The Bloodstained Pavement: a Miss Marple Short Story

Miss Marple #SS 4

by Agatha Christie

Joyce Lempriere tells the Tuesday Night Club of an incident that occurred five years ago when she was vacationing at a small inn on the Cornish coast. She was painting a picture of the front of the inn, including details of wet bathing suits drying on the balcony of Denis and Margery Dacre, when she realised she had included blood stains on the pavement. A few days later Margery is found dead, having drowned. It's a challenge to the club to solve the mystery.

Librarian's note: this entry relates to the short story "The Bloodstained Pavement." Collections and other stories by the author can be found elsewhere on Goodreads. The Miss Marple series includes twelve novels and 20 short stories. The short stories can be found by searching Goodreads for: "a Miss Marple Short Story."

Genres: Mystery, Agatha Christie, Short Stories, Fiction, Crime, Classics, Audiobook

18 pages, Kindle Edition

First published January 1, 1928

About the author

Agatha Christie also wrote romance novels under the pseudonym Mary Westmacott, and was occasionally published under the name Agatha Christie Mallowan.

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.

This best-selling author of all time wrote 66 crime novels and story collections, fourteen plays, and six novels under a pseudonym in romance. Her books sold more than a billion copies in the English language and a billion in translation. According to Index Translationum, people translated her works into 103 languages at least, the most for an individual author. Of the most enduring figures in crime literature, she created Hercule Poirot and Miss Jane Marple. She atuhored The Mousetrap, the longest-running play in the history of modern theater.

Associated Names:
Agata Christie
Agata Kristi
Агата Кристи (Russian)
Агата Крісті (Ukrainian)
Αγκάθα Κρίστι (Greek)
アガサ クリスティ (Japanese)
阿嘉莎·克莉絲蒂 (Chinese)

Reviews

[EveStar91 · Rating 5 out of 5]

And the queer thing is that the sketch I painted at the time has become tinged with the same atmosphere. When you look at it first it is just a rough sketch of a little steep Cornish street with the sunlight on it. But if you look long enough at it something sinister creeps in. I have never sold it but I never look at it.

Joyce Lempiere, an artist, takes her turn sharing a strange story of a murder, almost unsolvable without further information that later comes in. The Tuesday Night Club tries to solve the case and it is no surprise that Miss Marple is able to guess at the core of the mystery without any further information. The vibes around this short story are done well, with just the right amount of artistic suggestibility and the macabre nevertheless coming through.

The series is pretty enjoyable, with the different characters showing their personalities influenced by their professions. And each story is short enough for a quick read during a break.

[One star for the premise and the whole story; 3/4 stars for the characters; One star for the plot; 3/4 stars for the world- building/ description; One star for the writing - 4 1/2 stars in total.]

‘There is a great deal of wickedness in village life. I hope you dear young people will never realize how very wicked the world is.’

[Rosh · Rating 4 out of 5]

Finally an interesting story in this collection!

This edition of the Tuesday Night Club comes from Joyce Lemprière. She narrates an incident from five years back, where she saw unexplained blood stains on the pavement, and heard of a death just a few days later. Local superstition links the two events. Miss Marple explains the coincidence.

The writing was a bit confusing in this one (partly because of Joyce being so haphazard in her narration of the events), but when you focus on it, the story is pretty enjoyable and also easy to deduce. In fact, I think that’s one reason why I enjoyed this tale because the resolution didn’t spring out of nowhere but came from the clues scattered within the earlier events. My guess was right, plus I couldn’t find any major unexplained logical gaps. The only negative other than Joyce’s choppy narration is that one element of the resolution is too farfetched to be believable.

3.75 stars

This story is part of the The Thirteen Problems collection.




———————————————
Connect with me through:
My Blog | The StoryGraph | Facebook | Twitter

[Anne · Rating 3 out of 5]

This time, when the Tuesday Night Club meets, Joyce (Raymond West's future wife) tells the story of her time painting in the small coastal village of Rathole.
She witnesses a husband and wife go off on a bathing trip with a woman they ran into when they got to the hotel.
Without realizing what she was doing, Joyce painted blood stains onto her painting. When the wife drowns a few weeks later, Joyce wonders if she had some sort of a premonition.



Everyone else is stumped, but Miss Marple asks the right questions and notices the right clues.
Because of course she does!
Once again the fluffy old lady from he village solves the murder and impresses everyone in the room.
Recommended for fans of Agatha Christie.

Originally published in 1928 in The Royal Magazine.
Read as part of the short story collection The Thirteen Problems.

