Greenshaw's Folly: a Miss Marple Short Story

Miss Marple #SS 20

by Agatha Christie

The elderly lady, and owner, at a strangely-constructed house nicknamed Greenshaw's Folly, is murdered in the midst of drawing up her will. Who inherits the house and its contents? Who's left in old man Greenshaw's line? It just so happens Miss Marple's nephew Raymond West is on the scene and he thinks his aunt is an expert on murder.

Librarian's note: this entry relates to the short story, "Greenshaw's Folly." Collections and the other stories by the author are located elsewhere on Goodreads. The Miss Marple series includes twelve novels and 20 short stories. Entries for each of the short stories can be found by searching Goodreads for: "a Miss Marple Short Story."

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

42 pages, Kindle Edition

First published January 1, 1956

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

[Paromjit · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is a wonderful Miss Jane Marple short story from Agatha Christie, I listened to the audio, almost an hour long, that is narrated by Isla Blair. Miss Marple's writer nephew, Raymond West, is showing a critic the monstrosity that is Greenshaw's Folly, the two of them ending up acting as witnesses to a will for Miss Greenshaw in which her housekeeper, Mrs Cresswell, is going to be the beneficiary. Soon after, Miss Greenshaw ends up being killed with an arrow, leaving Miss Marple to work out the circumstances surrounding the death in which 2 women find themselves locked in separate rooms. Miss Marple can always be relied on to identify whodunnit.

[Anne · Rating 4 out of 5]

Raymond West, Miss Marple's lovable nephew, brings home a mystery to his Aunt Jane.
While trying to entertain a friend from the city with the local sight of an oddly built local house, he stumbles into a family drama and a murder-to-be decades in the making.



After agreeing to witness the signing of a new will of the (somewhat nutty) owner of Greenshaw's Folly to her longtime servant and companion, the woman gets murdered by...? Someone.
The servant that she left the money to in the will was trapped behind a locked door, and the newly hired personal secretary was also frighteningly locked into a different room. They called out for help, but they were too late to save their employer.



Whodunnit and why?
A good little mystery for fans of Miss Marple!

Originally published in the magazine Daily Mail in 1956.
Cool story that goes along with that. Christie wanted to donate the proceeds of a short story to her church to fund a new stained glass window. She initially wrote Hercule Poirot and the Greenshore Folly, but it was too long for a magazine. She later expanded that story, and it became Dead Man's Folly, and Hercule Poirot and the Greenshore Folly wasn't published until after her death.
So this was the Folly story that was used to fund her church's windows.

Read in the short story collection Double Sin and Other Stories.

[EveStar91 · Rating 4 out of 5]

“Some commit murder, some get mixed-up in murders, others have murder thrust upon them. My Aunt Jane comes into the third category.”

As her nephew fondly paraphrases, Jane Marple has murder plots thrust upon her, but more importantly, she solves the mysteries and makes sure the murderer is arrested.

Greenshaw's Folly, a well known aristocratic house near her village, sees what might be straightforward murder, but the plot soon evolves with inconsistencies and it takes Marple to look through them and deduce who actually committed the murder. The story also has an interesting set of characters, set in a world where inherited wealth and lineage were slowly losing relevance. On the whole, an interesting take on the murder for wealth trope.

🌟🌟🌟🌟
[3/4 star for the premise; 3/4 star for the characters; One star for the plot and themes; 3/4 star for the world-building; 3/4 star for the writing - 4 stars in total.]

[Jack Heath · Rating 5 out of 5]

5 Stars. A good one near the end of the 2011 compendium, Miss Marple: the Complete Short Stories. It made me laugh out loud! Do you recall Raymond West? Miss Marple's nephew, he's an author. At one point Inspector Welch is discussing alibis with him. Here are Christie's words: "Welch: 'You're talking as a writer.' West responds, 'I don't write detective stories,' horrified at the mere idea." Isn't that our favourite author commenting on her own occupation? The novella of 30 pages first appeared in the Daily Mail in 1956. Not far from town there's a monstrosity of a house, part Loire valley chateaux, part Taj Mahal, and a little Venice. Now owned by the elderly Miss Greenshaw, granddaughter of the Mr. Greenshaw who built it in the 1860s. West and literary critic Horace Bindler meet her; they actually serve as witnesses to her new will which, we are told, favours her housekeeper, Mrs. Cresswell. We are also told that there's not much money in her estate. But old Mr. G never did declare bankruptcy. When Miss Greenshaw is shot, it all becomes important. Christie and Marple at their best. Yours to enjoy. (De2020/Ja2026)

