Murder is Easy (aka, Easy to Kill) is another Christie novel the producers of the video version have “retrofitted” into a Miss Marple mystery. In the original novel (published in 1939), the action centers around Luke Fitzwilliam, a retired policeman. He notices that an unusual number of people are dying in Wychwood. He investigates and finds murder and romance. Clearly, a serial killer is at work. It will be interesting to see how this plot works with Miss Marple in it for tonight’s PBS MASTERPIECE MYSTERY series. The suspects include a strange Doctor, a curio-shop artist with a taste for Black Masses, a series of suspicious town’s people, a woman who looks like a beautiful witch, and Lord Easterfield, whose enemies all seem to die. GRADE: B+
Any better than the first one last week?
Agatha Christie would have hated this version of MURDER IS EASY because it was not a Miss Marple. When Christie was in tax trouble after WWII, she sold the rights to Miss Marple to Hollywood. The first few movies were okay, but later Hollywood turned Miss Marple into a champion fencing champion and made other ridiculous alternations. I’m partial to these PBS Christie mysteries so I was fine with it.