If you’ve got access to the audiobook of this one, it’s read by Richard E Grant, who’s narrated a handful of the Miss Marple books because of his role in the BBC production of The Moving Finger. He’s not the familiar voice of Hugh Fraser, but he adds his own specific wonderful touches.
This is a fun mystery novel because of the dumb and funny curiosity of the potential murder scene. Obviously, the grains of rye in the pocket of the murder victim Mr Rex is our clue along with the title of the novel, but it’s so oblique to the characters and investigators it’s almost hilarious.
They literally have to call on Miss Marple to remind them a nursery rhyme exists and she does. That’s her job.
One of the things I like about Miss Marple, especially in comparison to Poirot, as her job is not to be an investigator, is the kind of ancillary role she plays in her novels. In some cases, especially Murder in the Vicarage, she’s an annoying niggling presence who keeps them all honest. But often her job is to nudge the investigation in important ways, more so than to simply solve it. That’s not to say that she doesn’t often solve the case, but her little connections to each case don’t always center on that. I imagine she’s quite fun to write in that way, figuring out how to specifically include her into the narrative, a narrative that isn’t her “baby” as it were.
(Photo: https://www.amazon.com/Pocket-Full-Rye-Mystery-Mysteries/dp/0062073656/ref=sr_1_1?keywords=pocketful+of+rye&qid=1565730554&s=books&sr=1-1)
