The Body in The Library - Summary

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Created on June 1, 2021

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The body in

Chapter 1-2

The library

The Body in the Library Chapter 1: The Setting

  • St. Mary Mead - A small English country village. A nice place where nothing happens, the people are nice.
  • Gossington Hall - A large house in the eastern part of St. Mary Mead. Owned by Colonel Bantry and Dolly Bantry.
  • The Library - A body was found there.
  • Inspector Slack
  • Constable Park
  • Miss Jane Marple
  • Mary (The maid)
  • Dolly Bantry
  • Colonel Arthur Bantry

The Body in the Library Chapter 1: The characters

Basil blake

Doctor haydock

Inspector slack

Colonel Melchett

NEW CHARACTERS IN CHAPTER 2

Who is he?Do people from St. Mary Mead like him?Who is Dinah Lee?

Who is he?Does Colonel Bantry like him?

Who is he?Which relationship does he have with Colonel Bantry?

  • Chapters 1–2: One morning, the body of a young girl is found in the library of Gossington Hall, in the quiet village of St Mary Mead, England. The girl has been strangled. The hall belongs to a respectable couple, Colonel and Mrs Bantry, who have no idea who she is or how she got there. Mrs Bantry calls her friend, Miss Jane Marple, an elderly lady with a skill for solving murders, to help investigate the crime. The Chief Constable, Colonel Melchett, arrives and interviews Colonel Bantry, and then decides to visit Basil Blake, a flamboyant young man who lives nearby. He suspects the dead girl may be Blake’s girlfriend. However, while he is talking to Blake, the girlfriend in question arrives.

Chapter 3-4

Ruby Keene's cousin.

Majestichotel

Raymondstarr

Josephine (JOSIE)turner

NEW PLACES AND CHARACTERS IN CH3

The place where Ruby and Josie were working.

The star that co-worked with both Ruby and Josie.

The dead girl.

George bartlett

He's the last person who saw Ruby Keene alive. She was dancing with him before dissapearing.

Adelaide Jefferson

Superintendent harper

Mr prescott.

NEW PLACES AND CHARACTERS IN CH4

She's Mr. Jefferson's daughter-in-law. She was married to Jefferson's son until he died.

A police officer.

The manager of the hotel.

  • Chapters 3-4: Melchett learns that a professional dancer,matching the description of the murdered girl, has gone missing from a hotel in Danemouth. Josie Turner, the cousin of the dead girl and a work companion, identifies the body as Ruby Keene. Josie tells Miss Marple and Melchett that Conway Jefferson, an old invalid man, had called the police about Ruby’s disappearance. Miss Marple is suspicious of Josie. Later, Colonel Melchett talks to the hotel manager, who says Mr Jefferson was interested in Ruby Keene, and Adelaide Jefferson, Mr Jefferson’s daughter-in-law, confirms this. Then they interview the last person who saw Ruby Keene alive. George Bartlett is the person who danced with Ruby the night before her dissapearance, he was a stupid boy who couldn't help but being nervous throughout the whole interview.

Chapter 5-6

Sir Henry Clithering

He was an old friend of Jefferson. He was the head of the police in London.

Mark Gaskell

Peter carmody

NEW CHARACTERS IN CH5 AND 6

He is Mr Jefferson's butler/servant.

He is Mr Jefferson's son-in-law. He was married to Jefferson's daughter until she passed away.

He is Mr Jefferson's grandson.

  • Chapters 5-6: Melchett talks to Conway Jefferson and discovers that the old man was planning to adopt Rub Keene and leave her 50,000 pounds in his will, and that his son-in-law, Mark Gaskell, and his daughter-in-law were not happy with the idea. Melchett and Superintendent Harper agree that this is a motive, but realise the two people have alibis (an excuse).Melchett and Harper keep investigating and discover that apparently Ruby Keene had a boyfriend but she didn't tell this to anyone. after this, George Bartlett announces that his car has dissapeared from the parking lot.Colonel Melchett and Harper interview Raymond Starr, who tells them that probably this whole Jefferson's thing was planned by Josie. They also start to suspect from Bartlett. At the end, Bartlett's car seems to be found burnt and with a body inside of it.
  • Chapter 6: At the end of Chapter 6, Sir Henry Clithering is introduced. But he does not add too much to the story. He only tells Jefferson that he saw someone downstairs that could be more helpful on discovering the mystery. That person is Jane Marple.

Exposing the Criminal Scene – The Body in the Library

By Leslie Watts

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the body in the library chapter summary

This week we’re studying the “Exposing the Criminal” scene in the Crime Story The Body in the Library by Agatha Christie. The Core Event is presented as a classic “Gathering Summation” scene and appears in chapter 18, the final chapter of the book.

We’re focusing on scenes this season because scenes are the basic building blocks of story. To be able to write a story that works, you must be able to write a scene that works. And we’re using stories that already appear somewhere in the Story Grid Universe. The story we’re discussing is featured this year in the Story Grid Guild.

GENRE AND THREE-ACT SUMMARY

The  is a Global Crime story (Cozy Mystery), and here’s a brief overview of the three-act summary.

