Books like A Caribbean Mystery

Since I was a kid reading Nancy Drew or the Hardy Boys, I have read mysteries in between other books as a palette cleanser. Rather than go into a reading slump, I read a fast paced crime or detective story to clear my head. There is no detective writer I enjoy more than the Queen of Crime herself, Dame Agatha Christie. I joined the Goodreads group reading the detectives when I found out that they would be reading one Miss Marple case a month for a year. Although I had been a fan of Hercule Poirot first, I jumped at the opportunity to read more books by Christie. A Caribbean Mystery, Miss Marple's tenth case, is the upcoming group selection. An older Miss Marple has been gifted a Caribbean vacation to the island of St Honore by her wealthy nephew Raymond West. With her getting on in years, he desires that she spend at least part of the winter away from the dreary climate of St Mary Mead. One who is more than willing to try new things even as she ages, Miss Marple agrees to spend time at a beach front hotel. Appearing as a feeble old lady with a knack for knitting, Miss Marple is the delight of the hotel guests. Yet, her mind is anything but flighty, and, just as it seems to do in St Mary Mead, murder cases fall into Miss Marple's lap. Colonel Palgrave is also vacationing on St Honore. Regaling the other guests with his tales of safari and the spoils of war, he is the life of the island, even if his stories are on the boring side. While telling Miss Marple the story about meeting a murderer in the eye, Colonel Palgrave literally believes he has seen a criminal from a previous experience. Sure enough, the next day he turns up murdered, followed closely by a local hotel worker named Victoria. Guests start to panic and some flee, leaving Miss Marple to sharpen her detecting skills. As in the cases in St Mary Mead, the police appear less than competent. It is up to Miss Marple to unravel the clues to this case, along with the help of fellow guest Mr Rafiel. Together, the two octogenarians come up with motives and alibis for all the hotel guests and workers before another murder occurs on hotel grounds. All this takes place while Miss Marple is supposed to be on vacation, yet, as she has confided in at least one person in each case that I have read, murder seems to find her. As in the case at St Mary Mead, Miss Marple lets the case take place in front of her only to come up with a simple solution at the end. While Hercule Poirot is still my favorite of Agatha Christie's detectives, Miss Marple is starting to grow on me. Whereas Poirot entreaties people to employ their little grey cells and usually knows whodunit it at the beginning, Miss Marple uses deductive reasoning to systematically come up with the criminal and motive by the case's close. Miss Marple's cases take less brain power and are perfect for my palette cleansers. I always enjoy reading Agatha Christie's mysteries, and A Caribbean Mystery was no exception. I look forward to the next time that I sit down with one of her cases, and rate this easy reading mystery 3.5 stars.