Abandoned by Booklikes

I have already read Sleeping Murder so for me Nemesis is my last Miss Marple mystery. I am saddened by that a great deal but Nemesis ended up being just a four star read for me which was very disappointing to me after reading and loving "A Caribbean Mystery" and "At Betram's Hotel".

Nemesis has Miss Marple reviewing the obituaries and realizing that a man she previously met during the events in "A Caribbean Mystery", Mr. Jason Rafiel has died. Miss Marple is then surprised to receive a note through attorneys representing Mr. Rafiel asking her to look into a crime and if she solves it she will inherit $20,000 pounds. Miss Marple is perplexed by what Mr. Rafiel could possibly want her to look into and revisits Ms. Esther Walters (also from "A Caribbean Mystery") and Miss Marple starts to put clues together to figure out what crime she is supposed to be looking into.

Miss Marple is then surprised to find out that Mr. Rafiel also bought Miss Marple a place on tour of famous British houses and gardens. Miss Marple starts to look into the other people on the tour and meets a family of sisters that Mr. Rafiel asked prior to his death for them to allow Miss Marple to visit with them. Miss Marple finds herself intrigued by the three sisters, Lavina Glynne, Clotilde and Anthea Bradbury-Scott.

"Nemesis" I found to be a very intriguing mystery. However, for the first time ever I was able to correctly guess the murder. I think that was due to so many clues that practically smacked me on the nose that I was able to figure it out so easily.

The main reason why I gave this novel just three stars is that I found it quite disconcerting to read about Miss Marple and others views on lesbianism and rape. I was actually surprised that Agatha Christie even tackled these subjects in this novel but it definitely came from an out of date thinking. While reading I found certain characters saying things such as this about rape:

"Girls, you must remember, are far more ready to be raped nowadays than they used to be. Their mothers insist, very
often, that they should call it rape."

"Earlier cases of assault and rape. Well, we all know what rape is nowadays. Mum tells the girl she's got to accuse the young
man of rape even if the young man hasn't had much chance with the girl at him all the time to come to the house while mum's
away at work or dad's gone on holiday. Doesn't stop badgering him until she's forced him to sleep with her. Then, as I say,
mum tells the girl to call it rape."

And here are the quotes about lesbianism in the novel:

"No. Verity did not want anyone to know, and I should say most certainly Mike did not want anyone to know. They were afraid
of being stopped. To Verity, I think, besides love, there was also a feeling of escape. Natural, I think, owing to the
circumstances of her life. She had lost her real guardians, her parents, she had entered on her new life after their death, at
an age when a school girl arrives at having a 'crush' on someone. An attractive mistress. Anything from the games mistress
to the mathematics mistress, or a prefect or an older girl. A stated that does not last for very long, is merely a natural part of
life. Then from that you go on to the next stage when you realize that what you want in your life is what complements
yourself. A relationship between a man and a woman. You start then to look about you for a mate. The mate you want in life."

There are some more but that would spoil the ending of the novel and I don't want to do that. So all in all I really did not like this novel. I thought it was an interesting idea to have Miss Marple go forth as "Nemesis" and bring the perpetrator(s) to justice in old murders but the comments constantly about girls faking being raped, having a character we hear about being charged with rape but it being patted down as if it was just random girls who were asking for it so what did that matter, and making it seem as if the only normal thing in life is the love between a man and a woman was off-putting.

I am glad that Sleeping Murder was the last of the Miss Marple novels and that Miss Marple didn't end on this disquieting note.