  • Beginning Hook – The dead body of a young woman is discovered in Colonel Bantry’s library, and Mrs. Bantry calls in her good friend Miss Jane Marple to help solve the mystery and restore her husband’s reputation. Marple agrees to help and examines the body before the superintendent arrives. The victim’s sister, Josie, identifies her as Ruby Keene, a dancer who performs at a resort hotel.
  • Middle Build – Investigation ensues, along the lines of typical motive and opportunity. The victim was a companion of Conway Jefferson, who had decided to adopt her and leave the bulk of his money to her. Everyone who stood to gain from Ruby’s death had an alibi. At the midpoint, another body is found in a burned car in a quarry, presumed to be a local teen girl who’d gone missing. The clues lead Marple and the police to Basil Blake, but Marple knows he’s not the killer and informs the police.
  • Ending Payoff – Miss Marple reaches her conclusion by expressing her gift never accepting what she observes and hears at face value. The police set a trap using Jefferson as bait. The killer reveals herself, and Marple explains all in the scene we’re about to discuss.

ANALYZING THE SCENE

Scene type .

What function does this scene serve in the story? Editor’s Scene Type

Core event of the Crime Story. Exposing the Criminal. This is the climax of the ending payoff, but the scene also includes the resolution, in which we learn whether the criminal is brought to justice or not. 

Pretty self-explanatory … the detective, in this case, an amateur detective because it’s a cozy mystery, reveals the identity of the criminal. It may include how they figured it out. Loose strings are tied up.

What kind of scene is this? 

“I’ve gathered you all here …”

A scene that brings interested parties together to provide the answer to the puzzle. We might also say this is a scene in which Marple is showing her work. 

Other similar scenes include the reading of a will or announcing the winner of a contest.

What does this scene type accomplish within the context of the novel as a whole?

A feature of many cozy mysteries, but particularly stories by Agatha Christie, the exposing the criminal/bringing them to justice includes this explanation. We’re not privy to Jane Marple’s thoughts throughout the story. There are clues about what she’s thinking, but we can’t read her mind, and she’s not saying. 

Nice feature: The characters in the room can ask questions the reader would want to ask if they were present.

How many people are in the scene?

Eight onstage, at least twenty offstage

Where does the scene take place (location)?

Majestic Hotel – interesting that we don’t know what room they’re in. In fact the story overall is really thin on setting. She’d had published thirty plus books at this point in her career. The locations are ones that are pretty typical of cozy mysteries, coastal resort hotel, village squire’s hall.

What is the power dynamic at play in this scene?

Miss Jane Marple holds the power. She possesses knowledge that  everyone else in the room wants to know. She has their full attention.

Separately, Conway Jefferson has a fortune to dispose of, now that his intended recipient is dead. 

What is the point of conflict, and how does that relate to the characters’ objects of desire?

On the surface, the other main characters in the scene (Sir Henry Clithering, Superintendent Harper, Colonel Melchett, and Conway Jefferson) want to know how Marple solved the crime, what was her first clue, and what her methods are. Beneath the surface, they want to be reassured that the solution to the puzzle makes sense, the criminal(s) has been dealt with, and justice has been restored.

Miss Jane Marple wants acknowledgement and appreciation for her skills and methods, which are not typically praised in law enforcement circles. Jefferson wants to see his fortune do some good for a young person.

When we analyze a scene we need to answer four story event questions, and identify the five commandments of storytelling. These are covered in detail in Story Grid 101 which is available as a free download from the Story Grid website.

Story Grid Scene Analysis Question

1. The Action Story Component: What are the characters literally doing—that is, what are their micro on-the-surface actions?

Jane Marple is showing her work while revealing whodunit, how and why, while investigators listen intently.

2. The Worldview Story Component: What is the essential tactic of the characters—that is, what above-the-surface macro behaviors are they employing that are linked to a universal human value?  

Marple wants acknowledgement and appreciation. The others want to know that justice has been done.

3. The Heroic Journey 2.0 Component: What beyond-the-surface universal human values have changed for one or more characters in the scene? Which one of those value changes is most important and should be included in the Story Grid Spreadsheet?

At the beginning of the scene, everyone (except the reader) knows who the culprit is, but not why or how. Marple explains all, so they go from Unaware to Aware. 

But this is a Crime Story, so we’re interested in the spectrum of Injustice to Justice. It’s the core event, so it must turn on the global value. So where is that happening in this scene? A clue about this is revealed in the 5Cs, so in the spirit of mystery, we’ll circle back to this in a few moments.

4. The Scene Event Synthesis: What Story Event sums up the scene’s on-the-surface actions, essential above-the-surface worldview behavioral tactics, and beyond-the-surface value change? We will enter that event in the Story Grid Spreadsheet. 

Investigators and Jefferson learn as Marple reveals that Josie and Mark conspired to kill Pamela and Ruby and explains how they accomplished their crimes, but also how Marple herself solved the crime.

Story Grid Five Commandment Analysis

Inciting Incident: After successfully catching the killer in the act of attempting to murder Conway Jefferson, the team comes together to hear how Marple solved the crime. Will it make sense? How can they gain the most Justice?

Progressive Complications (and how they escalate the stakes):

  • Marple lays out the clues: First victim, Ruby Keene, was young, bit her nails, and teeth stuck out a little, identified by her cousin Josie; Adelaide Jefferson and Mark Gaskell stood to benefit, but they had alibis; Pamela Reeve was second victim, identified on basis of clothing; Dinah Lee (Basil Blake’s wife) mentioned Somerset house and marriage > Marple realizes Mark and Josie must be married
  • Marple explains how they did it: Tricked Pamela, drugged her, put her in Ruby’s clothes, dumped her body in Blake’s living room; drugged Ruby and put her in George Bartlett’s car and burned it at quarry
  • Vital clues: discrepancies between description of Ruby’s teeth and nails and appearance of body in library
  • Setup: make Josie and Mark think Mark would be written out of the will again.

