This
story is based in the Caribbean, where Miss Marple has been sent by her nephew,
Raymond, for a break. The story starts quite slowly and involves lots of sitting around gossiping.
Miss Marple is bored and longs for
something exciting to happen. Suddenly, while she was sitting on the beach,
Jane Marple was asked by Major Palgrave
to hear his story about a murder. When she replied that she would like to hear the story, he explained it. There once was a
man who had a wife who tried to hang herself, but failed. Then she tried again later, and succeeded in killing herself. The man
remarried to a woman who then tried to gas herself to death. She failed, but
then tried again later and succeeded. Just as Major Palgrave is about to show
the picture to her, he looks over her shoulder, appears startled, and changes
the subject.
The
next morning, a servant, Victoria Johnson, found the death of old Major
Palgrave. His death quite strange as well. Doctor Graham concludes that the man
died of heart failure; he showed all the symptoms, and had a bottle of serenite
(a drug for high blood pressure) on his table. Miss Marple is convinced that
Palgrave was murdered, but needs to see the photograph he was about to show her
before seeing something over her shoulder that caused him to stop. She asks
Doctor Graham to find it, saying it is a picture of her nephew. Meanwhile, she
interviews other people, including Tim and Molly Kendall, the owners of the
hotel, Mr Rafiel, an invalid, and Esther Walters, Mr. Rafiel's secretary, Lucky
Dyson and her husband and Edward and Evelyn Hillingdon. On the beach when Mr
Rafiel is going for a swim, Miss Marple saw Senora de Caspearo, a woman on
holiday. She said that she remembers Major Palgrave because he had an evil
eye. Miss Marple corrects her that he
actually has a glass eye, but she still says that it was evil.
Then
in the other hand, Victoria informs the Kendalls that she did not remember
seeing the serenite on the man's table when she was tidying up in the
afternoon. That night, Victoria is found stabbed. Molly starts having nightmares every night, and Miss Marple
investigates why Molly is having nightmares. She finds Jackson in the house
looking at Molly's cosmetics, saying that if belladonna was administered to it,
then it would cause nightmares. The next night, Tim finds Molly unconscious on
the floor, having taken an overdose of sleeping pills. The police are involved,
and a cook, Enrico, tells them that he saw Molly Kendall holding a steak knife
before going outside. Miss Marple also asks people if Major Palgrave told
people about the photo, and other people say that it was not a photo of a wife
killer he said, but a husband killer and Miss Marple becomes confused.
At
night, Tim wakes up the hotel as his wife, Molly, is missing. They find what
seems to be her body, in a creek. Miss Marple arrives and tells them that it is
not Molly, but Lucky, the two resemble one another. Miss Marple rudely wakes Mr
Rafiel at night and tells him that they must prevent another death. They go to
Tim and Molly Kendall's house and find Tim asking Molly to drink some wine as it will soothe her down. Miss Marple takes it away from him and gives it to Rafiel, saying that there was a
deadly narcotic in it. She explains that Tim Kendall is the wife killer that Major Palgrave had a
photo of, but saw him over Miss Marple's shoulder. Miss Marple thought that he
saw someone on the right, where the Hillingdons and the Dysons were coming up
the beach, but she remembered that he had a glass eye so could not see on his
right, but only on his left where Tim and Molly were sitting. Tim was planning
to kill his wife, but Major Palgrave recognized him and so had to be killed,
and Victoria remembered the serenite so she was killed.
Tim
put belladonna in Molly's cosmetics to have a reason for her to commit suicide.
When Molly accidentally took the sleeping pill overdose, Tim saw his chance and
asked her to meet him by the creek.
Molly, on her way to the meeting, had a
scary vision from the belladonna and wandered off. Tim saw Lucky waiting there
and mistook her for Molly and killed
her. He was about to poison her when Miss Marple came in. Esther Walters
suddenly fell to Tim's knees and said
that Tim isn't a killer. Tim shouted at her, asking whether she wanted to get him hanged. We learn that Tim was
planning to marry Esther, after Molly's death, because he had heard that she
was going to inherit a large sum of money from Mr Rafiel.
