Miss Marple Miss Marple Miss Marple is a fictional character in Agatha Christie's crime novels and short stories. An elderly spinster who lives in the village of St. Mary Mead and acts as an amateur consulting detective, she is one of the most loved and famous of Christie's characters and has been portrayed numerous times on screen. Her first appearance was in a short story published in "The Royal Magazine" in December 1927, "The Tuesday Night Club", which later became the first chapter of "The Thirteen Problems" (1932). Her first appearance in a full-length novel was in "The Murder at the Vicarage"
Miss Marple also has a remarkable ability to latch onto a casual comment and connect it to the case at hand. In several stories, she is able to rely on her acquaintance with Sir Henry Clithering, a retired commissioner of the Metropolitan Police, for official information when required. Miss Marple never married and has no close living relatives. Her nephew, the "well-known author" Raymond West appears in some stories including "Sleeping Murder" and "Ingots of Gold", which also feature his wife Joan, a modern artist (though prior to their marriage she is referred to as "Joyce Lemprière", in "The Thirteen Problems" stories).