Turning Point Progressive Complication: Adelaide and Hugo tell Conway they are getting married.

Crisis: Does Conway disinherit Adelaide for moving on with her life?

Climax: No, he’s giving 10K to Adelaide and the rest is for her son Peter.

Resolution: Adelaide and Hugo leave to get married.

WHAT’S SPECIAL ABOUT THIS SCENE?

Core Event, Sub-Genre Convention: Exposure of the criminal is the core event of a crime story, but with cozy mysteries, this scene is done in a very particular way. The whodunnit and the howdunnit both need to happen, and then can come in the same scene as with The Body in the Library , or separate scenes. But, they’re two necessary parts of the core event.

Obviously we want to know who committed the crime. But with stories like those written by Agatha Christie, the reader (and the other characters) want to know how Miss Marple or Hercule Poirot figured it out.

Working Scene or Exposition: I can see why Leslie analyzed the scene the way she did, however, when I first read it I considered it a piece of exposition and not a working scene. That said, I think it’s a necessary piece of exposition because it describes who committed the crime and how Jane Marple figured out whodunnit. As the last chapter in the book that ties up all the loose threads and answers the readers’ questions, it works within the context of the novel. 

Jefferson may have had a crisis – off page and in past, here resolution of the crisis – so not dramatic. Does it matter?

This is a Crime Story, and it’s about the puzzle, so there is a  great focus on this and the Core Value Justice . But what kind of justice? 

The change that happens in the scene, other than ignorance to knowledge, is that Conway realizes he was being silly in attaching himself to Ruby, and that he should have looked closer to home. Now that might not be my worldview or yours, but it is the worldview expressed by the story and was typical of that time and place. 

Jane Marple, is a close observer of human behavior. She shares quaint stories about her maid, the people in town, and who’s doing what with whom. The Crime is the backdrop for us to talk about how we behave toward one another, a shocking event to get us to look at our behavior and get aligned with what’s right. 

Shawn’s recent explanation about what a crime story is about: It’s to answer the question: How do we not destroy one another? 

Let’s say you don’t want to write a crime story. Why should you read a story like this? Because it’s a great way to study how to set up your Core Event. If you reread knowing the result, you can pick up on the way Christie planted clues along the way. It’s a bit cheesy and quaint, but Christie shows us how to lay the ground work for the Core Event without cheating.

Key Takeaways 

Valerie: whodunnit and howdunnit – can be in one scene or two, but must expose the criminal and explain to the reader how the crime was solved.

Leslie: Think about the way you think about stories. Are you only seeing what’s on the surface? Be curious about why you’re attracted to certain stories, why you’re writing the one you’re writing. This skill is the functional equivalent of thinking like a lawyer. Understanding why you’re writing this story is one important key to writing a great story.

Your Writers’ Room editors are Valerie Francis , specializing in stories by, for and about women, and Leslie Watts who helps fiction and nonfiction writers craft epic stories that matter.

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the body in the library chapter summary

Leslie Watts

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The Body in the Library Book Summary and Study Guide

Detailed plot synopsis reviews of the body in the library, chapter analysis of the body in the library, plot & themes, main character, writing style, books with storylines, themes & endings like the body in the library.

the body in the library chapter summary

The Body in the Library

 by Agatha Christie is available to buy here .

the body in the library chapter summary

Miss Marple's friend Dolly Bantry is stunned when her maid comes into her room in the morning, not with her tea, but to announce that there is a body lying on the floor of the library! Calling in her good friend Miss Marple to investigate, the two find themselves travelling to Danemouth where the girl was a dancer at the hotel and meeting the family of Conway Jefferson - a wealthy man who seems to have been the only person to miss the young girl. Who could have wanted to kill the young girl when did anyone have the opportunity? Miss Marple is sure to find out...

The 2nd Novel by Agatha Christie to feature Miss Jane Marple. A lthough only the second Miss Marple novel, it was actually Agatha Christie's 31st novel published.

when to read

Set in the seaside town of 'Danemouth' this is a lovely novel to read during the summer - ideally staying at a grand old hotel on the English coast - or just sat in a comfortable chair at home with your feet up...

Murder Mystery

A fun murder mystery with plenty of suspicious characters and intrigue to keep you turning the pages

Set initially in a classic country mansion complete with library before moving to the beautiful English coast.

Publishing info

This novel was published in 1942 just before 'Five Little Pigs' a Poirot novel and the 3rd Marple novel, 'The Moving Finger', all published in the same year

overall rating

Watching agatha christie.

The Body in the Library by Agatha Christie was the first of the series to star Joan Hickson as Miss Marple being aired in a three part series in 1984. It was also filmed as part of the ITV feature-length episodes in 2004 and was also the first episode to star Geraldine McEwan as Miss Marple. 

Dramatised and unabridged audiobooks are also available to listen to – click on the image to the right to review prices. 

the body in the library chapter summary

The Body in the Library Character List

Spoilers below.

Pamela Reeves

Mark Gaskell and Josie Turner

Conway Jefferson planned to disinherit Mark and Adelaide in favour of Ruby Keene, leaving her £50,000.

Mark (secretly married to Josie) killed her to secure the inheritance. 

Pamela Reeves is strangled by Mark

Ruby is killed by Josie but it is unclear exactly how – possibly by strangulation, poison or bludgeoned. 

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The Mirror Crack'd (1962)

When a local lady drinks a poisoned cocktail intended for the glamorous and famous Marina Gregg...Miss Marple is soon embroiled in the case to find the culprit. With plenty of suspects to chose from, she has her work cut out for her to get to the bottom of it...

