Sleeping Murder by Agatha Christie (Oct. 1976)

Can something from your past if sparked draw you to the present and future events? Can you repeat something from your past that you don't remember or even have recollection of? Sometimes we feel we are drawn to something for a reason, fate, destiny etc. Whatever you choose to believe if this is possible, it certainly has this effect on the main character in this short murder mystery by Agatha Christie featuring Miss Jane Marple.

We are introduced to a newlywed couple searching for their dream home on the coast of England, Gwenda Reed and her husband Giles. She is drawn to a home on the hillside as they are driving through the coast line and she insists on stopping to see if they can go inside. Upon entering the home Gwenda feels immediately at home and wants move in right away. She has a strange case of déjà vu when heading down the stairs regarding a death in the home. But she has never lived in England before, she was raised in New Zealand by close family as her father died when she was very young.

The couple does buy the home even with the strange circumstances that took place when first seeing the place. Giles has business that he tends to in town for several days, leaving Gwenda with the staff to work on renovations. During which time she has several more strange moments of thinking doors were in one place but is just a wall or even familiar wallpaper. She feels uneasy about these events and decides to join her husband in town. While there they meet with relatives and they meet the wonderful sweet Miss Marple.

While together they attend a theater performance of The Duchess of Malfi and a line that a man speaks, "Cover her face; mine eyes dazzle; she died young" Gwenda gives off a blood curdling scream that startles most of the viewers. After resting a while and still feeling uneasy, Miss Marple comes to talk and calm Gwenda. She tells her of the events since they have been in their new home and thinks that she is going insane. She does not know how on earth she knows how she knows things or even why she saw the dead body at the foot of the stairs, which she now calls the woman Helen, but she has no memory of anyone by that name before in her life. Miss Marple tries to reason with Gwenda and simply explains if that is indeed all true, then Gwenda has been in England and in this home before but she would have been too young to remember.

Gwenda writes to her close aunt to see if she remembers anything if she had in fact lived in England at any point growing up. Turns out that she had for a few years when she was very little with her father and step-mother Helen. Before marrying Gwenda's father, Helen's maiden name was Kennedy. To try and find out more about her step-mother and try to get in contact with her, Gwenda and Giles place and advertisement in the local paper. They get a response from a Dr. Kennedy which is Helen's brother. After speaking with him he thinks that Helen met someone else and left Gwenda's father and ran away and he hasn't heard from her ever since.

From the advertisement they connect with old flames of Helen's to see if they knew of her and where she was. But most were not that helpful and they came up empty handed. After talking with Dr. Kennedy more they discover that Gwenda's father was locked up in a mental ward for the last few months of his life and that he believed that he had indeed killed his wife. This makes Gwenda quite sad but has the urge to know if her father really did kill her step-mother. Her and Giles go to the mental ward and recover her father's journal which proved that he was quite sane but he doesn't remember killing Helen, but he remembers seeing her body so he believed that he murdered her.

A woman in the area sees the advertisement that the couple wrote and she thought she might have some information for them in regards to Helen. So they schedule a time to have her meet them at Dr. Kennedy's house. Unfortunately when waiting for her to arrive, they receive a call from the police that she had been murdered in route coming to see them.

From this event Miss Marple advises Gwenda to tell the police what they know about everything evolving around Helen to see if there is any connection between to the two murder's. Shortly after this Gwenda is home alone in the house and hears a noise downstairs and decides to find out go investigate. Upon coming to top of the stairs she comes to encounter another déjà vu moment that helps her find out the truth about her step-mother Helen and her childhood.

To this day this is one of my favorite books to read. It may be short but Christie develops an emotional connection between the reader and the main character Gwenda. Which Christie does this with most of her writings. But this gives a connection that make the reader want to learn along with Gwenda to solve the mystery on who Helen is and how Gwenda has so many memories and recollections being in this house. Not only do I find this book appealing to read, but there are some amazing adaptations that I highly recommend. I was never really into radio drama's before finding one that depicts this book. You can find it on YouTube they do an amazing job from the voices to the background audio. If you don't have time to read or unable to but can listen, the radio drama is great way to hear this book and still feel just as invested from reading and creating an image in your mind. I would also recommend the television adaptation produced by BBC in the 1980's featuring Joan Hickson as Miss Marple. I can read the book in the amount of time that I can watch this episode. This also has a wonderful cast and great audio. It is a tad slow in some parts but keeps you intrigued to find out what will happen next.

This book definitely falls into classic murder mystery for me. It may be the last case that Christie wrote for Miss Marple but this is still one of her most strongest cases.

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