SLEEPING MURDER

Gwenda and Giles Reed buy a lovely Victorian house. When she begins refurbishing the house, Gwenda discovers that tearing out a wall, putting in steps to the garden, or choosing new wallpaper for the nursery are actually restoring the house to an earlier appearance, one she couldn’t possibly know about. Then she has a vision of a dead woman lying at the foot of the stairs. Certain she is losing her mind, she turns to Jane Marple for help. Rosemary Leach becomes Miss Marple, flawlessly performing that clever lady, as well as Agatha Christie’s myriad other delightfully drawn characters. Leach switches in and out of a variety of British accents with assurance, and as Gwenda her hint of New Zealand is appropriately subtle. SLEEPING MURDER, Christie’s final novel, never disappoints. S.J.H. © AudioFile 2003, Portland, Maine [Published: APR/MAY 03]