Agatha Christie's Marple: Expert on Wickedness by Agatha Christie

A new investigation from Dr Mark Aldridge, exploring a lifetime of Agatha Christie’s Miss Jane Marple.

Miss Marple is not simply some kind grandmotherly figure. She has a steely streak, and an unerring ability to frustrate almost as many people as she charms, while her quest for the truth knows few barriers.
Mark Aldridge

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In Agatha Christie’s Marple: Expert on Wickedness, ‘Agathologist’ Dr Mark Aldridge looks at nearly a century of St Mary Mead’s most famous resident and uses his own detective skills to uncover new information about Miss Jane Marple’s appearances on page, stage, screen and beyond.

Drawing on a range of material, some of which is newly discovered and previously unpublished, this book explores everything about Miss Marple, from her origins in a series of short stories penned by Christie, to the recent bestselling HarperCollins collection Marple: Twelve New Stories.

This accessible, entertaining and illustrated guide to the world of Miss Marple pieces together the evidence in order to tell you everything you need to know about the world’s favourite female detective.

Dr Mark Aldridge is an Associate Professor of Screen Histories and author of the books Agatha Christie on Screen and Agatha Christie's Poirot: The Greatest Detective in the World.

Did you know?

St Mary Mead is stated to be in the fictional counties of both Downshire and Radfordshire, and later in the real county of Berkshire across the Miss Marple stories.
The Murder at the Vicarage was influenced by one of Christie's earlier short stories, 'The Love Detectives' which starred Mr Quin and Mr Satterthwaite.
Christie was a few chapters into writing A Pocketful of Rye when she broke her wrist - this slowed things down for a while...