SLEEPING MURDER - CHAPTERS 16-18

SLEEPING MURDER - CHAPTERS 16-18

I absolutely loved the opening of chapter 16. Can you not picture these two older women (Miss Marple and Fane's mother ) clucking back and forth to each other about their mutual acquaintances and health ailments while properly sipping their tea? More pieces to our puzzle emerge from their conversation.

-Fane has 2 brothers.

-He is a Momma's boy that makes a one time attempt of escape to India to become a tea-planter.

-Obviously Fane and his mother know about Helen's affair. How weird is that?

-We are given a flashback in Walter's life of an encounter with his brother that left him so angry he threatened to kill him.

Meanwhile Giles and Gwenda go to visit the Erskines, the husband that Helen had her affair with. As one of you mentioned previously you can't help but feel bad for him due to the controlling wife. I then stop myself and ask though, which is the chicken and the egg in this situation - the wife's controlling nature leading to an affair or an affair that then led to her controlling nature? This chapter offers us a beautiful juxtaposition, however, between the bleakness in the Major's voice and the vibrant summer day. It is clear that both Erskines have a clear remembrance of the St Catherine's and Helen Halliday that has left lasting wounds on them both.

The last chapter takes us to Bindweed, a very telling symbol of a weed that is hard to remove and chokes the life out of the garden plants. Miss Marple is steadily hacking away at the nemesis when Dr. Kennedy arrives with one of Helen's letters and a sample of her handwriting. Miss Marple asks Dr. Kennedy who his sister was afraid. Dr Kennedy replies no one that he's aware of. He takes his leave and Miss Marple returns to the task at hand, removing the bindweed.