Stop the Christie Murder: the Most Obvious Person in The Caribbean Mystery

My prevention detectives in A Caribbean Mystery wouldn't have to do much detection! They would simply need to listen to Major Palgrave. 

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The mystery illustrates how remarkable Christie was. It begins with boring Major Palgrave whittering on about his life experiences to Miss Marple. He is the master of the shaggy dog story and some of his shaggy dog stories have to do with murders. He tells Miss Marple about a particular murderer who kept repeating his "schtick" (rather like the Brides in the Bath murder) and lo and behold, that's what happens in the story! 

So how does Christie make it a mystery?

The first is the number of red herrings. There are so many people who might be murderers. The second is that Miss Marple begins to doubt whether the primary story Major Palgrave told her WAS the murder she should be looking out for, especially since he told more than one story. Is it a male murderer or a female murderer she should have her eye on? 

And since Christie has done this type of thing before--all the clues are there but the reader was mislead about the true importance of a clue--the reader has every reason to trust Miss Marple's doubts...even though the actual murder plan was in plan view. 

Want to see the picture of a murderer?

Christie is sometimes accused of the least-obvious person being the murderer but, in fact, she almost always went for the most obvious person. Husbands kill wives. Wives kill husbands. Greedy people kill for money. And so on. 

We readers just feel that is the least-obvious person because Christie is that good! 

In this case, my prevention detectives just need to look around for the couple that fit Major Palgrave's story, and then keep an eye on the husband.