The Body in the Library

This article is about a novel. For the film, see The Body in the Library (film).

The Body in the Library
Dust-jacket illustration of the US (true first) edition. See Publication history (below) for UK first edition jacket image.
AuthorAgatha Christie
LanguageEnglish
GenreCrime novel
PublisherDodd, Mead and Company
Publication date
February 1942
Publication placeUnited Kingdom
Media typePrint (hardback & paperback)
Pages245 (first edition, hardcover)
Preceded byN or M? (publication)
The Murder at the Vicarage (series) 
Followed byFive Little Pigs (publication)
The Moving Finger (series) 

The Body in the Library is a work of detective fiction by Agatha Christie and first published in the US by Dodd, Mead and Company in February 1942[1] and in the UK by the Collins Crime Club in May of the same year.[2] The US edition retailed at $2.00[1] and the UK edition at seven shillings and sixpence.[2] The novel features her fictional amateur detective Miss Marple.

The novel concerns the murders of two teenaged girls of outwardly similar appearance. One was an 18-year-old dancer, and the other was a 16-year-old Girl Guide with aspirations to an acting career. Jane Marple eventually uncovers the murderer. The story begins at St Mary Mead, the setting of the first Marple novel. The novel's main setting is a seaside resort hotel.

Contemporary reviewers liked the shrewd feminine viewpoint, though missing Poirot.[3][4] Robert Barnard praised the novel for its relative realism, comparing it with the lack of realism in P.D. James' novel An Unsuitable Job for a Woman.[5]

  1. ^ a b Marcum, J S (May 2007). "American Tribute to Agatha Christie: The Classic Years: 1940 – 1944". Retrieved 3 January 2020.
  2. ^ a b Peers, Chris; Spurrier, Ralph; Sturgeon, Jamie (March 1999). Collins Crime Club – A checklist of First Editions (second ed.). Dragonby Press. p. 15.
  3. ^ Cite error: The named reference Disher1942 was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  4. ^ Cite error: The named reference TorontoStar1942 was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  5. ^ Cite error: The named reference Barnard1990 was invoked but never defined (see the help page).