About the Book
Rex Fortescue, king of a financial empire, was sipping tea in his “counting house” when he suffered an agonizing and sudden death. On later inspection, the pockets of the deceased were found to contain traces of cereals.
Yet, it was the incident in the parlour that confirmed Miss Marple’s suspicion that here she was looking at a case of crime by rhyme….
Format: Hardback (191 pages) Publisher: Collins
Publication date: 1954 Genre: Crime
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My Review
A Pocket Full of Rye was the book chosen for me in the latest Classics Club spin.
As I was reading the book I realised that most of my knowledge of Agatha Christie novels comes from watching TV adaptations. I vaguely remembered some elements of A Pocket Full of Rye but luckily not enough that I was able to work out the culprit, the motive or the way the crime was carried out.
Assigned to investigate the sudden death of businessman Rex Fortescue, Inspector Neele of Scotland Yard soon discovers it was not due to natural causes. But how the crime was carried out eludes him although there is no lack of possible suspects who might have possessed a motive. Fortescue was a rich man but not particularly liked even by members of his own family. Estranged for many years from one of his sons, he had recently remarried a much younger woman. Perhaps the motive was money or, as his elderly sister-in-law hints, perhaps the answers lies with events much longer ago. What really puzzles the Inspector is a curious feature of the crime: that there was rye in the dead man’s pocket.
I don’t think it’s giving too much away when I say there are more crimes to come, just as inexplicable as the first one. The prime suspect, the person who might have benefited most, couldn’t possibly have done it. Or could they?
Miss Marple doesn’t come on the scene for a while but when she does her talent for observation, insight into what makes people tick and ability to coax information from people without them noticing is of immense help to Inspector Neele who, by this point, is rather floundering. He’s interviewed lots of people, gathered what evidence he can, checked backgrounds, established a timeline but still there’s something not quite right. He can’t put his finger on it. Perhaps after all, they’ve got everything the wrong way around.
At one point, a character remarks, ‘The whole thing seems so wildly improbable. Like a detective story.’ But of course that’s the point. The story is improbable but it’s hugely entertaining trying to get anywhere near the right solution. As Christie’s other famous detective would say, it gets the little grey cells working. However in my case it was to limited effect. I think I probably suspected every character of being the culprit at some stage proving the author’s genius for misdirection and red herrings.
Of course, a theory – even one of Miss Marple’s – is just a theory until there’s proof to back it up, which is why the ending is so brilliant.
A Pocket Full of Rye is book 3 of my 20 Books of Summer 2026. I alternated between my lovely secondhand copy and the audiobook superbly narrated by Richard E. Grant.
In three words: Ingenious, entertaining, classic
Try something similar: Hercule Poirot’s Christmas by Agatha Christie
About the Author
Dame Agatha Mary Clarissa Christie, Lady Mallowan, DBE (née Miller) was an English writer known for her 66 detective novels and 14 short story collections, particularly those revolving around fictional detectives Hercule Poirot and Miss Marple.
She also wrote the world’s longest-running play, the murder mystery The Mousetrap, which has been performed in the West End of London since 1952. A writer during the “Golden Age of Detective Fiction”, Christie has been called the “Queen of Crime”. She also wrote six novels under the pseudonym Mary Westmacott.
In 1971, she was made a Dame (DBE) by Queen Elizabeth II for her contributions to literature. Guinness World Records lists Christie as the best-selling fiction writer of all time, her novels having sold more than two billion copies.
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