While visiting Tommy’s Aunt Ada at Sunny Ridge Nursing Home, Tuppence encounters some odd residents including Mrs. Lancaster who mystifies her with talk about “your poor child” and “something behind the fireplace”.
MY REVIEW
One of the darker Christie’s I have read and I’ve read my fair share so far (though it’s a drop in the ocean with the amount in her catalog). I hadn’t read much of Tommy and Tuppence other than some short stories so this was fun. It was even more fun because they were quite older than when I had first encountered her.
After a quite frankly unsettling conversation that Tuppence has with a Mrs. Lancaster at the retirement home Tommy’s Aunt lives, things take on an even more mysterious turn. Aunt Ada passes away but it appears Mrs. Lancaster has simply vanished after being pulled out of the home by family.
Tuppence is left to her own devices while Tommy is on a work related outing of his own and she starts to pick at the threads of this all; unwilling to let the location of Mrs. Lancaster go unanswered, especially with the chilling comments about the child. So she sets off using the quick sharp thinking she’d used during the War and we’re led on a fantastic adventure.
I’m a huge fan of Christie’s writing style so this is alllll biased. I gave this five though because I truly liked that darker edge -not that all her works are happy and light, far from it- but there was something in this that reminded me of The Halloween Party, daring to cross a line where death and children are concerned (though not in great detail for those who are worried about that). Tuppence is great, and I liked the callbacks to Tommy and _____.
Of course what’s a mystery without a few twists, turns, and misadventures. So when Tuppence runs into some danger, it just added to the speed of me reading it lol, I needed answers and needed them ASAP.
So, 5/5 on the book with a lot of me fan girling. Onto the film!
This was turned into a Miss Marple with Tommy and Tuppence, a sort of Christie-verse team up. There is another film rather than a Miss Marple episode, but I didn’t hear great things about it and I like the Miss Marple series so I thought why not.
They’ve kept faithfully to the book in quite a few ways at the start, I was surprised. I mean there were going to be some major liberties taken with it including Miss Marple but I almost enjoyed that more because it was mostly just Tuppence on her own in the book, it was nice that she had a partner. Though they sort of relegated her to a ditzier/naive and helpless character which was a shame. She was smart and liked to run with her theories but not helpless, they decided Miss Marple was smart enough for the both of them. That and Tommy was a bit of a gas bag to say the least. He felt more supportive -even if exasperated- in the book. But because Tuppence lost her sharp mind and interesting background from the books, he just treated her like an incompetent adult. Though she was starting to really get into the spirit of the sleuthing which I was a big fan of; seeing her get some confidence and such.
The story itself was pretty much watered down too on the darkness and I expected it to have some differences but I was hoping they’d keep the same sort of dark vein of it all. That being said I did enjoy most of the characters in this.
I would say this was even a weak episode/film compared to other Miss Marple episodes and stories too so this was not a win for me but it wasn’t bad, still enjoyable enough just…lacking.
So! 2.5 Cups of Coffee just for some enjoyable teaming up of Miss Marple and Tuppence but that’s about it for *me.*
The Differences:
- A Tommy and Tuppence mystery with Tuppence mostly going solo in the book.
- A Miss Marple teaming up with Tuppence mystery in the show
- Tuppence has no spying/sleuthing background in the show, just a housewife (and alcoholic)
- Tuppence was a force to be reckoned with in the book
- Tommy more of a team player and partner to Tuppence in the book
- Darker mystery in the book
- Lots of different -and fun- characters in the show mixed with the book ones
- The house from the painting was definitely a different take in the show
- There’s a lack of thrill and urgency in the show it felt much more like a sort of meandering pacing. It doesn’t need to be intense but it felt like it was lacking a direction it was so slow compared to the book.
Final Verdict
The book, hands down, won this round!
The Caffeinated Reader 
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