Evil Under the Sun (1941)

If only to meet the wonderful character and femme fatale that is Arlena Marshall - Evil Under the Sun is the perfect summer time read!

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8 The Body in the Library: Christie and Sayers

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This chapter considers the trope of the body in the library in the Golden Age crime fiction of the first half of the twentieth century—both the corpse on the hearthrug of the country house library that becomes a cliché of much early clue-puzzle crime fiction, and the reading, writing, lounging, snoozing, shelving, dusty bodies to be found in university libraries. It identifies a wide range of library-focussed crime fiction from both the USA and the UK, examining descriptions of libraries through a deployment of Bachelard’s poetics of space. Its central focus is Agatha Christie’s The Body in the Library (1942) and Dorothy L. Sayers’s Gaudy Night (1936). It suggests that for Christie the trope functions as a synecdoche for the distancing effects with which the Golden Age crime novel treats violence, while for Sayers the material paradoxes of bodies, books, and libraries undermine the novel’s ostensible valorization of the life of the mind.

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Burial Plots in British Detective Fiction pp 63–91 Cite as

The Body in the Library: Georgette Heyer, Dorothy Dunnett and Sarah Caudwell

  • Lisa Hopkins 3  
  • First Online: 25 January 2021

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Part of the Crime Files book series (CF)

This chapter discusses three writers whose work is fundamentally dependent on allusiveness, to the extent that metaphorically at least the body is always already in the library. It opens with the detective stories of Georgette Heyer, moves on to Dorothy Dunnett’s Johnson Johnson books and finally looks at the slim but delicious oeuvre of Sarah Caudwell. Each of these authors has a distinctive voice, and yet all (including Heyer herself) are influenced by Heyer’s historical novels, in ways which mean that for all the ostentatious contemporaneity of these three series of books, they are always anchored in the past. The chapter argues that the uses to which the three authors put that engagement with the past are, however, different, particularly in relation to gender roles.

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Works Cited

Caudwell, Sarah. Thus Was Adonis Murdered [1981]. London: Constable and Robinson, 2012.

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Dunnett, Dorothy. Dolly and the Singing Bird [1968]. Harmondsworth: Penguin, 1984.

———. Ibiza Surprise [ Dolly and the Cookie Bird , 1971]. London: Arrow,1971.

———. Operation Nassau [ Dolly and the Doctor Bird , 1971]. London: Arrow, 1993.

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Heyer, Georgette. Behold, Here’s Poison [1936]. London: Arrow, 2006.

———. A Blunt Instrument [1939]. London: Arrow, 2006.

———. A Christmas Party [ Envious Casca ] [1941]. London: Arrow, 2006.

———. Death in the Stocks [1935]. London: Arrow, 2006.

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———. The Unfinished Clue [1933]. London: Arrow, 2006.

———. Penhallow [1942]. London: Arrow, 2006.

———. Why Shoot a Butler? [1933]. London: Arrow, 2006.

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Knight, Stephen. Crime Fiction 1800–2000: Detection, Death, Diversity . Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan, 2004.

Sansom, C. J. Dissolution [2003]. London: Pan Macmillan, 2015.

Schaub, Melissa. Middlebrow Feminism in Classic British Detective Fiction: The Female Gentleman . Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan, 2013.

Shakespeare, William. Hamlet . Ed. Harold Jenkins. London: Methuen, 1982.

Stewart, Mary. This Rough Magic [1964]. London: Hodder and Stoughton, 2017.

Tuite, Clara. ‘Period Rush: Queer Austen, Anachronism and Critical Practice’. In Re-Drawing Austen: Picturesque Travels in Austenland . Eds Beatrice Battaligia and Diego Saglia. Naples: Ligouri, 2004. 305–22.

Wallace, Diana. The Woman’s Historical Novel: British Women Writers, 1900–2000 . Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan, 2005.

Wentworth, Patricia. Grey Mask [1928]. London: Hodder and Stoughton, 2006.

Wilt, Judith. Women Writers and the Hero of Romance . Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan, 2014.

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Hopkins, L. (2021). The Body in the Library: Georgette Heyer, Dorothy Dunnett and Sarah Caudwell. In: Burial Plots in British Detective Fiction. Crime Files. Palgrave Macmillan, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-65760-4_4

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  • The Body in the Library

The Body in the Library explained

The Body in the Library is a work of detective fiction by Agatha Christie and first published in the US by Dodd, Mead and Company in February 1942 [1] and in the UK by the Collins Crime Club in May of the same year. [2] The US edition retailed at $2.00 [1] and the UK edition at seven shillings and sixpence. [2] The novel features her fictional amateur detective Miss Marple .

The novel concerns the murders of two girls of outwardly similar appearance. One of them was an 18-year-old dancer, and the other was a 16-year-old Girl Guide with aspirations to an acting career. The identities of the two victims were deliberately left ambiguous by the killers. Jane Marple eventually discovers that the dancer was the intended adoptive daughter and heiress to a wealthy man. She starts suspecting the other potential heirs to the old man's fortune.

While the prologue is set at St Mary Mead (the setting of the previous Marple novels), the novel's main setting is a seaside resort hotel. Robert Barnard praised the novel for its relative realism, comparing it with the lack of realism in a similar novel by P.D. James.

