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    A Caribbean Mystery
    A Caribbean Mystery
    A Caribbean Mystery
    Audiobook6 hours

    A Caribbean Mystery

    Written by Agatha Christie

    Narrated by Emilia Fox

    3.5/5

    ()

    About this audiobook

    A Caribbean resort Strangers thrown together Is there evil in paradise?

    Major Palgrave enjoys an audience, and, in Miss Marple, he discovers a captive audience too polite to walk away.

    But midway through recounting the tale of a multiple murder, he stops suddenly when something, or someone, catches his eye.

    Then, when he’s found dead the following day, Miss Marple suspects that someone wanted to silence the talkative major. Permanently.

    Never underestimate Miss Marple

    ‘There’s no such thing as a disappointing Agatha Christie: there are only good ones and better ones.’
    Naomi Alderman

    ‘Livelieness . . . infectious zest . . . as good as anything Miss Christie has done.’
    Observer

    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherHarperCollins
    Release dateDec 5, 2013
    ISBN9780007528554
    A Caribbean Mystery
    Author

    Agatha Christie

    Agatha Christie is the most widely published author of all time, outsold only by the Bible and Shakespeare. Her books have sold more than a billion copies in English and another billion in a hundred foreign languages. She died in 1976, after a prolific career spanning six decades.

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    Reviews for A Caribbean Mystery

    3.5/5

    906 ratings49 reviews

    What our readers think

    Readers find this title to be a fantastic mystery with a simple yet engaging story. Emilia Fox's performance as the narrator is absolutely magnificent, with each character voiced differently and consistently. However, some reviewers found her accents and breathy tones for certain characters to be unpleasant. Overall, the book is enjoyable and Marple is portrayed brilliantly. The narration by Emilia Fox is excellent.

    What did you think?

    Tap to rate

    Review must be at least 10 words

    • 3/5
      Another Miss Marple mystery with so many scoundrel men who tom-cat around. An old Major starts a story of a killer man to Miss Marple and reaches into his wallet to show her a picture. Suddenly, his attention lapses and Miss Marple never sees the picture. The next day, Major Palgrave succumbs to his high blood pressure or has a killer silenced him? The cast of characters includes many tried and true individuals. But who has motive to kill? The body count increases as the maid Victoria and the beautiful Lucky Dyson follow the same fate as Major Palgrave. Miss Marple and her assistant, Jason Rafiel, rush to find the killer before another body joins the list. A light-hearted book and a look at the past that continues to plague the guilty.
    • 3/5
      This one is centered round Miss Marple, which is nice -- so many of the other books have her coming in quite late, in comparison. She's really quite awesome in this one -- going out and doing things and even being Nemesis at the end.

      I did look up the plot for this one, though, since my ebook copy had some odd missing text, so it wasn't a great revelation to me. Clever, though.
    • 4/5
      Surprisingly enjoyed this in the end! Really interesting, if you get past the old way of thinking about women its a good crime novel.
    • 2/5
      In which a pleasant holiday unites Miss Marple with a gruff millionaire and a long-forgotten murder… which leads to a new one.

      "A Caribbean Mystery" is a lesser Christie novel, barely worthy of praise. As with the loose-sequel, "Nemesis", this novel at least sees Miss Marple do a bit of investigating (which oddly doesn’t happen much in her better works), but the setting is about the only thing of interest here. The inimitable millionaire Jason Rafiel is a fascinating character, but he isn’t really connected to the murder in any useful way, so turns out to be neither here nor there. The rest of the characters are perfunctory and – while the actual solution is still surprising – we know from the start roughly where our suspicions should lie, so the playing field isn’t as wide as Christie would have us believe.

      The Joan Hickson adaptation is quite varied in style, but ultimately is not one of my favourites – coming late in the series’ run, when even Hickson was tiring. (Understandably, as she was in her 80s!) I’d recommend starting with one of the early Marple novels, and leave this until you’re stuck somewhere on holiday. At least it will be thematic.

      Marple Ranking: 12th out of 14
    • 3/5
      Miss Marple is on holiday abroad when a murder takes place. In her usual gentle style she discovers who was responsible, and how. A bit convoluted in places, but mostly enjoyable.
    • 5/5
      Fantastic story. So simple and plainly laid out, yet keeps one guessing on who the culprit is.

