Customer Reviews

Sleeping Murder (Miss Marple Mysteries)

5 star:		(29)
4 star:		(11)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

Gwenda and Giles Reed surely must be ranked as two of Agatha Christie's most endearing characters. Too bad they didn't have their own series like Tommy and Tuppence. As young newlyweds fresh from New Zealand, they come to Giles native England looking for their first home. Gwenda is immediately captivated by a Victorian villa known as Hillside, but after she moves in, strange feelings of deja vu grip the young bride. Has she been here before? Is the house haunted? And who is the woman she can see lying strangled in the front hall? Refusing the advice of kindly Jane Marple to let sleeping murder lie, Gwenda and Giles embark on an investigation to clear up the alleged murder of Gwenda's stepmother and put to rest her eerie feelings that her own father may have been the killer. As memories of past events flash through her mind, she and and her husband chase a trail of clues involving letters from abroad, a retired doctor, a former housemaid, a jilted boyfriend, and a mysteriously torn tennis net. Miss Marple is at the peak of her powers as she helps the couple unravel the clues and see clearly what is right before them. "It really is very dangerous to believe people, " she informs them. "I never have for years." But you can believe that when Miss Marple is present, the plot is thick with excitement, red herrings, and her uncanny ability to read human nature. Perhaps the best of the Miss Marple series, this is a fitting farewell to Christie's universally beloved spinster.

In 1987, an excellent adaptation of this novel was filmed for TV with Joan Hickson portraying Jane Marple.

Hercule Poirot was Agatha Christie's most celebrated character--but over time Christie developed a love-hate relationship with her own creation. Written in the 1940s or 1950s, the novel CURTAIN was designed to both vent her mixed feelings about the character and to protect him from continuation via another author. It was not published until 1975.

But CURTAIN was not the only novel Christie had written earlier and then suppressed. Even as she grew less enthusiastic about Hercule Poirot, she grew more enthusiastic about Jane Marple, and given her sentiments about Poirot she elected to give Miss Marple the final word. Like CURTAIN, the novel SLEEPING MURDER had been written much earlier, and it was not published until the year of Christie's death: 1976, a year after CURTAIN.

The newly married Giles and Gwenda Reed have no close family but they do have independent means, and when Giles suggests that Gwenda purchase a house while he is out of the country she does precisely that: a charming Victorian named Hillside in the tiny coastal town of Dillmouth. In her husband's absence Gwenda has a great deal of fun restoring the home. But something odd happens.

She decides to have steps set in the sloping garden--and when the work begins, a set of steps is found beneath the soil in that same location. She decides to add a dining room door--and when the wall is examined workmen discover a door already exists in the spot, plastered over. Gwenda begins to doubt her sanity. Fortunately, she is distantly related to Jane Marple, who wastes little time in exploring the mystery. And what she finds is pure murder, a murder from out of the past that bursts into the present and threatens not only Giles and Gwenda's happiness, but their very lives as well.

Written near the peak of Christie's skills, both CURTAIN and SLEEPING MURDER are extremely fine mystery novels, and each one gives a suitable final bow to her two most memorable creations. In terms of plot, the applause must go to CURTAIN, which is a truly stunning twister--but in terms of style, the applause goes to SLEEPING MURDER, one of Christie's most elegantly written works. Recommended.

GFT, Amazon Reviewer

This was definitely not the first Agatha Christie book I ever read and I know it won't be the last. But it was the first one that made me realize just what a talented writer she was. All the others I had read began to run together in my mind over the years, but with this one I still remembered "who done it" YEARS later. I'll never forget! It was also the first time that the main character, Gwennie in this book, seemed like someone who could have existed outside of Agatha's head. From the moment I picked this book up, I was good and hooked. I finished it in one sitting because I had to know what was happening to Gwennie. It remimded me a little of the movie Gaslight. You just KNOW that there is more going on than anyone is aware of. If you've never read an Agatha Christie book before, this is the perfect place to start. If you have read her, but not this particular book, don't wait any longer. You'll never regret it.

The woman was lying there in the hall, sprawled out - dead. "Cover her face, mine eyes dazzle, she died young." His voice was saying those words in a horrible gloating way, and Gwenda saw his hands - they were not hands, but a monkey's paws...

Why did Gwenda Reed have such a dreadful vision? Jane Marple suggested an explanation which was natural - and MOST remarkable. However, despite all Miss Marple's cautions to let lie "murder that is sleeping", Gwenda decided to find out about the past; what had happened in this house she just had moved into?

