Strange Jest by Agatha Christie

Have the two nephews Edward Rossiter and Charmain Stroud really been left nothing in their uncle's will? His promise while alive suggests otherwise and Miss Marple intends to investigate. From Three Blind Mice and Other Stories and Miss Marple's Final Cases.

More about this story

Miss Marple is reunited with the actress Jane Helier, who presented one of The Thirteen Problems with her earlier story The Affair at the Bungalow. A deceased uncle seems to have left no inheritance, but as Miss Marple delves deeper she discovers a puzzle to be solved.

This story was published in 1941 in the USA in This Week but was not published until 1944 in the UK in Strand Magazine where it was titled A Case of Buried Treasure. It featured in the US collection Three Blind Mice and Other Stories (1950) and later in the UK in Miss Marple's Final Cases in 1979.

It was adapted in 2004 as part of the Japanese anime series Agatha Christie's Great Detectives, and titled The Strange Will. It featured Poirot teaming up with Miss Marple's great niece to solve crimes.