      Also, an absolutely magnificent performance by Ms. Fox. Each character was voiced differently and consistently. I initially thought that multiple voice actors were employed! Later found that there was only Ms. Fox who was credited.

      It was an absolute delight to listen to this book and this performance!
    • 2/5
      Thank heavens that Major Palgrave dies in the second chapter. It would have been unbearable to listen to Emilia Fox yelling any more of his lines. She does Marple very nicely but struggles to remember the absolutely awful accents and breathy tones she gives everyone else. Why oh why do they hire people like this? A huge disservice to one of Christy's lesser books. I remember enjoying it on the page 20 years ago whereas this audiobook drove me mad highlighting its needless repetitions.
    • 5/5
      Loved this mystery, I think it's my favourite by the Queen of Crime. and I loved Emilia Fox's performance!
    • 4/5
      Miss Marple is in the Caribbean for a rest paid for by her nephew, Raymond West. Her respite is suddenly interrupted by the death of Major Palgrave, one of her fellow guests at the hotel. Convinced that the major's death was not at all natural, she begins to ask difficult questions which leads to her solving this whodunit. I always find her stories having clever plots with interesting characters and this one was no different. I especially loved this book because of the setting of the West Indies' fictitious Island of St. Honore. It is a pleasant change of scenery for the traditional Miss Marple small English village story. Kept me guessing until the very end. I look forward to reading another one of her classic mysteries in the near future. I highly recommend her books to those who love light mystery reads.
    • 5/5
      Amelia Fox prob one of the best character readers there are
    • 3/5
      Miss Marple was in her vacation day, staying in a hotel in West Indies. Many different people came there to enjoy the sun, the beach, birds, foods, dance, etc. Kendals spouse run the hotel, the wife was a little bit unwell, feeling uncertain and afraid of being followed. A Latin lady with her gigolos. Two English spouses who like to observe and research birds and plants – love affair. An old millionaire – Mr. Rafiel – with his secretary and his odd massager. And old Major Palgrave – who always bored people with his hunting adventure stories in Kenya - and also about murders done by one person who never being accused for that actions. Major Palgrave said he had a portrait of a killer, and in that exotic island, he found the face of the murder same with the portrait he kept. Thus, Major Palgrave should be silenced. Miss Marple did know that a murder had been planned, the old Major Palgrave death was nothing, but the real one was going to happen in short of time!
    • 3/5
      Audio book performed by Rosalind Ayres2.5**Miss Marple’s nephew has sent her on a holiday to the West Indies. The resort is lovely and she meets an interesting group of guests. But when one of the guests dies in his sleep, apparently of natural causes, she is suspicious. Major Palgrave had, earlier in the evening, been telling Miss Marple several stories, including one involving a murderer. But he had abruptly ended his story when other guests drew near, and Miss Marple is sure he had recognized someone. As she gathers facts she finds there are several people with secrets they do not want revealed, including affairs, tendencies to snoop, and suspicious deaths in their families.The plot is entertaining, but somewhat predictable. Maybe I’ve just read too many Christie novels recently. Ayers does a very fine job narrating.
    • 5/5
      Brilliant, Marple at her best. Narration was excellent by Emilia Fox.
    • 3/5
      Pretty good story. I guessed the murderer early, but was made to doubt myself by Miss Marple forgetting something that had happened.

      There is a lot of racist, not to mention sexist, stuff in here. It is of its time.
    • 4/5
      Miss Marple is enjoying a holiday in the Caribbean when the death of a retired military man who was staying at the same hotel strikes her as somewhat suspicious. And then there's a (second) murder and things get even more interesting.
      Again, lots of characters, lots of possible murderers, all with their own motives. But Miss Marple sorts it all out, and just in time.
    • 3/5
      The full cast audio recordings the BBC releases of these stories are the best.
    • 4/5
      In this classic Miss Marple mystery, Miss Marple is sent by her nephew during the cold weather at home to a Caribbean island to rest and recover from a respiratory illness. While there she gets involved in solving the murder of one of the other guests.

