Sleeping Murder
by Agatha Christie is available to buy here.
Synopsis
Miss Marple
Marple
Although written many years earlier, this is the 12th and final Marple novel by Agatha Christie.
when to read
This is a great summer read with all the scenes of the English coast - ideally, read while sitting on a picnic blanked whilst visiting a pebbled beach somewhere in the south of England on a sunny day.
Murder Mystery
With only a select group of suspects this is a classic closed circle mystery to get you playing detective.
England - the coast
A
Publishing info
This novel was published in 1976 and is the only novel published posthumously. The novel published just prior was the final Poirot novel 'Curtain' in 1975 although also written many years earlier.
overall rating
On Screen
Watching Agatha Christie
Sleeping Murder by Agatha Christie was filmed as part of the ITV feature length episodes and although the final book in the Marple collection, it actually features early on in Season 2 episode 1 starring Geraldine McEwan as Miss Marple.
In 2001 June Whitfield voiced Miss Marple in the radio edition Audiobook and a more faithful TV adatpation compared to the ITV version was also filmed by the BBC as part of the Joan Hickson series in 1987 as episode 6.
To view the audiobook prices on Amazon, click here
Sleeping Murder Character List
| Alison Danby | Gwenda’s Aunt who brought her up in New Zealand |
| Beatrice | Eleanor Fane’s maid |
| Colonel Melrose | Mentioned as he had previously pointed Inspector Primer out to Miss Marple |
| Detective Inspector Primer | Investigating officer |
| Dr Haydock | Miss Marple’s doctor |
| Dr James Kennedy | Older half brother of Helen, a retired doctor |
| Dr Penrose | Worked at the nursing home where Major Halliday was committed to and later died at |
| Edith Pagett | Previous cook at the house in Dillmouth, St Catherine |
| Esther | Cook at Gossingdon Hall for the Bantry’s |
| Evelyn | Miss Marple’s Maid |
| Giles Reed | Gwenda’s husband |
| Gwenda Halliday Reed | Married to Giles and recently moved to England from New Zealand. Living at Hillside, previously called St Catherine |
| Helen Spenlove Halliday nee Kennedy | Major Kelvin’s second wife and half-sister of Dr Kennedy |
| Inspector Last | Policeman |
| Jackie Afflick | Coach tour owner married to Dorothy, a one-time friend of Helen Kennedy |
| Janet Erskine | Richard Erskine’s wife |
| Joan West | Raymond’s wife, a painter, cousin of Giles Reed |
| Leonie | Nurse at the Halliday household from Switzerland |
| Lily Abbott Kimble | Parlourmaid at the Halliday household |
| Major Kelvin Halliday | Gwenda’s father, now deceased, his first wife was Megan (Gwenda’s mother) later married to Helen after Megan died |
| Manning | Old gardener at the Halliday household |
| Megan Halliday | The first wife of Major Halliday and Gwenda’s mother |
| Mr Penderley | House agent at Galbraith & Penderley |
| Mrs Cocker | Cook for Gwenda and Giles |
| Raymond West | Miss Marple’s nephew, an author |
| Richard Erskine | A married man who fell in love with Helen after meeting her on a ship to India |
| Walter Fane | Jilted fiance of Helen who later became a solicitor in Dillmouth |
SPOILERS BELOW!
Helen Halliday (nee Kennedy)
Lily Kimble
Dr Kennedy
Dr Kennedy was obsessed with his half-sister and killed her to stop her moving away from him to live with her husband. He then killed Lily Kimble as he thought she was going to blackmail him and he needed to keep his secret.
Both women were strangled.
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