The Sittaford Mystery

The Sittaford Mystery (the real Agatha Christie version).

Those of you who visit the site regularly will no doubt have seen my damning indictment of the television version starring Geraldine McEwan as Miss Marple. Yes I know Miss Marple does not actually feature in The Sittaford Mystery, but the producers of this load of codswallop obviously think they know better than Agatha Christie.

This even goes so far as to change the villain of the piece!! So if you were unfortunate enough to see the TV version, and have never read the Agatha Chrisite book, you still don’t know whodunit!

This is a really intriguing murder mystery that starts one evening when Sittaford is entirely cut off from the outside world by a heavy snowstorm.

To pass the time, several of the residents decide to hold a séance during which a message is spelled out indicating that Captain Trevelyan, the owner of Sittaford House who was temporarily resident in the nearby town of Exhampton, was dead.

Later it transpires that the Captain had in fact been murdered and the doctor confirms the time of death to have been just about the time that the ouija board spelled out the message, Co-incidence, or a plea for justice from beyond the grave?

The first time I read it I believe I finished it in two sizable chunks – I just couldn’t wait to discover the who, why and how of the story.

On rereading it, I discovered there to be at least two (what should have been) glaringly obvious clues. But as always, they are so cleverly woven into the fabric of the story by Dame Agatha that their significance escapes the readers’ notice.

This is Agatha Christie at her devious best. Even without the presence of Hercule Poirot or Miss Marple, this is a terrific read and I heartily recommend it to anyone who hasn’t yet come across it.

You can get hold of The Sittaford Mystery via the following links.

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