Miss Marple: The Body in the Library
“I must say,” said Sir Henry ruefully, “that I do dislike the way you reduce us all to a general common denominator.”
Miss Marple shook her head sadly. “Human nature is very much the same anywhere, Sir Henry.”
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Hello!
Welcome to the third installment in my Miss Marple blog series. Today, I have the first reread (for me) in The Body in the Library. I liked quite a bit more this time than the first time I read it, and I really enjoyed it!
The Book
This book is the story of Miss Marple’s friends who wake to find the body of an unknown woman on their library floor. Who is she? How did she get there? Can Miss Marple solve the mystery before Colonel Bantry is ostracized?
Eventually, the story leads to a seaside resort and an odd hodge-podge family that has plenty of secrets. There is a rather wonderful wannabe young sleuth, some great bait and switch plot-lines and a lot of intricacies dealing with female appearances that made for great armchair sleuthing.
Miss Marple is in full (sitting and knitting) force here, and I loved her common sense, clever deductions as well as her clear morality. This was a great book, and I can see why both the 1980s and the 2000s television adaptations chose to use this as the introductory story.
Adaptations
As I mentioned above, both the 1980s and the 2000s shows chose this book at the first episode and this is the first time I have had a clear favorite between the two.
The Body in the Library 1984 – Joan Hickson
This was told through multiple episodes, and I loved this adaptation. It was well acted, fun to watch and well produced. I only have two small issues with it, one of which is that the actors playing Colonel Melchett and Colonel Bantry look way too similar, and the wig they have on the victim in the flashbacks is so bad it is painful to look at.
The Body in the Library 2004 – Gereldine McEwan
I like Gereldine McEwan, and I generally like the production and filming of this series, but I really didn’t like this adaptation all that much. I felt like it was rushed into one episode, and they updated it in a way that I’m sure was meant to be more exciting but ended up feeling a little forced.
I will be back in two weeks with a look at The Moving Finger, which is another book I haven’t read, so I am excited to see what is in store for me!
