Miss Marple as ghost hunter? Newlywed Gwenda Reed is trying to modernize the home she just purchased, but only manages to uncover its past. Then there's the irrational terror Gwenda feels whenever she climbs the stairs, and a bizarre sense that she witnessed a murder. First published in 1976, decades after it was written, Agatha Christie's swan song is a fitting tribute to the author and her sleuth, and this handsome new edition should be in everyone's mystery library. The star of a dozen novels and twenty short stories, the shrewd and curious Jane Marple was inspired by Agatha Christie's grandmother and her cronies in the leafy London suburb of Ealing. Miss Marple's independent mind and acute sense of human nature—not unlike Christie's own—have made her an enduring prototype in detective fiction.

"The quintessential amateur sleuth, using intellect and intuition to solve crimes. She is the sort of character that makes a cozy truly cozy."—Nevada Barr