton, the narrator, and his sister, Joanna. Jerry has been sent to Lymstock, a small out-of-the-way village, to recover from a flying accident, boredom apparently being part of the cure. The siblings are city people out of their element, providing an outside eye on the Poison Pen letters that are troubling the village.
Readers get to know the villagers along with Jerry and Joanna. They argue over their theories and make the rounds, gathering such information as they can. All that is left is for Jane Marple to be summoned, to see through to the heart of the matter and to twinkle at Jerry Burton.
I have to wonder about all the theories of the time about spinsters going lunatic. Echoes of it still exist, such as the conviction that childlessness is some sort of disorder or that unmarried women (and men) are rather odd. Maybe we are, but we are odd in ways we enjoy.
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