      Miss Marple is amazing in her ability to see the hidden specifics of a situation and her ability to put together the clues to solve the mystery. I especially enjoyed the fact that after reading this book I realized that I didn't miss the technological advances of the past 50 years - no cellphones, no computers, no DNA, just common sense and an eye for details.
    • 2/5
      Perhaps this wasn't the best Agatha Christie book to read first. It was slow moving and dull. The mystery centers more on gossip than anything really happening in the story.
    • 4/5
      Miss Marple's nephew has kindly sent her to the Caribbean for a comfortable stay at resort. While Miss Marple isn't quite sure how she feels about the unvarying weather (how is one to start a conversation without the English weather to rely upon as a topic?), when one of the the other guests is found dead Miss Marple finds that her ability to understand personalities and motives works no matter where she is.

      Regardless of where she is, spending time with Miss Marple is a reliably enjoyable experience. Even as she gets older and the definition of what's socially acceptable changes, she remains so sharp and never truly adrift. There are a couple moments of racism towards the locals, which are uncomfortable for a modern reader, but otherwise the novel holds up really well. A solid outing for the series.
    • 4/5
      It's a hot, sultry summer in Arizona, and we eagerly watch the skies for hints of gathering monsoon clouds. This felt like the perfect atmosphere to pick up a mystery, and on a whim, I decided to revisit one of my stand-by favorites: Agatha Christie. It's been several years since I last read a Christie mystery, but she was the first adult mystery writer that I discovered, the one that made me fall in love with the genre, and I will always have a fond, nostalgic spot in my memories for these mysteries. Fortunately, I did not read even close to all of her books when I was younger, which means I can dive back in and read new Christie stories as the mood demands.

      Did A Caribbean Mystery live up to my expectations? It did! I had a lot of fun reading this, and polished it off in a couple of days.
    • 3/5
      This was a good beach read.
    • 4/5
      Synopsis: 'This story takes place at the Golden Palm resort on the Caribbean island of St Honoré. Miss Marple's nephew has paid for her to holiday there after a bout of ill health. She speaks with Major Palgrave, a well-travelled man with many stories to share. She sits, half listening, until Palgrave tells a story about a man who got away with murder more than once. When Palgrave asks her if she wants to see a picture of a murderer, she listens intently - but after he look in his wallet for the photo, he suddenly changes the subject. Miss Marple looks up to see why and spots several people nearby. Tim was planning to kill his wife and so had to kill Major Palgrave when he recognised him. He also killed Victoria, who remembered the Serenite. Tim put belladonna in Molly's cosmetics to make her appear mad to the others. Tim had asked his wife to meet him by the creek, but Molly had been distracted by a vision due to the belladonna and wandered off. Tim saw Lucky and mistook her for Molly. He was about to poison Molly when Miss Marple came in.'
      Review: Really interesting story with lots of red herrings.
    • 4/5
      This Miss Marple mystery was quite different from the usual, mostly because of the new setting. Jane’s nephew sends her to the Caribbean to help her recover after a bout of illness. Naturally, there is murder!

      Aside from not being set in England, the story is unique because Miss Marple does not have her usual retinue of supporters – Craddock, Dr. Haydock, or even local police who know of her exploits. Here, she is just a little old lady on holiday, so there is no reason for anyone to believe her suspicions. Plus, much of the story is told from her POV, which I particularly enjoyed.

      Major Palgrave dies the day after telling Jane a story about a serial wife killer and that he even has a snapshot of a murderer! The local doctor believes it was his heart, owing to the medication found in his room. When one of the maids says that it was never there before, he begins to doubt. Of course, Miss Marple was already on the case. Without her usual cast, Miss Marple enlists the aid of Mr. Rafiel – a rude, but sharp old man who helps her work through events.

      I figured out the culprit about halfway through, despite some red herrings, but it didn’t diminish my enjoyment of the book. It was nice to see Jane out of her element and having to contend with circumstances outside of the actual murder. Overall, a solid installment in the Miss Marple series.
    • 4/5
      Miss Marple on Vacation
      Jane Marple goes to the Caribbean Islands on vacation, where sunny days, gossip and funny dinners in good companies happens. Unfortunately (or fortunately!?) murders also happens. So there goes Miss Marple, a little bit slow in the beginning but in full display of her wisdom as the plot advances. In this story, Marple is presenting since the beginning, giving the reader the basics insights about the characters. Discover the murder isn't an easy task (for me is always seems impossible) but Miss Marple delivers. An entertaining book!
    • 4/5
      I'm not normally a Miss Marple fan, but I really liked this one. Normally Miss Marple is too passive a detective for my liking, but she really showed spunk in this one. They mystery was decent and interesting and I really liked the background characters. Emilia Fox did a great job narrating this audiobook. I'm going to have to pay attention to the narrators for Miss Marple books. I'd listen to another one narrated by her because I think she gives life to Miss Marple.
    • 3/5
      Vacation reading!

