The May prompt for the Read Christie 2021 Challenge is ‘a story featuring tea’. I would have had no idea which Christie novels fit that theme, but as ever the challenge hosts provided a list of suggestions and this one, A Pocket Full of Rye, turned out to be perfect.
First published in 1953, the novel opens with London businessman Rex Fortescue being served his morning tea in his office by his secretary. When Fortescue dies in hospital shortly afterwards and the cause of death is said to be taxine, a poison found in yew trees, the tea is naturally blamed. However, the autopsy suggests that the poisoning must have actually taken place earlier that morning, while Fortescue was eating breakfast at his home, Yew Tree Lodge. This widens the circle of potential suspects to include his wife, his three children and their spouses, and an assortment of servants. Inspector Neele is brought in to lead the investigation, but his only real clue is a handful of rye found in Fortescue’s pocket.
Neele believes he is close to identifying the culprit, but a second murder forces him to think again. It is only when Miss Marple arrives at Yew Tree Lodge, having read about the murders in the newspaper, that a connection is spotted with the popular children’s rhyme, “Sing a song of sixpence, a pocket full of rye”. Inspector Neele may be a clever man with a sharp mind, but it will take Miss Marple’s knowledge of Mother Goose, blackbirds and human nature to solve this particular mystery.
I usually seem to prefer Christie’s Poirot novels to her Miss Marple ones, but I really enjoyed this book; it’s one of my favourite Marples so far, along with A Murder is Announced. I loved the nursery rhyme element – although it’s maybe not all that relevant to the overall solving of the mystery, it does add some fun to the plot. I can’t say that I loved the characters, but as Neele himself describes them as “all very unpleasant people”, we’re obviously not supposed to – and the fact that they are so unpleasant means that there are plenty of suspects. For once, I did correctly identify who was behind the murders, but I think it was really just a lucky guess; I certainly didn’t work everything out and I needed Miss Marple to explain all the details for me. Sadly, though, we don’t spend a lot of time with her in this book. She doesn’t appear until almost halfway through and then we don’t see very much of her actually investigating the mystery…which makes it all the more impressive that she manages to solve it ahead of Inspector Neele!
I’m enjoying taking part in Read Christie this year. I’ve read five great books in the first five months and am looking forward to another one in June!
She Reads Novels 
I’ve been surprised a few times just how peripheral Miss Marple is in the narrative sometimes in these stories. I’m used to the detective being the central figure. ‘The Moving Finger’ is my next Maple read so it’ll be a while until I get to this one.
Yes, I’ve noticed that she often only has a small, though important, part to play. The Moving Finger is one I haven’t read yet – hope you enjoy it!
I like this Miss Marple mystery, too; and the nursery rhyme element is a lot of fun. 😀
I’m glad you like this one too. I’ve read a few other Christie novels with nursery rhyme themes and they are always fun!
What a brilliant prompt for a reading challenge!
Yes, the challenge hosts have been very creative with their prompts this year!
I saw a TV version of this but I don’t think I ever read it. Sounds good! I haven’t read any Christie in a while. Time to look for one.
I don’t think I’ve ever seen this one. The story didn’t seem familiar anyway!
It’ll be interesting to see how it differs from the TV version.
This has always been one of my favourites, so I’m very glad you enjoyed it! I love when Miss Marple gets angry over an injustice – she’s the only one who cares about poor Gladys…
I’m pleased to hear this is one of your favourites too. And yes, poor Gladys! I’m glad she had Miss Marple on her side.
I didn’t like this book as much as some of the other Miss Marple books – maybe because all the characters were so unpleasant. Also, it’s one of the few Christie books where I could correctly guess the killer.
Yes, I guessed the killer too, although I didn’t work out all the details. That’s unusual for me as I almost never manage to guess correctly! Sorry you didn’t like this one as much as I did.