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One Blow to the Head.
The Body in the Library
It's seven in the morning and the Bantrys wake to find the body of a young woman in their library. She is wearing evening dress and heavy make-up, which is now smeared across her cheeks. But who is she? How did she get there? And what is the connection with another dead girl, whose charred remains are later discovered in an abandoned quarry? The respectable Bantrys invite Marple to solve the mystery - before tongues start to wag.Year: 1942
Detective: Miss Marple
Location: England
Detective: Miss Marple
Location: England
Cast of characters
Jane Marple. Also: Colonel Arthur and Dolly Bantry, Mrs. Bartlett, George Bartlett, Basil Blake, Peter Carmody, Griselda and Leonard Clement, Sir Henry Clithering, Mark Gaskell, Superintendent Harper, Miss Hartnell, Dr. Haydock, Adelaide and Conway Jefferson, Ruby Keene, Dinah Lee, Hugh Maclean, Colonel Melchett, Dr. Metcalf, Constable Palk, Martha Price Ridley, Pamela Reeves, Inspector Slack, Raymond Starr, Josephine Turner, Caroline WetherbyPublishing history
Publishing: The novel was published in 1942 by William Collins Sons & Co. in London, and by Dodd, Mead & Co. in New York. TV: Adapted for TV in 1985 by the BBC, and also shown on PBS in the U.S. Remade in 2004 as part of ITV's new 'Marple' series, played by Geraldine McEwan.Notes and reviews
The novel contains many of the residents of St. Mary Mead who appeared in the first full-length Marple mystery, 'Murder At The Vicarage', published twelve years earlier. This book was written during WWII at the same time as 'N or M?'. She alternated between the two books to keep herself 'fresh at task'. The Body in the Library is also referred to in Cards on the Table , where it is accredited to the fictional character Mrs Ariadne Oliver.Murder methods:
One Strangling.One Blow to the Head.
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