Miss Marple and Jim Stringer are out on a quiet fundraising circuit for The Reformed Criminals Assistance League when they pay a call on Old Enderby, a reclusive, very wealthy man who has spent years shunning the world. The visit ends in tragedy as Enderby tumbles down the long entrance staircase, a death initially ruled as a heart attack, leaving his family and hidden fears in a state of uneasy calm. Miss Marple senses something off the moment a cat appears in the house, an animal Enderby reportedly despised with a pathological fear, and a muddy boot print on the floor hints at a prank or an unseen visitor. Despite Inspector Craddock’s skepticism, the slippered clues begin to stack up, nudging the observer toward a more complicated conclusion than natural causes.
The atmosphere thickens when Enderby’s will is read and four heirs surface as potential beneficiaries: George Crossfield, the distant fourth cousin; Rosamund Shane, the younger niece; Hector Enderby, the nervous nephew; and [Cora Lansquenet] (the Enderbys’ sister). Each is promised an equal share, a condition that sharpens old resentments and new ambitions alike. Soon after, Cora is found dead, stabbed in the back with a hatpin, and Miss Milchrest, her longtime companion, becomes a quiet, evasive figure who may hold crucial, if reluctant, memories. The murder scene points to a web of motives and opportunities among Enderby’s kin, but Craddock’s questions return with the same unsatisfying answers, deepening Miss Marple’s resolve to uncover the truth.
Miss Marple alights at the Gallop Hotel, a temporary home for the cast of characters drawn into Enderby’s orbit, including Hector Enderby and Miss Milchrest, who are staying there along with the others and a quiet, unspoken fear that more complications lie just beneath the surface. As the days pass, the tension among the heirs tightens, and the group’s alibis begin to fray under careful scrutiny. The question becomes not only who killed Cora Lansquenet, but who had both the means and the motive to silence the two women who stood between a tempting inheritance and a hidden truth.
A new thread emerges when a muddy print is traced back to a riding boot belonging to the art dealer George Crossfield. Yet the case against Crossfield weakens as Miss Marple discovers that every heir visited Enderby on the day he died, each time asking for money or favors, weaving a complex tapestry of desire, fear, and leverage. Crossfield himself meets a sudden, violent end—trampled in a stall by an agitated horse—preventing a straightforward confession from ever taking center stage.
With time running short and the evidence still elusive, Miss Marple crafts a clever plan. She fakes a heart attack during a lively dance at the hotel, twirling with Stringer as the room tightens around the state of panic and suspicion. The police doctor, convinced of the danger, confines her to a room for the night, setting the stage for a final revelation. In the dark hours that follow, Miss Milchrest makes a renewed and deadly bid to silence the elderly sleuth, but Miss Marple is ready. A final, startling fact shifts the balance: the seemingly worthless painting once owned by Cora Lansquenet is revealed to be extraordinarily valuable, the key to a motive that explains why violence erupted when it did.
Thus the killer’s identity and motive are finally laid bare, unmasked by the patient, relentless logic of Miss Marple. The revelations bring some peace to the living and a bitter, ironic end to those who pursued money at any cost. In a delicate, quiet moment, Hector Enderby offers marriage to Miss Marple, who declines with grace, signaling that her loyalty to truth outweighs all else. As the credits of emotion settle, the detective’s closing line lingers in the air, and Hector mutters to himself a wry, resigned aside: "That was a narrow escape!"
> That was a narrow escape!