Plot summary

The maid at Gossington Hall wakes Mrs. Bantry; "There is a body in the library!" she cries. Dolly Bantry then wakes her husband, Colonel Arthur Bantry, and tells him to go downstairs. He finds the dead body of a young woman on the hearth rug in the library. She had been painted with heavy makeup, has platinum-blonde hair, and a silver-spangled dress. The colonel then contacts the police, and Mrs. Bantry calls Miss Marple (an old friend of hers). The police investigators include Colonel Melchett and Inspector Slack.

Trying to identify this dead young woman, Melchett heads to the nearby cottage of Basil Blake, but Blake's girlfriend Dinah Lee, a platinum blonde, is very much alive and arrives at the house while Melchett is interviewing Blake. Dr. Haydock's autopsy reveals that the young woman, healthy but not fully mature, died between 10 pm and 12 midnight on the previous evening, had been drugged and then strangled, and was "virgo intacta". Miss Marple notices that the appearance of this girl is not right, from her bitten fingernails to her old dress. She shares these observations with Dolly.

Hotel guest Conway Jefferson reports Ruby Keene, an 18-year-old dancer at the Majestic Hotel in Danemouth, as missing. Josie Turner, an employee at the hotel, identifies the body at Gossington Hall as that of her cousin Ruby. Guests saw Ruby as late as 11 pm dancing with George Bartlett, but Ruby did not appear for her dance demonstration at midnight. Jefferson tells police he has revised his will to favour Ruby, until the legal adoption is completed.

Dolly and Miss Marple move to the Majestic to investigate further. Conway calls Sir Henry Clithering, a former senior police officer, to join the investigation; Sir Henry sees Miss Marple at the hotel and in turn invites her to investigate.

Conway made large financial settlements for his children at the time each married. Then his wife, son and daughter were killed in an aeroplane crash eight years earlier. The three grieving survivors, son-in-law Mark, daughter-in-law Adelaide, and Conway, make up a household. They were playing bridge that evening with Josie. Police initially rule out the son-in-law and daughter-in-law, thinking each one is financially secure. But both are short of money, as Slack’s investigation and Adelaide's conversation with Dolly reveal.

Bartlett's burned-out car is found with a charred corpse inside. From one shoe and one button, the corpse is identified as that of 16-year-old Girl Guide Pamela Reeves, reported missing by her parents the previous night.

The police ask Miss Marple to interview the other girls at a Guides event, and ask Sir Henry to question Conway's valet, Edwards. Miss Marple learns from Pamela's friend Florence that Pamela had been approached by a film producer and offered a screen test that evening, which was why she did not go directly home. Edwards reports that he saw a snapshot of Basil Blake fall out of Ruby's handbag while she was with Conway, which points to Blake. Slack had already found the hearth rug from the Blake home dumped.

Miss Marple believes that she knows who the murderer is, and seeks proof of her deduction. She visits Dinah Lee; Basil returns home, and he reveals how he found the corpse on the hearth rug around midnight when he came home rather drunk after a party. He moved the corpse to the Bantry home, not liking Bantry much. He did not kill the girl. However, the police arrest him.

Back at the hotel, Miss Marple asks the Bantrys to find a marriage record at Somerset House. She asks Sir Henry to approach Jefferson, who agrees to tell Mark and Adelaide that he will change his will the next day, leaving his money to a hostel in London. Sir Henry alerts the police, and shows the marriage record for Mark and Josie. At 3 am, an intruder, Josie Turner, enters Conway's bedroom, and is caught in the act by the police before she can harm Jefferson with a syringe filled with digitalin .

Miss Marple explains her thinking to Conway and the police. The body in the library was Pamela Reeves, made up to look more or less like Ruby, with her bitten fingernails giving away her youth. Ruby was the one burned in the car. Thus the alibis at the hotel were useless. Miss Marple did not believe the identification by Josie ("people are far too trusting for this wicked world") and sensed a plan gone awry.

She suspected that Mark and Josie were married. Besides wanting Conway dead, upon learning that Conway planned to adopt Ruby, they made the double murder plan. Mark lured Pamela to the hotel for the fictitious screen test. Josie dressed her, dyed her hair, and made her up to resemble Ruby, then drugged her. During the bridge game, Mark took a break, taking the drugged Pamela to Blake's hearth rug, where he strangled her with her belt. Just before midnight, when Ruby went up to change for the exhibition dance, Josie followed her and killed her by injection or a blow. After the midnight dance, she took Ruby, dressed in Pamela's clothes, in Bartlett's car to the quarry where she set fire to the car. During the police interrogation, Mark breaks down and confesses all the details.

Adelaide says she has agreed to marry her long-time suitor, Hugo, which pleases Jefferson. His new will settles cash on Adelaide and leaves the rest to her son Peter.

  • Miss Marple

resident of the village of Saint Mary Mead who has much experience in solving murders.