[Greg · Rating 4 out of 5]

Given all the aspects/views from windows/who-is-where-and-at-what-time, this story HAD to have an architectural 'folly'. Rather, a very oddly built house (that's rather falling apart, so where is the money?). So it's a perfect intersection of atmosphere and story. It's true Christie uses tricks here she has used elsewhere, but they are her own patented bits of deception. It's no surprise Netflix paid about $350 million (!!!) for the rights to "Knives Out 2" and "Knives Out 3": they get to use Christie's name (from her existing estate) and probably a number of her deceptions with the deal.

[Teresa · Rating 4 out of 5]

I find it hard to star short stories. I enjoyed this but it was so short it's hard to see how the mystery was solved so easily. I much prefer the novels. They made a tv adaptation of this but a lot more fleshed out of course and it's one of my favourites. Very well done.

[Shabbeer Hassan · Rating 4 out of 5]

A classic Christie whodunit! Definitely worth a read or listen to the narration by Isla Blair.

My Rating - 4/5

[Sladjana Kovacevic · Rating 5 out of 5]

GREENSHAWOVA LUDOST-AGATA KRISTI
"Netko počini umorstvo, netko je umiješan u umorstva, a nekima ubojstva padaju
pred noge.Moja teta Jane ide u tu treću kategoriju."
🕵️‍♀️Jedna simpatična kratka priča,taman za čitanje u autobusu.
🕵️‍♀️Gospođica Greenshaw je naizgled jedina naslednica imanja Greenshaw's folly,a sada je ubijena
🕵️‍♀️Pre smrti je napisala testament
🕵️‍♀️Gospođica Marpl,najšarmantnija bakica u literaturi,je rodaka devojke koja je bila sekretarica ubijene i možda svedok ubistva.
🕵️‍♀️Hoće li tetka Džejn rešiti misteriju i ko je ubica? To morate sami da otkrijete .😁
#7sensesofabook #readingaddict #bookstagram #literature #classicliterature #knjige

[A.M. · Rating 4 out of 5]

Miss Marple’s nephew Raymond is taking a literary critic with an interest in architecture on a tour of the extravagant mansion, Greenshaw’s Folly.

‘I can’t conceive of how Mr Greenshaw thought of it all.’
‘Rather obvious in some ways,’ said Raymond. ‘He had visited the châteaux of the Loire, don’t you think? Those turrets. And then, rather unfortunately, he seems to have travelled in the Orient. The influence of the Taj Mahal is unmistakable. I rather like the Moorish wing,’ he added, ‘and the traces of a Venetian palace.’

[I cannot imagine it…]
It is currently occupied by his granddaughter and she gets them to witness her will, and then she hides it in a copy of Lady Audley’s Secret. Bwahaha. A short time later, Raymmond’s actress friend Joan West has a niece who gets a job there as a kind of secretarial assistant. She and the housekeeper are locked in separate rooms while the mistress is killed by an arrow. But there are almost as many suspects as there are copies of wills.

‘He’s got an alibi,’ said the inspector.
‘I always think alibis are definitely suspicious.’
‘Maybe, sir,’ said Inspector Welch. ‘You’re talking as a writer.’
‘I don’t write detective stories,’ said Raymond West, horrified at the mere idea.

But naturally the ever observant Miss Marple works it out.
4 stars

[Pat · Rating 4 out of 5]

How does she so consistently do it? And this time in a short story? Characters one likes and an interesting plot and a surprise, all tied up in a brief bundle!

[Madeline · Rating 4 out of 5]

This was a great who-dun-it.

One of the finer short stories.

[Tatevik · Rating 3 out of 5]

Well I am not a big fan for miss Marple series. Those seem boring. Poirot is another thing.

[Farhana Sufi · Rating 4 out of 5]

Listened to Matthew Jones's narration from YouTube. Brilliant!

