The Body in the Library

From AudioFile<br/><br/>Her old friend Mrs. Bantry has called Miss Marple in again. It seems that the body of a dead blonde lies on the library floor, much to the chagrin of the servants. Miss Marple is only too happy to help, as there's nothing she likes better than nosing around in other people's business. Stephanie Cole manages just the right tone for this breezy story of English village life of sixty years ago. Taking you back to a simpler time and place, Cole performs with a chatty intimacy that lets you feel you might be at the next table overhearing (in true Miss Marple fashion) some intriguing goings-on. A wonderful diversion for a long car ride or a quiet winter evening. D.G. © AudioFile 2003, Portland, Maine-- Copyright © AudioFile, Portland, Maine<br/><br/>Product Description<br/><br/>It's seven in the morning. The Bantrys wake to find the body of a young woman in their library. She is wearing an evening dress and heavy makeup, 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 mystery ... before tongues start to wag.<br/><br/>Review<br/><br/>"The best opening I ever wrote." Agatha Christie"Genuine old-crusted Christie." Time"Professional detectives are no match for elderly spinsters... it is hard not to be impressed." Times Literary Supplement"one of the most ingeniously contrived of all her murder stories." Birmingham Post<br/><br/>Excerpt. © Reprinted by permission. All rights reserved.<br/><br/>Chapter One<br/>Mrs. Bantry was dreaming. Her sweet peas had just taken a First at the flower show. The vicar, dressed in cassock and surplice, was giving out the prizes in church. His wife wandered past, dressed in a bathing suit, but, as is the blessed habit of dreams, this fact did not arouse, the disapproval of the parish in the way it would assuredly have done in real life.<br/>Mrs. Bantry was enjoying her dream a good deal. She usually did enjoy those early-morning dreams that were terminated by the arrival of tea. Somewhere in her inner consciousness was an awareness of the usual noises of the household. The rattle of the curtain rings on the stairs as the housemaid drew them, the noises of the second housemaid's dustpan and brush in the passage outside. In the distance the heavy noise of the front-door bolt being drawn back.<br/>Another day was beginning. In the meantime she must extract as much pleasure as possible from the flower show, for already its dreamlike quality was becoming apparent.<br/>Below her was the noise of the big wooden shutters in the drawing room being opened. She heard it, yet did not hear it. For quite half an hour longer the usual household noises would go on, discreet, subdued, not disturbing because they were so familiar. They would culminate in a swift, controlled sound of footsteps along the passage, the rustle of a print dress, the subdued chink of tea things as the tray was deposited on the table outside, then the soft knock and the entry of Mary to draw the curtains.<br/>In her sleep Mrs. Bantry frowned. Something disturbing was penetrating through the dream state, something out of its time. Footsteps along the passage, footsteps that were too hurried and too soon. Her ears listened unconsciously for the chink of china, but there was no chink of china.<br/>The knock came at the door. Automatically, from the depths of her dream, Mrs. Bantry said, "Come in." The door opened; now there would be the chink of curtain rings as the curtains were drawn back.<br/>But there was no chink of curtain rings. Out of the dim green light Mary's voice came, breathless, hysterical. "Oh, ma'am, oh, ma'am, there's a body in the library! "<br/>And then, with a hysterical burst of sobs, she rushed out of the room again.<br/>Mrs. Bantry sat up in bed.<br/>Either her dream had taken a very odd turn or else--or else Mary had really rushed into the room and had said--incredibly fantastic!--that there was a