Ken's Reviews > A Pocket Full of Rye

Christie's various attempts to incorporate Nursery Rhymes into her plots has a varied degree of success.
It actually seems quite fitting for a Miss Marple story that it works rather well.
Both the childish rhyme and the elderly spinster appearances are always deceiving!

It's of course Jane herself that connects the three murders to the song:
As London businessman Rex Fortescue dies in his office drinking tea.
(The king was in his counting house, Counting out his money.)
His wife then follows the same fate...
(The queen was in the the parlour,
Eating bread and honey.)
Whilst housemaid Gladys Martin is found strangled in the yard with a clothespin put on her nose.
(The maid was in the garden
Hanging out the clothes
When down came a blackbird
And pecked off her nose.)
It certainly perplexed both Inspector Neele and the reader.

Once Miss Marple was aware of her former trainee maid's demise, she was desperate to solve the mystery.
When Miss Marple is on the case you know things are serious.
Whilst our series main character only nominally appears in the story, she makes such an impact - in truth the family at the centre of this tale are pretty hard to like, though the enjoyment here is seeing how the rhyme seems to fit so perfectly to the case.

Yet again Christie certainly fooled me with another brilliant reveal.