Enter+Miss+Marple

A Murder is Announced Chapter 8 Summary

 * Rydesdale says Rudi is "a dishonest fellow", but the main story seems "clear enough" (67). Craddock thinks it's an "unsatisfactory story", that it presents the "wrong picture" (67).
 * Rydesdale repeats the facts of the story; this is what he says:
 * Rudi Scherz took a 5:20 bus from Medenham to Chipping Cleghorn, arriving at 6pm. There were two passengers and one conductor.
 * He walked to Little Paddocks, and easily got in (probably) through the front door.
 * He "held up the company", and fired 2 revolver shots (one of which hit Mrs. Blacklock) before shooting himself (68). It is unknown whether the suicide was an accident or not.
 * Rydesdale says it does not matter why the crime happened. He asks Craddock if anyone was lying to him during their account.
 * Craddock thinks Mitzi could be lying, that she could have been working with Rudi. There might be something valuable in the house that is unknown to the others, because "Mrs. Blacklock negatived it [something valuable] quite decidedly. So did the others" (68).
 * The other point is that Dora Bunner thinks Rudi wanted to kill Blacklock. There isn't really any evidence that makes this true.
 * Rydesdale tries to cheer Craddock up. He is taking him and Sir Henry Clithering to lunch at the Royal Spa Hotel. Sir Henry walks in at this moment.
 * Rydesdale tells Sir Henry that he got a letter from an old woman named Jane Marple. She is staying at the Hotel and claims that she knows something about the case.
 * Marple is Sir Henry's relative. He says, "Once more a murder is announced - for the benefit and enjoyment of Miss Marple" (70). The men plan to go to lunch and interview Marple.
 * Marple is very old, with white hair and "innocent blue eyes" (70). She is excited to see the men. She was unable to meet with Sir Henry before due to her rheumatism, and says that she could only have afforded the hotel because Raymond West (her nephew, a famous author) paid for it
 * In the manager's (Mrs. Rowlandson) private room, Marple says that Rudi tried to take money through her check. He has done petty crimes before.
 * Rudi had a police record in Switzerland, and forged papers to come to England. Marple says that Myrna Harris is hiding something about the crime.
 * Marple thinks that someone must have convinced Rudi to go to the house, because he alone "wasn't that kind of person. It doesn't make sense" (73).
 * Craddock notes that Blacklock, Mrs. Harmon, and he had also thought that it doesn't make sense. But Marple says she doesn't know what actually happened. She thinks Rudi was paid, and that he didn't know the person was going to shoot Blacklock. Myrna confirms that Rudi was paid by someone, she doesn't know who.
 * Craddock is still suspicious of Mitzi, he also thinks that the revolver wasn't Rudi's. Someone tried to murder Blacklock, and they could try again. Rydesdale tells him to keep an eye on Marple, and Craddock is worried she might get hurt.
 * Because Sir Henry thinks Mrs. Marple can solve the mystery,he asks is she might be "allowed to read the notes of the interviews" (74)
 * When Miss Marple finishes reading and makes a few statements about how "complex" and "hard to spot" the observations of the people, Craddock is feels "a twinge of dissapointment" at her lack of any insight into the mystery (74)
 * Craddock states that "they saw a masked men with a revolver and a flashlight" as a test to Miss Marple, who catches the fact that no one could actually see the man. (74)
 * According to Miss Marple's theory, Rudi Scherz, the "fall guy", wasn't responsible. Rather, the real perpetrator fired the revolver and killed Rudi, but was not seen because of the lighting conditions (75)