Gwenda has moved to England after having grown up in New Zealand. Her husband, Giles, has tasked her with finding a home for them, and she is drawn to a little town in the country. She finds a home and is surprised that it feels familiar. After moving in she starts having memories of that very home. Some are positive, but a few are very disturbing. They team up with Miss Marple, and soon discover that Gwenda had actually lived in the very house she has purchased for a year with her father and stepmother. As they dig into Gwenda's past, they begin to believe that Gwenda's stepmother did not run off with a lover, as many believed at the time, but was, instead, murdered. Which of the men from the poor woman's life committed the evil deed?
I was delighted to find a Miss Marple book that I hadn't read before. Miss Marple is my favorite of the Christie sleuths. The plot is nicely constructed, and the ending decently surprising. Christie is the master of red herrings, and is so good at dropping minor details that end up being major clues. The characters are not very dimensional, but the cleverness of the plot, and Miss Marple's charming personality makes up for it. There are reasons why Christie's books have never gone out of print. (1976, 256 p.)
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