It had been a gruesome kind of day for me, the 8th of the 8th at 8:00 am. I had to get my crown recapped, and made sure I had a treat waiting for me when I got back. This was Marple, twelve new stories, twelve great writers, one Agatha Christie.
Step one in the procedure was getting rid of the gold crown that must have been sitting there for at least 30 years. A horror story in itself. The dentist is a lovely guy who I go to because he can handle people who are afraid of dentists. Michael is his name.
First, it was just the dental assistant. “Oh, the dentist will be in shortly, I will do the prep,” the prep being the creation of a mould for the emergency crown. All this went down very civilised and a whole lot effortlessly than the original affair.
The dentist came in, and Michael gave me the anaesthetics advising me to keep my eyes shut. I did. Then he used a kind of hammer drill to “quickly flick out the gold crown”. And was it quick? No, sirrie. It took… over an hour. Over half an hour of hammering, and then 30 minutes of sawing with the drill into four neat quarters.
“My compliments to your old dentist in The Hague.”
The assistant, I never got her name, stood on the other side of the chair where I lay in a reclined but still comfortable position feeling anything but senang, did her best to vacuum up all the fluids but alas I still needed a breather and a swallow every now and then, which I requested by lifting up my left hand, and the dentist always stopped and reassured me that was totally OK.
The ultimate sleuth
If anyone at this stage is wondering about my age, it is 62, so of the generation who grew up with Miss Marple, the ultimate sleuth as far as I am concerned. Well, maybe with the exception of Cormoran and Robin. The new Marple collection was waiting for me at home when I finally got back, about three hours later. After a well-deserved snooze, I dug into the first story.
Evil in small places by Lucy Foley
I’d heard of Lucy Foley and had put The Guest List on my tbr. It was totally what the doctor ordered. I don’t like to give anything away, but the story is told so cleverly and in the old Miss Marple circumstances. Of course, there’s a murder and naturally, Miss Marple helps the local police solve the case, but there’s more, the language is just right, very rich and poignant, Miss Marple sees everything without saying very much and when the culprit is found, it is of course the least suspected. Brilliant!
The second murder at the vintage by Val McDermid
Different style, same Miss Marple putting her nose in at her local St Mary’s Mead’s, a deliciously curious vicars wife. Agatha Christie’s first book with the so-called ditsy Miss Marple was The murder at the vicarage, so nice play with the title. In this follow-up we have two bodies, one murderer and Miss Marple who gives the vicar clues as to those she is looking at, but as always until Miss Marple gathers her little flock to explain who did it and how he found out, most of us are also in the dark.
November
I am not going to go through all the stories. It is November now, and my permanent crown was finally set four weeks after I started this post. It was drama, the permanent crown got lost, my gum got infected, I changed dentist. But, Miss Marple got me through it.
What I will give away is that I was excited to see Jean Kwok, who also lives in the Netherlands, as one of the authors, and her story set on a cruise ship was excellent. And if in the meantime you feel like curling up on the sofa, and reading a good book, why not try Marple. I highly recommend it.
Another deal for you
And while you are at it, why not check out these temporarily highly discounted books? My Name is Wilma is among the 31 books on offer.
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