Miss Marple first appeared in the novel The Murder at the Vicarage in 1930. She was then already rather old but nevertheless managed to lead a happy live on the pages of Christie's books until 1979 (Miss Marple's Final Cases). She is an English spinster and lives in the Englissh village of St. Mary Mead and is not a likely detective but always succeeds where the police have failed. Instead of using a magnifying glass looking for clues she uses her instinct and knowledge of human nature, or as Marple once said: "Human nature is the same everywhere." Agatha Christie wrote a dozen Miss Marple books, The Murder at the Vicarage, The Body in the Library, The Moving Finger, A Murder is Announced, They Do it with Mirrors, A Pocketful of Rye, 4.50 from Paddington, The Mirror Crack'd from Side to Side, A Caribbean Mystery, At Bertram's Hotel, Nemesis and Sleeping Murder. Agatha also wrote several short stories about Marple. Margaret Rutherford played Miss Marple in a few movies in the sixties but Joan Hickson is the most famous Miss Marple and has appeared in many TV series, but she has also played other roles in other Agatha Christie movies. Helen Hayes and Murder She Wrote's Angela Lansbury have also portrayed Marple. From my opinion those are the best book with Miss Marple
