Based on 'some of Agatha Christie's grandmother's Ealing cronies ... but far more fussy and spinsterish', Jane Marple made her debut in the 1930 novel Murder at the Vicarage, but it was in the short stories that appeared in 1932 that Miss Marple's detective skills were first revealed. A group of friends decide to tell unsolved mysteries to each other at Miss Marple's house in St Mary Mead. They expect little in the way of a contribution from their elderly host, so when she lifts her eyes from her knitting casually to deduce the truth about a case of domestic poisoning, they are flabbergasted. Village life, Miss Marple maintains, has taught her everything about the vicissitudes of human behaviour, but what is so startling in one so apparently unworldly is her extraordinary insight and intuition. As the stories are told - disappearing bloodstains, the cryptic last message of a poisoned man, a spiritualist who predicts death - Miss Marple's reputation grows, and before long she is being asked by the police to help them with their investigations.

Contents:

• Introduction by Stella Duffy
• The Tuesday Night Club
• The Idol House of Astarte
• Ingots of Gold
• The Bloodstained Pavement
• Motive v. Opportunity
• The Thumb Mark of St. Peter
• The Blue Geranium
• The Companion
• The Four Suspects
• A Christmas Tragedy
• The Herb of Death
• The Affair at the Bungalow
• Death by Drowning
• Miss Marple Tells a Story
• Strange Jest
• Tape-Measure Murder
• The Case of the Caretaker
• The Case of the Perfect Maid
• Sanctuary
• Greenshaw's Folly