      Indeed, I read the whole thing on a plane en route from the Caribbean.

      Here, Christie's well-beloved elderly sleuth, Miss Marple, is visiting a resort on Trinidad. When one of her fellow vacationers passes away, everyone, including the doctor, assumes that it was the man's high blood pressure and unhealthy lifestyle finally catching up with him.

      Miss Marple, however, is suspicious. Something about this affair doesn't sit quite well with her, and she starts poking her nose into things. At first, clues seem to point to an obvious culprit - but the more Marple (and the reader) learns, the more questionable nearly every single character starts to appear...

      It's a quick read, and as expected for Christie, well-crafted.

      I think the book could've been improved, however, by the inclusion of some more well-rounded Trinidadian characters (or even more depth to any of the 'foreign' visitors to the resort).


      I was also bothered by the loose end left dangling regarding the OTHER murderer that's revealed. It makes a good red herring, yes... but Marple and everyone else just seems to say, 'well, never mind about THAT crime, it was in the past...'
    • 4/5
      I liked this, actually.... The clues were right there in the open, with a few Red Herrings, one of a second murderer on the island.
      Tim & Molly have recently purchased an island retreat from an older well liked & respected couple..... Miss Marple is there on vacation, a gift from her nephew..... She is listening to the old braggart Major Palgrave, reliving his past heroics & telling Miss Marple in a quite loud voice of a murderer he has come cross..... As he begins to show Miss Marple the photo, he suddenly startles and blanches....
      Later Major Palgrave is found murdered by overdose of blood pressure medicine.... But the Major did not suffer from any type of illness, so Miss Marple begins to investigate....
      Meanwhile, Molly seems to be having blackouts & sever depression, leading to an attempt of suicide....... Then another murder takes place, a woman who looks very much Like Molly....
      Interesting, the characters were interesting, especially the rich old man who takes a keen interest in Miss Marple when he learns how deceiving her looks are....
      No slurs against Italians only Black people! My, my, my aren't we progressive......
    • 4/5
      Always love Miss Marple books
    • 3/5
      Interesting insofar as it paves the way for a future book, Nemesis, but really apart from that it's a poor novel. Marple really isn't at her sharpest and needs a lot of help to carry out the investigation, the setting is extravagant for her, the characters are very forgettable and the conclusion's rushed. Not a favourite.
    • 5/5
      This novel set in the late 1950s?? reflects how much things have changed in Britain since the Second World War. Not only are people travelling again, with even Miss Marple taking an overseas holiday, but young Brits are investing overseas (the Kendals have bought a boutique hotel) and business men like Mr Rafiel can conduct their businesses by telegram. [The author has been to the West Indies].

      There is also some reflection on Britain's past as a leader of an Empire, as Major Palgrave refers to his experiences in both Africa and India.

      By today's standards this is also a short novel. One of the themes is the community rumopur mill. For example who was it that first said that Major Palgrave had blood pressure problems? Nobody can remember but everybody automatically thought of it when he was found dead. Another issue Miss Marple thinks about is how much we accept what people say either about themselves or those whom they are associated with. In a village like St. Mary Mead you actually know a person's history, but when you are on holiday you accept what fellow holiday makers says about themselves at face value because you have no means of checking it. So how much of what you learn is the truth?

      Just as in the Hercule Poirot novels Agatha Christie began to introduce characters that he could confide in or test his ideas on, so she does the same thing in the Miss Marple novels. In St. Mary Mead Jane Marple uses someone she knows well, her friend Dolly, or the doctor, but in this novel she must assess which of her fellow holidaymakers is best. The doctor is inclined to treat her with some suspicion, the Canon's sister doesn't really have the depth of understanding, and so she uses an elderly man, Jason Rafiel, who is an invalid. Their's is an interesting relationship, after he comes to recognise Miss Marple's deductive powers.