Strange Jest and Other Stories

First released on cassette tape in 1993, these archive recordings of six short stories from the book Miss Marple’s Final Cases feature Joan Hickson as Agatha Christie’s Miss Marple.

First, the mystery man in the church with a bullet-wound… then, the riddle of a dead man’s buried treasure… the curious conduct of a caretaker after a fatal riding accident… the corpse and a tape-measure… the girl framed for theft… and the suspect accused of stabbing his wife with a dagger.

Recorded thirty years ago after the BBC finished filming the series Miss Marple, these final short stories were read by Joan Hickson when she was nearly 87 years old and capture the warmth and nostalgia of a bygone age.

Due to the archival nature of these recordings, the quality may vary. Newer recordings of Miss Marple’s Final Cases, read by Juliet Stevenson, are also available.

About the author

Agatha Christie was born in Torquay in 1890 and became, quite simply, the best-selling novelist in history. Her first novel, The Mysterious Affair at Styles, written towards the end of the First World War, introduced us to Hercule Poirot, who was to become the most popular detective in crime fiction since Sherlock Holmes. She is known throughout the world as the Queen of Crime. Her books have sold over a billion copies in the English language and another billion in over 100 foreign languages. She is the author of 80 crime novels and short story collections, 19 plays, and six novels under the name of Mary Westmacott