[Bobby Underwood · Rating 5 out of 5]

“ There is a great deal of wickedness in village life. I hope you dear young people will never realize how very wicked the world is.” — Miss Marple at the end of The Blood-Stained Pavement


With notable exceptions such as A Caribbean Mystery, 4:50 From Paddington, and the Miss Marple novel I’m currently reading, Sleeping Murder, I generally prefer Miss Marple in short story form, and Patricia Wentworth’s Miss Silver in novels. Before you strenuously object, know that Agatha Christie herself felt that Miss Marple’s style of unraveling mysteries, her thought process, worked far better in short story form. Luckily, those Tuesday night gatherings of Miss Marple and her friends provided us with a number of pleasurable short mysteries with which to entertain ourselves.

I find this one to be a real gem among the Miss Marple short stories; not so much for Marple’s part, which is really minimal, but the involving tale told by Joyce Lemprière to the members of Marple’s Tuesday Club — which of course includes Raymond West.

Joyce’s story involves a sketch she painted during her vacation in Rathole, a queer little fishing village on the Cornish coast. There are narrow, steep streets next to the sea, and the painting in question has taken on a kind of haunting gruesomeness over time that matches real events.

It is enjoyably involving as Joyce spins her true recollection of the painting, and the blood-stained pavement which she did not even recall placing in the picture; obviously subconsciously done due to the events unfolding in the small seaside village of old. There is of course a legend harkening back to village history, that when the blood stain reappears to someone, there will be a death within 24 hours. And there is…

A couple’s chance meeting with an old friend of the husband, some cliffs, a bathing suit hung out to dry, and a disappearance all come into play in Joyce’s story, yet no one but Miss Marple can see anything wicked in it before Joyce finishes the story. Miss Marple of course can discern the evil coming due to the day to day happenings in St. Mary Mead, which lead to Marple’s final words in the story.

Wonderful mystery fun.

[Julie · Rating 5 out of 5]

The Blood-Stained Pavement is the 4th story in the Tuesday Night Club tales, the first stories featuring Christie's classic character Miss Marple. In these stories, Miss Marple, her nephew and four others meet on Tuesday nights to share tales of mysterious or unsolved crimes. Each story features a different member of the group sharing a story. This one is told by an artist, Joyce Lempriere. On a vacation to Cornwall she thought she saw blood spatters on a sidewalk in front of her hotel....that seemed to disappear. Was the blood there? Did she imagine it? Or....did something nefarious occur?

These first stories featuring Miss Marple are all very short -- "one minute mystery'' type quick tales published in magazines. The Blood-Stained Pavement was first published in The Royal Magazine in March 1928 (UK) and in Detective Story Magazine (US) that June. In the US, the story was titled "Drip! Drip!'' This story is quite short -- only 10.5 pages long in the hardback version I'm reading (Miss Marple: The Complete Short Stories, Putnam, 1985). But, it's still an interesting whodunit.

I'm enjoying these short stories. They are entertaining quick reads and give insights into Miss Marple's character. She is quiet and unassuming....most people discount her entirely until they find out she is actually quite observant and wise. These stories sprinkled into detective magazines before publication of novels was really quite a marketing move on Christie's part (and her agent & publisher, of course). They give a nice introduction to the character and her sleuthing skills. I wish I could see the original magazines! It would be fun to see the story layouts, artwork, covers and any advertisements on the pages!

Usually I like to listen to audio of these stories while I read along in my book, but the old audio book I found is missing a disc....so no audio for Ingots of Gold or this story. I do have audio for the next story: Motive Vs Opportunity though! On to the next!!

[Jack Heath · Rating 4 out of 5]

4 Stars. I found this one a little confusing. It's Joyce Lempriere's turn at the Tuesday Night Club to tell a tale of mystery and see if anyone else in the group can solve it. The twelve page story first came out in Royal Magazine in 1928; my copy is from the collection, Miss Marple: the Complete Short Stories, from 2011. Joyce, if you recall, is an artist, and she was working in the village of Rathole in Cornwall. That's probably a reference to a real place, Mousehole, Cornwall, not far from Penzance! She had been doing a painting of the local inn when she realized she had drawn a bloodstain on the pavement. Was it from a distraction? She was likely thinking of the conversation she overheard earlier as two women and a man made plans to go rowing on the sea. Carol Davis didn't like the idea but said she would walk to their destination, a cave and beach down the coast. Then one of them didn't return and Joyce was asked by the man, Denis, if she had seen Margery, his rather plain wife. "Can anyone make sense of this?" Joyce asked. You know one of the group could. And did. Miss Marple starts off with, "Did you hear about Mrs. Green?" (Au2020/Ja2026)

[mairiachi · Rating 3 out of 5]

The way the murder was carried out was really good - I never would have guessed it.

