{"id":3454,"date":"2013-01-08T20:30:43","date_gmt":"2013-01-09T01:30:43","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/klishis.com\/reading\/?p=3454"},"modified":"2025-10-01T16:11:51","modified_gmt":"2025-10-01T20:11:51","slug":"the-body-in-the-library","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/klishis.com\/reading\/archives\/3454","title":{"rendered":"The Body in the Library"},"content":{"rendered":"

The Body in the Library<\/a><\/em> (1942) Agatha Christie<\/a><\/p>\n

\"The<\/a>Colonel and Mrs. Bantry are quite shocked to discover a body in their library–a very young blonde body. The Colonel calls the police, but Mrs. Bantry knows better, and calls Miss Marple.<\/p>\n

Again, like Murder at the Vicarage<\/em>, I noticed that much of the story seemed timeless. <\/p>\n

…(T)he old man found it much pleasanter to have a young, cheerful girl telling him how lever and amusing he was than to have his sister continually pointing out his faults to them.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

‘No, I woudln’t. I wouldn’t tell a soul.’<\/p>\n

‘People who use that phrase are always the last to live up to it.’<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

And I’ve always remembered this bit about marriage.<\/p>\n

‘…(It) has been said, you know (and, I think, quite truly), that you can only really get under anybody’s skin if you are married to them. When there is no — no legal bond, people are much more careful, they have to keep assuring themselves how happy and halcyon everything is.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

I’m not sure if, in this age of divorce, this is quite as true as it used to be, but it’s always stuck with me.<\/p>\n

Unlike the first Miss Marple story, this isn’t told in the first person, but we do know that Miss Marple is going to solve the mystery.
\nRating: 8\/10<\/strong><\/p>\n

