Christie, Agatha - A Pocket Full of Rye (1953)

Review by Nick Fuller

4/5

Well may the reader of this rather Grand Guignol tale narrated in Christie's admirably smooth style agree with the capable Inspector Neele that the vividly drawn Fortescue family of Yewtree Lodge (none of whom have "any scruples ... but plenty of money") are "all very unpleasant people," easily capable of poisoning the syphilitic Rex with the unusual taxine (from yew-berries) and his much younger wife with cyanide, and strangling the unfortunate maid, clipping a clothes-peg on her nose. Although Miss Marple does little but talk, she it is who recognises the (admittedly contrived) significance of the nursery rhyme and of blackbirds, either as practical joke or as the Blackbird mine (a classic example of Christie's favourite trick of disguising a principal clue as a red herring); and, despite the admirable juggling with motives and opportunity carefully calculated to send the reader haring down the wrong path, finds the genuinely surprising solution: although much relies on the stupidity of a certain character, that stupidity is evident in the text. The only question that remains: why didn't Rex Fortescue find the rye in his pocket?