The only part that ever bothered me was, when she sees the bloodstains on the pavement, and then later she goes over and looks, to tell herself that she's seeing things, why doesn't she see the blood? I just don't get it. What did they do with the blood? It wouldn't have evaporated would it? And I was always bothered that they explained how the blood got there but they never explained how it LEFT.

Other than that, it's a really interesting story and I always enjoy it.

[Hitesh · Rating 3 out of 5]

This one is a charming addition to the Miss Marple series.

This short story is a quick read, but packs a punch with its engaging mystery and lovable characters.
The story is narrated by Joyce Lempiere, about an incident, when she sees drops of blood on the pavement and encounters three characters of which one female disappears.

Christie's writing style is always a pleasure to read, and this short story is no exception.

[Amina (ⴰⵎⵉⵏⴰ) · Rating 3 out of 5]

Where did the blood stains Joyce painted on her canvas without even realising it come? A dreadful feeling takes over, there was no way a murder was commited in this peaceful place, or was there?
As always, a great short story from Mrs. Christie, where it might have taken me more time than usual, but I ended up uncovering the mystery!

[Alyson Walton · Rating 4 out of 5]

Short and beautifully written, this little story is sure to entertain.

[Vasilis · Rating 3 out of 5]

Short and cute!

[Meg · Rating 4 out of 5]

The next edition of The Tuesday Night Club has Joyce telling a story of her time at a seaside village. She observes a man, Denis, and his dowdy wife, Margery, arrive at the inn followed quickly by an exotic woman in a wide brimmed red hat who Denis is surprised to see. This woman, Carol, is an old acquaintance of Denis’ and the 3 decide to go bathing and check out a nearby cave. Later that afternoon, while Joyce is talking to an old fisherman who is telling the tale of the Spanish invasion at that spot, she swears she sees bloodstains on the cobblestones from that old invasion but decides that it must be a trick of her eyes. She sees bathing suits hanging from the balcony, one red and one blue, so she assumes that the bathing party had returned but instead Denis comes out and asks them if they had seen Carol. They both say they had not while Denis yells up to his wife on the balcony that they can’t wait to say goodbye to her and must be on their way. After they leave, Joyce sees Carol running up the hill where she gets in her car and leaves in the opposite direction. Days later, she reads a story that Margery was found dead, having drowned at the next town they stopped at. Already Miss Marple knows what happened, as did I, but the men do not and Joyce continues her story. A year later, she is in another seaside town and sees and hears the same scene with Denis and a new dowdy wife and Carol who shows up unexpectedly and they all decide to go bathing together. Joyce goes straight to the police who tell her that they are already onto Denis. Apparently he has a habit of marrying dowdy women, taking out a life insurance policy and then they drown while on vacation. Carol is his real wife and she impersonates the fake wife after they have already killed her to keep the illusion that there are still three of them while the fake wife is already dead. The bloodstains got on the red bathing suit when they bashed Margery’s head but they didn’t notice and it dripped on the cobblestones while hanging from the balcony. I could not help but think that this story was similar to a Poirot shot story, the name of which escapes me, but that story involved poison and not drowning.

[Crime Addict Sifat · Rating 4 out of 5]

A classic Agatha Christie short story, featuring Miss Marple at Tuesday Night Club.

A trio is seen
where One goes missing
If you can solve
You would be on top

[Anastasia Bodrug · Rating 5 out of 5]

Mai mult 4,5

[Les Wilson · Rating 4 out of 5]

One of the few authors who can make a short story as enjoyable as a complete novel.

[Glenn Blake · Rating 2 out of 5]

This story was ok, but if Joyce saw the blood dripping on the pavement, why was there no trace of it only moments later. That part doesn't make sense. Also it seems too much of a coincidence that she just happens to overhear the exact same conversation twice in different locations separated by a period of twelve months. Normally in a novel a few discrepancies like this don't matter so much, but when it's a whodunit, the fine details do matter

[James · Rating 2 out of 5]

Another instalment of the Tuesday Night Club. Alas, this one didn’t really hit the mark. It was the story of the murder of a young lady. The story was too short and not enough information to make you guess. Then, all of a sudden Miss Marple just so happened to have the answer.

[Dennis Brock · Rating 5 out of 5]

This little short story was awesome, & also so very sick at the same time. I hate people!!! lol

"It was dripping..." ?!?!?!

[Darinda · Rating 3 out of 5]

A Miss Marple short story. Light and entertaining.