  • Colonel Melchett: Chief Constable of Radfordshire, where the first body is found.
  • Dolly Bantry: a friend of her village neighbour Miss Marple.
  • Colonel Arthur Bantry: retired soldier, husband of Dolly, and owner of extensive property.
  • Inspector Slack: investigates both murders and makes an arrest. Despite his last name, he is thorough in his work.
  • Dr Haydock: doctor who performs the post-mortem on the first body, found in the Bantrys' library.
  • Conway Jefferson: wealthy man staying at the Majestic Hotel with his son-in-law, daughter-in-law and step-grandson. He lost his legs in an aeroplane crash, the same crash in which he lost his wife Margaret, son Frank, and daughter Rosamund some years earlier. He is an old friend of the Bantrys.
  • Mark Gaskell: Rosamund Jefferson's widower. He is a smooth-talking and handsome man, a gambler by personality. He lives with his father-in-law in the shared grief after the plane crash, but his father-in-law never really liked his daughter's choice of husband.
  • Adelaide Jefferson: Frank Jefferson's widow. She has a son, Peter Carmody, who is aged 9. Peter was born after the death of her first husband, Mike Carmody. She is a good mother and a reliable woman.
  • Edwards: valet to Conway Jefferson. He agrees to speak with Clithering, who will share only the needed information with police.
  • Ruby Keene: a dancer using that stage name, born Rosy Legge. Conway Jefferson likes her, going so far as to say that he will adopt her and make her his heir once he alters his will. She was raised poor, and her outward appearance was like his daughter Rosamund. She was unlike Rosamund in personality, for Ruby was a gold-digger.
  • Josie Turner: Ruby's cousin, a professional dancer, who asked Ruby to come to the hotel to take her place on the dance floor while her ankle heals after an injury. She is shrewd, practical, and wants money.
  • Raymond Starr: born Thomas Ramon Starr. He works as the tennis professional and dancer at the Majestic Hotel. He hopes to woo Adelaide, once she is ready to consider remarriage; in this he loses out, and is gracious about the loss.
  • Sir Henry Clithering

retired head of Scotland Yard and friend to Miss Marple. He is called to help in the investigation by his friend Conway Jefferson.

  • Superintendent Harper: from the police in Glenshire, where the hotel is located. He joins the investigation.
  • Basil Blake: young man who recently moved into a cottage just outside St Mary Mead, and enjoys scorning the older generation. He works for a film studio about 30 miles away, and appears at the house mainly at weekends. Miss Marple knows of his earlier life as an ARP warden who saved lives in a burning building, getting injured in the process. This is the only allusion to the Second World War.
  • Dinah Lee: woman with platinum blonde hair who appears at Blake's home. They are married but tell no-one in the village.
  • George Bartlett: Ruby's last dance partner. He has a car parked at the hotel which is stolen and reported missing the morning after Ruby’s murder. He is a shy man.
  • Pamela Reeves: local girl, aged 16, a Girl Guide. She attended a Guides event on the night Ruby was murdered; her parents reported her missing to the police at 9 pm, hours after she was due home. The next day, she is named as the corpse found in Bartlett's stolen and burned car.
  • Florence Small: Pamela Reeves's friend, in whom she confided the story of the screen test at the hotel. Florence revealed her nervousness to Miss Marple, who chose her as the girl to ask what really happened that evening.
  • Hugo McClean: long-time friend of Adelaide who wants to marry her. In the end, he does.

In her 'Author's Foreword', Christie describes "the body in the library" as a cliché of detective fiction. She states that when writing her own variation on this theme, she decided that the library should be a completely conventional one while the body would be a highly improbable and sensational one. [3]

Another example of this cliché was included in the first episode of the second series ( "And the Moonbeams Kiss the Sea" ) of the television series Inspector Lewis , in which the body of a handyman is found in the Bodleian Library. DS James Hathaway comments to DI Robbie Lewis , "You realise what we've got, don't you, sir. ... The body in the library."

Yet more recently, in Philip Pullman 's novel La Belle Sauvage , published in 2017, the protagonist borrows a book titled The Body in the Library .

In light of these remarks, this novel can be considered a conscious reworking of the genre .

Literary significance and reception

Maurice Willson Disher of The Times Literary Supplement was impressed in his review of 16 May 1942 with the female view of life injected into the solution of the crimes. "Some devoted souls may sigh for Hercule Poirot, but there are bound to be others who will be glad to find his place taken in the 'new Agatha Christie' by Miss Marple. What this relief signifies is that professional detectives are no match for elderly spinsters (not all so elderly), with some training in looking under the antimacassar , who are now very much in fashion. Even while making full allowance for this we find it hard not to be impressed by old-maid logic. When Miss Marple says, 'The dress was all wrong,' she is plainly observing facts hidden from the masculine eye – facts which are of a very lively interest. The Body in the Library should turn Hendon College co-educational." [4]

Maurice Richardson was not as impressed with Christie's efforts in his 17 May 1942 review in The Observer when he concluded: "Ingenious, of course, but interest is rather diffuse and the red herrings have lost their phosphorescence." [5]

An unnamed reviewer in the Toronto Daily Star (21 March 1942) wrote that "It doesn't take long to read this one, but the two killings in it are made so mysterious that you will not want to lay the book down until the killer is caught." The reviewer concludes, "Police do a lot of probing, but it is the shrewd reasoning – intuition perhaps – of Jane Marple that finds the missing link and discloses a diabolical plot." [6]

Robert Barnard , writing in 1990, had a positive view of this novel. He calls the plot situation classic rather than clichéd. It was a "bravura performance on a classic situation". The shift of locations of action, from Miss Marple's village to a seaside resort hotel, were good for the story, "St Mary Mead regulars figure in the case, pleasantly diversified by fashionable seaside hotel guests and the film crowd." The question he raised involves the likelihood of the crimes and the manner of solving them, which he found better than a mystery written over 30 years later by another author, saying that "If you think what happens to the body after death is unlikely, try the more 'realistic' P.D. James' An Unsuitable Job for a Woman ." [7]

In Chapter 8, the author gives herself a mention from the mouth of the young boy, Peter Carmody. Explaining that he enjoys reading detective stories, Peter says that he has the autographs of Christie, Dorothy L. Sayers , John Dickson Carr and H. C. Bailey .