Published by William Morrow<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The Body in the Library (1942) Agatha Christie Colonel and Mrs. Bantry are quite shocked to discover a body in their library–a very young blonde body. The Colonel calls the police, but Mrs. Bantry knows better, and calls Miss Marple. Again, like Murder at the Vicarage, I noticed that much of the story seemed timeless. […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[12,30,668,190,48,33,8,291,41],"tags":[228,229,693,898],"class_list":["post-3454","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-8-10","category-british","category-comfort-read","category-cozy","category-female","category-historical","category-mystery","category-paper","category-reread","tag-agatha-christie","tag-miss-marple","tag-older-protagonist","tag-ww-ii"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/piQkW-TI","jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":24585,"url":"https:\/\/klishis.com\/reading\/archives\/24585","url_meta":{"origin":3454,"position":0},"title":"The Body in the Library","author":"Michelle","date":"May 7, 2025","format":false,"excerpt":"The Body in the Library (1942) Agatha Christie (Miss Marple) Mrs Bantry reflected a minute and then applied an urgent conjugal elbow to her sleeping spouse. \u2018Arthur, Arthur, wake up.\u2019 Colonel Bantry grunted, muttered, and rolled over on his side. \u2018Wake up, Arthur. Did you hear what she said?\u2019 \u2018Very\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "9\/10"","block_context":{"text":"9\/10","link":"https:\/\/klishis.com\/reading\/archives\/category\/9-10"},"img":{"alt_text":"The Body in the Library","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/klishis.com\/reading\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/05\/The-Body-in-the-Library.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":24633,"url":"https:\/\/klishis.com\/reading\/archives\/24633","url_meta":{"origin":3454,"position":1},"title":"Miss Marple: The Complete Short Stories","author":"Michelle","date":"June 3, 2025","format":false,"excerpt":"Miss Marple: The Complete Short Stories (1985) Agatha Christie The Thirteen Problems (1932) 1. The Tuesday Night Club (1927) 2. The Idol House of Astarte (1928) 3. Ingots of Gold (1928) 4. The Bloodstained Pavement (1928) 5. Motive v. Opportunity (1928) 6. The Thumbmark of St. Peter (1928) 7. The\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "10\/10"","block_context":{"text":"10\/10","link":"https:\/\/klishis.com\/reading\/archives\/category\/10-10"},"img":{"alt_text":"Miss Marple The Complete Short Stories","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/klishis.com\/reading\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/05\/Miss-Marple-The-Complete-Short-Stories.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":21101,"url":"https:\/\/klishis.com\/reading\/archives\/21101","url_meta":{"origin":3454,"position":2},"title":"Thirteen Problems","author":"Michelle","date":"May 29, 2020","format":false,"excerpt":"Thirteen Problems (1932) Agatha Christie (Miss Marple) The Tuesday Night Club (1927) The Idol House of Astarte (1928) Ingots of Gold (1928) The Blood-Stained Pavement (1928) Motive versus Opportunity (1928) The Thumb Mark of St. Peter (1928) The Blue Geranium (1929) A Christmas Tragedy (1930) The Companion (1930) The Herb\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "8.5\/10"","block_context":{"text":"8.5\/10","link":"https:\/\/klishis.com\/reading\/archives\/category\/8-5-10"},"img":{"alt_text":"The Tuesday Club Murders","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/klishis.com\/reading\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/10\/The-Tuesday-Club-Murders.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":3673,"url":"https:\/\/klishis.com\/reading\/archives\/3673","url_meta":{"origin":3454,"position":3},"title":"The Mirror Crack’d from Side to Side","author":"Michelle","date":"March 26, 2013","format":false,"excerpt":"The Mirror Crack'd from Side to Side (1962) Agatha Christie This is probably the Miss Marple mystery that has embedded itself most firmly in my mind. There are so very many thing from here that randomly pop up. Out flew the web and floated wide; The mirror crack'd from side\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "British"","block_context":{"text":"British","link":"https:\/\/klishis.com\/reading\/archives\/category\/british"},"img":{"alt_text":"The-Mirror-Crackd","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/klishis.com\/reading\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/03\/The-Mirror-Crackd.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":12860,"url":"https:\/\/klishis.com\/reading\/archives\/12860","url_meta":{"origin":3454,"position":4},"title":"The Body in the Library","author":"Michelle","date":"May 15, 2020","format":false,"excerpt":"The Body in the Library (1942) Agatha Christie (Miss Marple) This was published in 1942, but does not really seem to actually be set during the war, although there are allusions to war. He did A.R.P. work, you know, when he was only eighteen. I suppose that makes the story\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "8\/10"","block_context":{"text":"8\/10","link":"https:\/\/klishis.com\/reading\/archives\/category\/8-10"},"img":{"alt_text":"The Body in the Library","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/klishis.com\/reading\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/05\/The-Body-in-the-Library.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":24731,"url":"https:\/\/klishis.com\/reading\/archives\/24731","url_meta":{"origin":3454,"position":5},"title":"The Mirror Crack’d from Side to Side","author":"Michelle","date":"July 4, 2025","format":false,"excerpt":"The Mirror Crack'd from Side to Side (1962) Agatha Christie (Miss Marple, #9) The people, too, looked unreal. The trousered young women, the rather sinister-looking young men and boys, the exuberant bosoms of the fifteen-year-old girls. Miss Marple couldn\u2019t help thinking that it all looked terribly depraved. ... Mothers came\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "9.5\/10"","block_context":{"text":"9.5\/10","link":"https:\/\/klishis.com\/reading\/archives\/category\/9-5-10"},"img":{"alt_text":"The Mirror Crackd from Side to Side","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/klishis.com\/reading\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/06\/The-Mirror-Crackd.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]}],"jetpack_likes_enabled":false,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/klishis.com\/reading\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3454","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/klishis.com\/reading\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/klishis.com\/reading\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/klishis.com\/reading\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/klishis.com\/reading\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3454"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/klishis.com\/reading\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3454\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/klishis.com\/reading\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3454"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/klishis.com\/reading\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3454"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/klishis.com\/reading\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3454"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}