[Lisbeth Zabihi · Rating 4 out of 5]

Super hyggelig lille krimi, som tåler at blive genlæst.

[Omar · Rating 3 out of 5]

القصة الرابعة التي قرأتها من سلسلة نادي الجريمة لأجاثا كريستي كانت بعنوان The Blood-Stained Pavement. جاءت هذه القصة بروح مختلفة قليلًا عن القصص السابقة، إذ تعتمد على فكرة بسيطة تُبنى بهدوء، وتُقدَّم من خلال الحوار والاستنتاج أكثر من اعتمادها على المفاجآت أو المنعطفات الحادة. السرد واضح وسلس، ولا يحمل تعقيدًا مفتعلًا، ما يجعل القصة سهلة القراءة ومناسبة كجزء من سلسلة تهدف بالأساس إلى عرض الذكاء التحليلي للشخصيات.

ومع ذلك، ورغم أن القصة جيدة في مجملها وتحافظ على مستوى مقبول من التشويق، فإنها تفتقد إلى الرتم السريع والتصاعد اللافت الذي اعتدناه في أبرز أعمال أجاثا كريستي. لا توجد لحظة صدمة حقيقية أو ذروة قوية، بل تمضي الأحداث بهدوء محسوب، ما يجعل التجربة ممتعة لكنها غير عالقة في الذاكرة. يمكن اعتبارها قصة لطيفة وسلسة ضمن السلسلة، لكنها ليست من تلك القصص التي تُظهر كريستي في قمتها الإبداعية


The fourth story I read from Agatha Christie’s Crime Club series was titled The Blood-Stained Pavement. This story comes with a slightly different tone compared to the previous ones, relying on a simple idea that develops calmly, driven more by dialogue and deduction than by surprises or sharp twists. The narration is clear and smooth, free from unnecessary complexity, making it an easy and accessible read as part of a series primarily focused on showcasing the analytical intelligence of its characters.

However, despite being a solid and well-written story that maintains a reasonable level of intrigue, it lacks the fast pace and strong escalation that characterize Agatha Christie’s finest works. There is no striking shock or powerful climax; instead, the events unfold in a controlled and measured manner. As a result, the experience is pleasant but not particularly memorable. It can be seen as a gentle and enjoyable entry in the series, though not one that represents Christie at her creative peak.

[Octavia Cade · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is the second Miss Marple short story in a row where I solved the mystery before Miss Marple told me the answer, which is possibly the most successful I've ever been as a mystery reader. Admittedly, it was less a shining insight on my part, and more a decision to look for the most domestic detail and assume it was key to the entire thing... no surprises that, when the question of laundry came up, I knew I was on the right track to an answer.

So far, the solutions to the short stories in this series have hinged on cooking, gardening, and laundry (plus one wandering off the domestic topic altogether in the silly temple of Astarte story) so it admittedly didn't take a great deal of perspicacity on my part to realise the trend.

[Verba Non Res · Rating 3 out of 5]

Si bien un tanto fuera del alcance del lector, el plot twist de este cuento es bastante satisfactorio, y el crimen en cuestión particularmente siniestro. También hay una dimensión sobrenatural que, a esta altura, sabemos que es incapaz de confundir a Miss Marple.

Cuento #4 de Los trece problemas

Anterior: “Ingots of Gold”

Siguiente: “Motive v. Opportunity”

[Tina · Rating 4 out of 5]

Oh this one I really enjoyed a lot - pretty clever! Maybe i don't enjoy short stories as such, but short and quick mysteries like this I could get used to.. :)

[jon._.kolacz · Rating 4 out of 5]

First four star. Great foreshadowing throughout. Good twist.

[Marissa · Rating 4 out of 5]

these are so cozy. this was a fun one

[Julie · Rating 5 out of 5]

I figured this one out!

[Ann M Davis · Rating 5 out of 5]

Agatha Christy sharp mind and great story teller

Wonderful

[Sherri · Rating 5 out of 5]

“There is a great deal of wickedness in village life.”

[Andrew · Rating 2 out of 5]

I think I read/audiobooked this once before (YouTube?) and I think I have to accept the true that I just don't get on with Agatha Christie short stories. I liked this, and yet... and yet... *sigh*

I do want to try one more short (The Incredible Theft: Hercule Poirot - a Poirot [who I seem to get along with quite well compared to Marple) or a collection of short stories ([book:The Last Seance: Tales of the Supernatural by Agatha Christie|52367998]) a try.

I do have a few Christie novels on my kindle that am excited to try out (Crooked House, The Pale Horse & A Pocket Full of Rye), but this might be my last short from Christie for a while...