Miss Marple Mysteries Trivia Quiz

Answer:

The character of Miss Jane Marple first appeared in the 1927 short story 'The Tuesday Night Club' and the first full-length novel featuring the character was 'The Murder at the Vicarage' published in 1930. Miss Marple is an elderly, single lady who lives in the fictional English village St Mary Mead. Marple is adept at solving crimes, particularly murders and is often underestimated by other characters who dismiss her due to her age.

Agatha Christie wrote a total of 12 novels featuring Miss Marple and the character also appeared in a number of short stories. The novels 'The Murder at the Vicarage', 'The Body in the Library' and 'The Mirror Crack'd From Side to Side' all see Miss Marple solving murders that take place in the village of St Mary Mead.

In other novels Miss Marple finds crimes to solve while staying in other parts of the country. In 'The Moving Finger' Marple is invited to help solve a murder by the wife of the vicar of Lymstock after the police have been unable to make progress. In 'A Murder is Announced' Miss Marple is staying at a hotel in a village where prior notice of a pending murder is given in the local newspaper. The village is also home to Diana 'Bunch' Harmon who is the daughter of one of Miss Marple's friends. In 'They do it With Mirrors' Miss Marple is visiting an old school friend Carrie Louise at her house Stonygates when murder occurs. The last Marple novel to be published, 'Sleeping Murder' sees Miss Marple investigate a strange case involving a couple buying a house where the wife is sure she witnessed a murder as a child. In this novel Marple stays with friends in Dillmouth to be near to the centre of the mystery.

In some novels Miss Marple's travels are supported by others. In 'At Bertram's Hotel' her nephew, Raymond West, pays for Marple to stay at a hotel in London she remembered visiting as a child - needless to say murder occurs and Miss Marple is involved in solving the mystery. Raymond West also pays for Miss Marple to visit the Caribbean when he pays for a holiday for her to the fictional island of St Honore in 'A Caribbean Mystery'. In this novel, as well as helping to solve a murder, Miss Marple meets the character Jason Rafiel who is influential in sending Miss Marple on the coach tour she undertakes in the novel 'Nemesis'.

In 'A Pocket Full of Rye' Miss Marple becomes involved in the case when a former maid of hers is murdered. The title is taken from the nursery rhyme 'Sing a Song of Sixpence'. In '4:50 From Paddington' (which was published in the US as 'What Mrs. McGillicuddy Saw!') Miss Marple is being visited by her friend Elspeth McGillicuddy who is convinced she has seen a murder being committed on a neighbouring train on her journey. Miss Marple sets out to find out the location and identity of the body (and the murderer) and enlists a young woman Lucy Eyelesbarrow to help her.