A Caribbean Mystery - Agatha Christie

I ordered the Legami Book Lovers calendar 2024 in the beginning of the year. I hadn't read any of the monthly books but I kept my eye on Agatha Christies A Caribbean Mystery at my local library. I didn't think of reserving it as it was always just there, waiting to be read. August came around and Miss Marple was on the list, ACarribean Mystery was on the list. When I went to borrow the book it was borrowed so I made a reservation. Yesterday i finished the book. It was an easy yet complex read, it was my first Agatha Christie.  I'm going to share some quotes from it and discuss it now:

"The place looked like an earthly paradise. With its sunshine, its sea, its coral reef, its music, its dancing, it seemed a Garden of Eden. But even in the Garden of Eden, there had been a shadow of the Serpent- Bad things - how hateful to hear those words." (p.76)

That's essentially the thrill of the Caribbeans I think, the lure of the exotic palm trees and tropical heat. A place so perfect it's seems an incomprehensible enigma that evil should exist there. This week I talked with a Ghanian friend and we agreed that there's truly no place on earth that isn't corrupt. Hence we wait on Jesus. I'm not sure if Christie is a Christian but she refers to the Bible a lot, at least in this book. Her style is simple, it feels like a book for adolescents only the topics are far too brutal. Major Palgrave's murder begins the mystery on the tropical island. Quickly unravelling to a chain of murdered wives. 

"They've both worked like blacks, though that's an odd term to use out here, for blacks don't work themselves to death at all, so far as I can see. Was looking at a fellow shinning up a coconut tree to get his breakfast, then he goes to sleep for the rest of the day. Nice life" Mr. Rafiel said (a rich millionaire Caucasian crippled gentleman) and continuing on "I've been wrong about her. Never been much of a one for the old pussies. All knitting wool and tittle-tattle. But this one's got something. Eyes and ears, and she uses them". So Mr. Rafiel went on dissing both blacks and old ladies and females in general without so much as catching his breath. 

There's something that deeply connects the colonial issue or rather the post-colonial state of human lives and governance with the ongoing repression of women, like two sides of the same coin. This past weekend I also sat with my cup of tea wondering, what is it that makes many African born parents so strict and unfeeling towards their kids, both true for mothers and fathers. The humanity of children, their emotional and individual lives are not so significant in the eyes of the parents generally. Caring for ones child emotionally and seeing him or her as an individual is beyond what many parents grasped in post-war Finland too in 1950's. It seems that both these phenomena has something to do with cultural trauma. Anyway, I get sidetracked.

"Such a pity, said Miss Marple, shaking her head 'because really a young girl needs her mother's knowledge of the world and experience." Agatha has a profound understanding of the world and the workings thereof "One does need so much tact when dealing with the young" p. 201

What is the story really about? At the end of it, and having digested the book plus one day, I'd say it's not even really about the mystery, the mystery is like an annoying fly buzzing around, puzzling me, I wanted to solve it, yet it seemed Agatha was telling me something more. 

While on the beach side The Canon and his sister sat talking with Miss Marple. The Canon admonished his sister "We've always set our faces against that kind of thing. See no evil hear no evil speak no evil- and what is more, think no evil" That should be the motto of every Christian man and woman" Miss Prescott was rebuked by her brother because, as Miss Marple explained to the reader "Joan Prescott, an acid streak in her, but a very nice woman, and nice women had to have their gossipy distractions...There was no harm in such women. Their tongues wagged but they were kind if you were in misfortune" p. 256. I think it would be too much to assume that Miss Marple essentially talks about bitches (as in dogs) the intention was not to belittle but to describe another paradigm, a place where women communicate with each other in a way that men don't understand. Miss Marple, the old protagonist is a female, an old English lady clothed in a pink woolen shawl urging Mr. Rafiel to call her his nemesis. She takes her place in the story, yet to everybody she is something other than she really is. The old lady is not the embodiment of a mystery detective, yet she solves the mystery, that's her job. 

Agatha Christie tells a story of a wife killer, and critiques the fact that the murderer wouldn't have been caught if the case had been left to the police alone since dead wives where only "dead wives". She skillfully weaves meaning into how women communicate and are, existing within and without the parameters of men The world of women that only women understand and yet how fragile and exposed young women are growing up even in a cruel paradise. 

I much pondered about my frequent book trips to the Caribbeans and I much appreciated everything I've learned. I appreciated Christies way of telling me things between the lines in how she arranged the story, it was a nice kind of style which I might return to. I'm already on to the next book as I leave St. Honoré behind, and onto new worlds and adventures. On my way I'm making a pitstop in Gilead. Bon Voyage to me. Goodreads tells me that if I keep reading one and a half book per week for the remaining of this year then God willing I'll read 53 books before December ends, that's reassuring, i might just reach my goal.