Unapologetic Reviews

After reading A Caribbean Mystery by Agatha Christie, I wanted to see how the story translates to screen, particularly because this feels like a book that should benefit from its setting. I watched two adaptations: the 1983 American TV film and the 2013 ITV version from the Agatha Christie's Marple series. They approach the same material in very different ways. The 1983 adaptation is the more straightforward of the two. It updates the setting from the 1960s to the 1980s, which is immediately visible in the styling. The hair, the clothes, the overall look place it firmly in that decade. All the actors are American, including Miss Marple, who speaks with an American accent. This creates a slightly odd effect, because the character is still supposed to be from St Mary Mead. There is no attempt to reframe her as American, so the accent stands out. In terms of structure, this version stays close to the original story. The plot unfolds in a direct, almost procedural way. The key events ...

I read A Caribbean Mystery by Agatha Christie for the 2026 Agatha Christie Reading Challenge, as the April selection. The novel was published in 1964 and is one of Christie’s more “exotic” settings, taking place on a Caribbean island inspired by her own travels. The story follows Miss Marple as she takes a holiday at a resort. An elderly retired military officer, Major Palgrave, spends his time telling stories from his past. At one point, he begins describing a case involving a murderer who managed to escape justice. While talking, he suddenly realises that the person he is describing is actually present at the resort. He attempts to show Miss Marple a photograph, but is interrupted. Shortly afterwards, he is found dead. The central mystery becomes identifying who he recognised and why that person needed him silenced. Structurally, this is a relatively simple mystery. The solution is seeded early, and there are multiple clues from the beginning that point towards the culprit. There is...