This has to be one of the best Miss Marple-novels. In my opinion, a few of them are somewhat boring but this one, on the other hand, was extremely pleasant reading. It has got everything that one could require out of a detective novel. There are twists at the end as usual, but the more "experienced" Christie-reader will probably tip the right person as the murderer, which is one reason I don't give all the five stars. Recommended novel.

Gwen Reed was shopping for a house for herself and newly married husband Giles when she came across what seemed to be just the perfect house in southern England.

Being born in India and raised in New Zealand, why then did she have the sense of dejavu about the house? Somehow, her picture of what the house should look like after renovations coincided with exactly how the house used to look like. Even scarier, she could picture a strangled woman in the hall and knew her name was Helen. Yet, there never was a murder reported in the region for ages.

Enter Ms Marple who guessed Gwen might possibly have spent time in the house as a very young child and might possibly have witnessed a murder. But how would one go about solving a murder twenty years before which had no prior record? How would the Reeds start when they were both newly migrated to England?

Ms Marple's advise to let sleeping murder lie went unheeded by the young couple. Somewhere, there was a murderer who committed the perfect, almost perfect, crime and had been probably been comforted by the years of safety. The Reeds did not realize it at first, that what they embarked on would arouse a dangerous sentiment in a person who would do anything to keep feeling safe.

Of all the Agatha Christie books I have read, the characters and plot of Sleeping Murder are by far the most interesting of them all. Gwenda and Giles Reed are two bright-eyed New Zealand newlyweds looking for their first home in England--what they find in the house is an eerie familiarity and a haunting past. When the couple moves into their new home, Gwenda has strange feelings of deja vu. She has dreams of a woman strangled in the hall and she feels a certain aura of murder in the air. Miss Jane Marple tells Gwenda to "let sleeping murder lie", but she insists on thoroughly investigating the history behind her haunted house. This book was extremely intriguing and continuously kept me on the edge of my seat. It is most definitely a page-turner and the suspense and plot twists add even more variation and intrigue to what I feel is one of Agatha Christie's best mysteries.

OK, you want a good book, like the kind you can't put down?? Well this is it!! Agatha Christy portrays the setting and unravels the plot in the most intriguing way! The ending is totally unexpected. I couldnt put this book down over the summer, it was wonderful, i recomend it 100%!!

Are you in for a first-class mystery? Well then Agatha Christie's 296 page long Sleeping Murder is just the book for you. It's a real page turner and has something new for you around every corner.

Gwenda and Giles Reed are a couple of newly weds buying a house. After being in the house for a while, Gwenda gets an eerie feeling that she had been in the house when someone was murdered there more than 20 years ago. Yet she doesn't even remember living in or seeing the house before ever in her life.

The mystery starts getting intense when Miss Marple is introduced into the story. Miss Marple, 90 year old aunt of Giles, an experienced detective who always gets to the bottom of things with her sharp skills.

This book is great for all mystery lovers ages 11 and up. I really enjoyed this book because of the suspense and the way Agatha Christie presented all the clues. For example:" He could probably imitateHelen's handwriting pretty well- but it would'nt fool an expert. So the sample of Helen's handwriting he sent with you with the letter was'ny her handwrting either. He wrote it himself,so naturally it tallied out."

Thie book will also make you think deeper,for those of you out there who love to think. It will make your head go for a spin! Sleeping Murder is a book that you will never put down, so follow Gwenda, Giles and Ms. Marple to solve the mystery!

This is THE best Christie book EVER! I read it in one sitting. Buy it now!

This is a great mystery where a young bride is looking for a home in England. She selects a house that is strangely familiar to her; it's as if she has lived here before without knowing it. Her search for the truth behind her own childhood as well as the history of the house brings to light an old crime that was never satisfcatorily resolved. However, digging up the past can be dangerous especially when it causes a murderer who had escaped detection to strike again....Christie was clearly fascinated by the concept of revisiting past crimes that remained unsolved or where the wrong party may have been found guilty and looking at the crimes with fresh eyes - you see this in "Five Little Pigs", "Ordeal by Innocence", "Nemesis", "Halloween Party" and "Postern of Fate". A great atmosphere of increasing menace is built up throughout this story which makes for a wonderful ending. Definitely worth a read!