Miss Marple's Final Cases and Two Other Stories is a short story collection written by Agatha Christie and first published in the UK by Collins Crime Club in October 1979 retailing at £4.50. It was the last Christie book to be published under the Collins Crime Club imprint although HarperCollins continue to be the writer's UK publishers. The book contains eight short stories, six featuring Miss Marple and two other stories, and did not originally appear in the United States because most of the stories had been published earlier in the US in magazines. In 2010, an audio book and the Kindle edition were released, which included six stories from the book, plus Greenshaw's Folly.

List of stories

Literary significance and reception

Robert Barnard: "Posthumous collection, containing several good Marple cases previously only available in the States. Also two supernatural stories, which Christie did not have the stylistic resources to bring off successfully."

Publication history

Five paperback editions were issued from November 1980 to the most recent in April 2010 by Ulverscroft Large Print Books Ltd, ISBN 1444802348 / 9781444802344. This collection was issued for Kindle by HarperCollins in October 2010, ISBN B0046RE5FY and in July 2012, ISBN B008I5CNPE. The latest audio edition includes an additional short story, originally published in The Adventure of the Christmas Pudding collection, Greenshaw's Folly.

First publication of stories

The first magazine publication of each of the stories is as follows:

Adaptations

The stories The Tape-Measure Murder, The Case of the Perfect Maid and Sanctuary were adapted as episodes for the BBC Radio 4 radio drama series Miss Marple's Final Cases, starring June Whitfield as Miss Marple and dramatised by Joy Wilkinson. Additionally, the plot of The Case of the Caretaker is referenced to by the character Raymond West, Miss Marple's nephew, in the episode The Case of the Perfect Maid. The stories Strange Jest, The Case of the Perfect Maid and The Tape-Measure Murder were adapted as episodes of the Japanese anime television series Agatha Christie's Great Detectives Poirot and Marple in 2004. Greenshaw's Folly was adapted for the ITV Miss Marple series in 2013.