Nemesis by Agatha Christie

Very well written, of course, and very interesting, but there are a couple of things in my mind.
Well, first, the book. Miss Marple is given a mission by Jason Rafiel, a  man she had known a year before and now dead, via his lawyers Broadribb & Schuster. He asks her to bring justice in a homocide case, without giving any more details. She accepts, and later finds that before dying he had planned everything. She goes on a trip that he had paid for her, then after two or three days they stop at Jocelyn St. Mary and she's approached by Lavinia Glynne, a woman living nearby . Mr Rafiel had asked her to have Miss Marple stay in her house, and of course Miss Marple accepts, considering it the logical next step to find out what Mr Rafiel wanted her to know. Lavinia lives with her two sisters, Anthea and Clotilde Bradbury-Scott. Miss Marple learns from ex-teacher Elizabeth Temple that a girl had died there, a few years ago. Verity Hunt was about to marry Michael Rafiel, Mr Rafiel's son, but they never did because she died. What was the cause? "Love" says Miss Temple "one of the most dangerous feelings". Later Miss Marple learns the whole story from the sisters' maid: Verity had lived there for some time, since her parents had died in an accident, and Miss Clotilde loved her very much. She was killed by Michael Rafiel, and Clotilde was never the same since the day she went to identify her body: her face had been beaten so to make it hard to recognize her. Then Miss Temple dies when someone moves a big rock so that it would fall on her. At the funeral Miss Marple speaks to an old priest, a friend of Miss Temple. He recalls Verity's story and remembers that she wanted to marry Michael, and that they both looked very much in love. Miss Marple also learns that at the same time another girl had disappeared, and her body had never been found. She understands the truth and reveals that Clotilde had killed Verity Hunt to avoid her leaving with Michael, she could not lose Verity, so she gave her some poison, or sleeping pills, or something, and then buried her in the garden. Clotilde had also killed Nora Broad, she had strangled her and then had ruined her face, so when she was found days later Clotilde could identify her as Verity. Clotilde had also killed Miss Temple to avoid her finding out the truth.
Now, things I like: how well it is written, the fact that Miss Marple thinks of the Bertram Hotel with a sigh :-) and that while chatting she tells her companion that once a friend of hers found the body of a girl in his library :lol:
I like when they remember other books, because after all if the characters are the same, they should keep it all in their memory...
The book also talks of Mr Rafiel and Miss Marple being allied in a case at the Caribbean, where they saved a life together. I don't remember about this, but I seem to remember there is a book with Miss Marple at the Caribbeans, I need to read it again.
Here it is said that Mr Rafiel's secretary, Esther Walters, in now married and happy as Mrs Anderson.
Elizabeth Temple mentions a friend they have in common: Henry Clithering: I don't remember this name, could it be the Lord Henry policeman that so admired Miss Marple?
Now, things I don't like: the fact that I got to the truth quite early, both the identity of the murderer and the garden burial, as well as the obsessive-love motive, but most of all the fact that, if you think about it, Miss Marple didn't do all that much..there's Miss Cook to consider! The woman she had seen at St Mary Mead with the name of Miss Bartlett, said to be a guest at Mrs Hastings' house. The two women were now Miss Marple's companions in her trip, but with the names Miss Cooke and Miss Barrow. Only at the end Miss Marple realizes that they're there to protect her, two private detectives, her two guardian angels paid by Mr Rafiel to watch over her :-) I loved that they were two women!
Anyway, it is Miss Cooke who prevents Miss Marple from drinking her cup of coffee, given to her by Clotilde. Miss Cooke insists, blinking her eye (or however it is said) to make her understand  that she means it, that it would really be better not to drink it. So what? Miss Cooke knew about Clotilde, then? It wasn't Miss Marple's big discovery after all?
Well, anyway it was a nice scene when the little old lady sat on the bed, at night, with her pink scarf, telling Clotilde that one of her names is Nemesis, and that she's not afraid that Clotilde might kill her too because she has two guardian angels...
A thing I totally did not like was how it was repeatedly said that Michael's rape charges were not to be taken too seriously because some girls ask for it than say that to their parents to come out clean, or something like that. I hated that, to generalize like that, that's a crime in itself, I hate talks like that.
I noted though that two men said those hideous words, a doctor and a lawyer, but a woman said that judges are too clement towards these crimes, too benevolent towards the boys and the possibility to ruin their reputation.
I hate these things because even nowadays I think this kind of violence is not considered as it should be. Things are slowly changing, but so slowly. It was once talked about as if it was little more than sex, but it's not, it's torture, and like that it should be treated. Torture, I say, and I stand by it.


ITA Miss Marple : nemesi