In Chapter 9, Colonel Melchett states that "there's still one thing to be done. Cherchez l'homme ." It is referred to as a joke in the book, and is possibly a reference to Hercule Poirot , Christie's other famous sleuth. However, it is more likely a reference to the popular phrase cherchez la femme , meaning that there is frequently a woman behind a man's behaviour and motives in detective stories; since in this novel the victim was a girl, who was presumed to have a male lover, the phrase was changed jokingly by the detective.

While explaining how she concluded who the murderers were and how the widowed Mr Jefferson became so quickly enamoured of a girl while knowing so little of her, Miss Marple mentions the old story The King and the Beggar-maid as a model for instant emotional reaction. All the other characters in the novel she finds to have acted like someone she knew from life in her village.

In Christie's Cards on the Table , published six years earlier, Anne Meredith knows Ariadne Oliver as the writer of a book called The Body in the Library .

Film, TV, radio or theatrical adaptations

Bbc adaptation.

The 1984 television film The Body in the Library was part of the BBC series of Miss Marple , with Joan Hickson making the first of her appearances in the role of Jane Marple. The adaptation was transmitted in three parts between 26–28 December 1984, and only had a few changes made to it from the novel:

  • The character of Superintendent Harper was omitted.
  • Bartlett's car was changed from a Minoan 14 to a Vauxhall Coaster.
  • Conway sees the snapshot of Blake that falls out of Ruby's handbag.
  • The amount of money left to Ruby was changed from £50,000 to £100,000.

ITV adaptation

A second adaptation of the novel was made in 2004 by ITV, as part of its ongoing Agatha Christie's Marple series. This adaptation starred Geraldine McEwan as Miss Marple, James Fox as Colonel Bantry, Joanna Lumley as Dolly Bantry, Ian Richardson as Conway Jefferson, and Jamie Theakston as Mark Gaskell. While this adaptation was largely faithful to the original novel, there were several changes:

  • Josie's accomplice and lover is Jefferson’s daughter-in-law Adelaide, not his son-in-law Mark Gaskell as in the novel.
  • Conway's wife and children were killed by a V-2 strike, not in a plane crash (this is shown in a prologue scene).
  • Mark, Frank, and Peter's father Mike were all RAF pilots in the war.
  • The characters of Clithering, Edwards, and McLean are omitted.
  • Conway sees the snapshot of Blake that falls out of Ruby's handbag, as in the previous adaptation.
  • The drugging of the first victim is revealed later.
  • Miss Marple's explanation of the crime comes before the trap to catch the killers, rather than after.

French adaptation

A third adaptation appeared as the ninth episode of French television series Les Petits Meurtres d'Agatha Christie . The episode first aired in 2011.

Korean adaptation

A fourth adaptation aired as part of the 2018 Korean television series, Ms. Ma, Nemesis .

A radio adaptation was produced for BBC Radio 4 in 1999. [8] The production was dramatised by Michael Bakewell and directed by Enyd Williams.

The cast list featured June Whitfield as Miss Marple, Richard Todd as Colonel Melchett, Pauline Jameson as Dolly Bantry, Jack Watling as Colonel Bantry, Graham Crowden as Sir Henry Clithering, and Ben Crowe as George Bartlett.

Publication history

  • 1941, Dodd Mead and Company (New York), February 1942, Hardback, 245 pp
  • 1941, Collins Crime Club (London), May 1942, Hardback, 160 pp
  • 1946, Pocket Books (New York), Paperback, (Pocket number 341), 152 pp
  • 1953, Penguin Books , Paperback, (Penguin number 924), 190 pp
  • 1959, Pan Books , Paperback, 157 pp (Great Pan G221)
  • 1962, Fontana Books (Imprint of HarperCollins ), Paperback, 191 pp
  • 1972, Ulverscroft Large-print Edition, Hardcover, 305 pp;
  • 2005, Marple Facsimile edition (Facsimile of 1942 UK first edition), 7 November 2005, Hardcover;

The novel was first serialised in the US in The Saturday Evening Post in seven parts from 10 May (Volume 213, Number 45) to 21 June 1941 (Volume 213, Number 51) with illustrations by Hy Rubin.

External links

  • The Body in the Library at the official Agatha Christie website

Notes and References

  • Web site: American Tribute to Agatha Christie: The Classic Years: 1940 – 1944 . May 2007 . J S . Marcum . 3 January 2020.
  • Book: Peers . Chris . Spurrier . Ralph . Sturgeon . Jamie . Collins Crime Club – A checklist of First Editions . Dragonby Press . second . March 1999 . 15.
  • Book: Cook, Michael . Narratives of Enclosure in Detective Fiction: The Locked Room Mystery . Palgrave Macmillan . 12 October 2011 . 43–44 . 3 January 2020 . 978-0-230-31373-6.
  • News: Disher . Maurice Willson . Review . . 16 May 1942 . 249.
  • News: Richardson . Maurice . Maurice Richardson . Review . . 17 May 1942 . 3.
  • News: Review . . 21 March 1942 . 11.
  • Book: Barnard, Robert . A Talent to Deceive – an appreciation of Agatha Christie . Revised . 189 . Fontana Books . 1990 . 0-00-637474-3.
  • Web site: The Body in the Library, Miss Marple - BBC Radio 4 Extra . BBC. 2017-09-25.

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COMMENTS

  1. The Body in the Library

    she cries. Dolly Bantry then wakes her husband, Colonel Arthur Bantry, and tells him to go downstairs. He finds the dead body of a young woman on the hearth rug in the library. She had been painted with heavy makeup, has platinum-blonde hair, and a silver-spangled dress.

