Agatha Christie Reviews

Although published in 1976, Christie wrote Sleeping Murder during World War II. It and Curtain were "safeguards", in case she happened to be killed during the attacks on London: there would still be a couple of "Agatha Christies" after peace was restored.

The setting is pre-war rural England, along the south coast. Recently-married New Zealander Gwenna Reed arrives to do some house-hunting while waiting for her husband Giles to finish up whatever it is he does (his actual job is never mentioned in the book).

She spots a charming house in Dillmouth, and quickly decides "this is home". Soon, however, Gwenna begins having odd experiences. First it's the door in the wall. Sure enough, a door, bricked over, is right in that spotwhere she thought it ought to be.

Then it's the back steps. She thinks they should be in a different location. And yes, they once were right where she felt they belonged. Finally, a closet is opened, and inside it's papered with wallpaper that she dimly recalled having seen somewhere before.

All that is creepy enough to send her to London, and stay with Raymond and Joan West. Fortunately, Miss Marple is staying with them, too. A good thing, because when they all attend a performance of The Duchess Of Malfi, Gwenna suddenly runs screaming from the theater.

The next day, Gwenna relates her odd experiences, and that the play suddenly brought back a memory of seeing a strangled woman, whose name she believes is Helen, lying on the floor of the drawing room in the Dillmouth house. Gwenna is ready to have herself certified as crazy.

Miss Marple, however, calmly suggests the most likely explanation: that Gwenna must have stayed in that house for at least a short time when she was very young. And so it turns out: Gwenna had lived there briefly at around the age of three. Which means it's also likely that a murder happened there as she recalled it.

She and Giles are hot to take up the trail of this eighteen-year-old murder, despite Aunt Jane's advice to "let sleeping murder lie". Not realizing all the implications, they go on anyway. Miss Marple, worried about them, gets Dr. Haydock to recommend a "stay at the seaside for her
health".

From there on, the book follows Giles and Gwenna on the one hand, and Miss Marple on the other, as they slowly work their ways back through time. First they discover that "Helen" was Gwenna's stepmother, who supposedly ran offwith another man.

She learns the truth about her father, committed to an asylum, thoroughly convinced he had strangled Helen during a "mental blackout". Later, hecommitted suicide.

Did he do it? Was it one of the other men in Helen's life? What happened to her body? Little by little, the real story comes out.

The book moves along at a breezy pace. Giles and Gwenna, with help from Miss Marple, have little trouble finding most of the important people(suspects) from long ago, or getting them to talk about Helen.

The unmasking of the real killer will likely not come as a surprise to experienced mystery readers. Sleeping Murder isn't one of Christie's substantial works.

I suspect it was written, not only as "insurance", but also to take her mind off real-world happenings. The rural setting, the absence of war, the retrospective nature of the crime (which she had done before in Murder In Retrospect, also a war book), show an unconscious yearning for earlier, happier times.

With that in mind, and realizing anyone would have a hard time concentrating with London being bombed to shreds, it may be only natural the book is somewhat lightweight.

However, it's always good to see Miss Marple in action, and even better to see her for once coming to the rescue on her own. If you need to while away a few hours, Sleeping Murder is a good choice.

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