[Lynda · Rating 3 out of 5]

Stumbled across audio verson at youtube. Had been looking for it after watching British show. I thought it was a novel. Anyway liked it.

[Agla]

The Marples and the Poirots are very different and I can't really get used to the Marples. We don't see her investigate at all. She is told things by other people and then asked what she thinks of them and has deduced everything correctly. She doesn't visit the crime scene or anything. I don't know it's a bit strange. I still enjoyed the story itself so it's not a loss.

[Tilly · Rating 4 out of 5]

Listened to the audio version of one of Agatha Christie’s Marple short stories. Miss Marple is always a delight.

[Ashley Cael · Rating 5 out of 5]

Read in the complete short stories

[Les Wilson · Rating 4 out of 5]

Short but Agatha rearly lets us down.

[daph pink ♡ · Rating 3 out of 5]

Agatha Christie Book Reading Challenge

3 stars✨

BOOK 74:- January 2025

[mairiachi · Rating 3 out of 5]

It was fine, the only problem was that Miss Marple takes so long to get around to actually saying who exactly the murderer is. She starts comparing him/her and then everyone's confused and then she's like well really the clues are all there and then they're like WHO DID IT and she's like well the butler obviously, because his hand shakes (I just made that up on the spot, it's not a spoiler) and everyone is like that's not obvious? and then she blushes and is like well you can't all be amazing like me and then everyone waxes poetic about her.

Fine story, interesting, easy to read, a little bit harder to guess, but it was fun enough even if I wanted to throttle Miss Marple.

Side note, is Horace gay or something because I've never heard a guy in an Agatha Christie call another guy "my dear". Just wondering.

[Meg · Rating 4 out of 5]

A recluse old woman signs a will to leave her estate to her housekeeper. She is shot with an arrow several days later with the housekeeper locked in a room inside the house. Who locked her in there and who shot the old woman? Turns out the housekeeper was posing as the old woman and faked the arrow death in the garden so there would be witnesses while the real old woman lay dead inside and then she ran inside and locked herself in to create an alibi. I figured that she was impersonating the old woman but I couldn’t figure the rest of it out.

[Cathy Cole · Rating 4 out of 5]

The more I read these short stories featuring Miss Marple, the more I'm learning to zero in on the clues. Do I always have the mystery figured out? No. I sometimes do, but what I usually have deduced is the identity/identities of the killers. A very enjoyable way to learn how to "keep your eyes peeled."

[Franci · Rating 2 out of 5]

Hmmm. Miss Marple is always a treat, but this was not nearly a good as the other mysteries.

[Anirudh Mannattil · Rating 4 out of 5]

Terrific work. I did read this before a few years ago, but the engagement factor hasn't dipped in the slightest. What a terrific short.

[Nicola Michelle · Rating 3 out of 5]

I love Agatha Christie’s stories and she is a true legend. Poirot is my number one I have to admit but every now and again I like to delve into a Marple story as I do enjoy them.

I like Marple well enough and find her to be a perfectly likeable character but for me, she isn’t on the same par as Poirot. The plots are still intriguing but she always fails to hook me in the same way a Poirot and I have no idea why! It was a perfectly adequate story and well narrated but I did find myself drifting in and out. Needs a reread or a relisten I think.

[dal · Rating 3 out of 5]

this was like 40 pages long so i don’t have much to say. my only thing was that this required a bit of suspension of disbelief. like duh miss marple figures things out BUT the reveal part was a bit absurd. i still liked it though hehe

[Michael · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is a short story, so Miss Marple has to solve the murder without getting out of her chair (without even visiting the crime scene!). The explanation was a bit too complicated to be believable (in the sense of her being able to finger the murderer without having met anyone involved), but nonetheless she got it right (once again).

[Tuesdayschild · Rating 3 out of 5]

As this is a short story, it feels like there is more dialogue about the case than actual story.

[Ava · Rating 4 out of 5]

I didn't think it was possible to write a short murder mystery novel but I guess there is no limit to Agatha Christie's literary calibre.The characters were well developed and the murderer was subtly hinted throughout, all the loose strings being tied up eventually into a satisfying ending.

[Alyson Walton · Rating 4 out of 5]

Who will inherit the will when Greenshaws Follys owner has died? A quirky little murder tale in which Miss Marples brilliance shines through.