  2. The Body in The Library

    The Body in the Library Chapter 1: The Setting St. Mary Mead - A small English country village. A nice place where nothing happens, the people are nice. Gossington Hall - A large house in the eastern part of St. Mary Mead. Owned by Colonel Bantry and Dolly Bantry. The Library - A body was found there. Inspector Slack Constable Park Miss Jane Marple

  3. Exposing the Criminal Scene

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  4. The Body in the Library Summary

    "The Body in the Library" is set in the idyllic village of St. Mary Mead, where the unexpected discovery of a young woman's body in the library of Colonel Bantry's house sends shockwaves through the community. The body belongs to a glamorous dancer named Ruby Keene, who has no apparent connection to the Bantry family or the small village.

  5. The Body in the Library

    The body is identified by Ruby's great-cousin and colleague Josephine "Josie" Turner, who explains that she is dance and bridge hostess at the Majestic, but required Ruby to fill in a as dance hostess, due to Josie suffering injuries sustained to her ankle, whilst sunbathing.

  6. The Body in the Library Book Summary and Study Guide

    Mrs. Bantry immediately calls in her old friend, Miss Marple, to investigate the crime. Click here to see the rest of this review The body is identified as a dancer who worked at a nearby hotel and was in no way connected to the Bantrys.

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    One of Miss Marple's finest cases, here we see her at the height of her female intuition, an inconspicuous elderly lady who can investigate undetected. Several other detectives get involved in the case - almost as many as there are suspects. Of course, it is Miss Marple who will unveil the ultimate clue.The novel was first released in ...

  8. The Body In The Library by Agatha Christie

    160 pages, Paperback First published February 1, 1942 Book details & editions About the author Agatha Christie 4,416 books64.3k followers Agatha Christie also wrote romance novels under the pseudonym Mary Westmacott, and was occasionally published under the name Agatha Christie Mallowan.

  9. The Body in the Library

    The Body in the Library. On a quiet morning in St. Mary Mead, a maid wakes Colonel Bantry and his wife to inform them that a young woman is dead in their library. The victim is dressed in a tawdry dress, with dyed hair and heavy make-up. Mrs. Bantry knows that as long as the murder remains unsolved her husband will be the target of suspicion ...

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    One of the most successful and beloved writer of mystery stories, Agatha Mary Clarissa Christie was born in 1890 in Torquay, County Devon, England. She wrote her first novel, The Mysterious Affair at Styles, in 1920, launching a literary career that spanned decades. In her lifetime, she authored 79 crime novels and a short story collection, 19 ...

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    The Body in the Library "Mary is, naturally, upset because she made the terrible discovery,' explained the bucler. 'She went into the library as usual to open the curtains, and almost fell over the body.' "Do you mean that there's a dead body in the library — my library?' asked the Colonel. The butler coughed.

  12. The Body in the Library

    It's seven in the morning. The Bantrys wake to find the body of a young woman in their library. She is wearing evening dress and heavy make-up, which is now smeared across her cheeks. But who is she? How did she get there? And what is the connection with another dead girl, whose charred remains are later discovered in an abandoned quarry? The respectable Bantrys invite Miss Marple to solve the ...

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    gruesome discov ery," exclaimed the butler. "She went into the library, as usual, to draw the curtains, and -- and almost stumbled over the body." "Do you mean to tell me," dem anded Colonel Bantry, "that there's a dead body in my library -- my library?" The butler coughed. "Perhaps, sir, you would like to see for yourself."

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  15. The Body in the Library

    Synopsis Miss Marple's friend Dolly Bantry is stunned when her maid comes into her room in the morning, not with her tea, but to announce that there is a body lying on the floor of the library!

  16. 8 The Body in the Library: Christie and Sayers

    This chapter considers the trope of the body in the library in the Golden Age crime fiction of the first half of the twentieth century—both the corpse on the hearthrug of the country house library that becomes a cliché of much early clue-puzzle crime fiction, and the reading, writing, lounging, snoozing, shelving, dusty bodies to be found in uni...

  17. The Body in the Library Summary

    Christie shatters the peace with a terrible discovery: the lifeless body of an unknown young lady, Ruby Keene, discovered in the library of Colonel and Mrs. Bantry. The mysterious circumstances surrounding the murder cause confusion and dread among the residents, turning the peaceful community into a hotbed of conjecture and anxiety.

  18. The Body in the Library

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    Chapter Summary: Body In The Library Satisfactory Essays 166 Words 1 Page Open Document In chapter 1-4, in the book Body in the Library, the story is about a couple who find a dead girl in their library. They have never seen the woman before and have no idea who she is. Chief Constable comes in an investigates the crime seen.

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    Acquaitance of Jane Marple. Mrs. Chetty's son. Basil Blake's mother. One of the servants of the Bantrys. Owner of the new, big house. Frank Jefferson's wife. Conway Jefferson's son. Josephine Turner's boss. All characters in The Body In The Library are listed by chapter with character descriptions included.

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    This chapter discusses three writers whose work is fundamentally dependent on allusiveness, to the extent that metaphorically at least the body is always already in the library. It opens with the detective stories of Georgette Heyer, moves on to Dorothy Dunnett's Johnson Johnson books and finally looks at the slim but delicious oeuvre of ...

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    Followed By: Five Little Pigs. The Body in the Library is a work of detective fiction by Agatha Christie and first published in the US by Dodd, Mead and Company in February 1942 [1] and in the UK by the Collins Crime Club in May of the same year. [2] The US edition retailed at $2.00 [1] and the UK edition at seven shillings and sixpence. [2]

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