Agatha Christie really is the master - she understands perfectly how to set the scene, clues, red herrings and the characters. She always introduces shades of grey: sometimes people do the wrong things for right reasons, sometimes they are foolish and good-hearted. The backdrop is the sleepy village of St Mary Meade and the pre-war English upper and middle class society where letters and visitations and dinners and servants are common and jobs not so much. I can't tell if it's nostalgia that makes this so appealing to me, but the characters work, the plot works - and in the centre is the gentle and adorably nosy Miss Marple who not only is probably the most intelligent person in the village but also a great judge of character and human nature. A lot of this is very cliched by now - fumbling police detective, multitude of secrets that don't really matter, presentation of hints and clues and the neat conclusion that ties it up in the end. But this is where it started, and it's really hard to find anyone who rivals it. For the audiobook - Richard E Grant is simply divine, couldn't ask for more.