I am a stranger to Miss Marple but I enjoyed most of these stories. There were some moments that I felt referred to events in other books and there were some that were very obviously written in a hurry or to a formula but by and large, I do not feel like I wasted my time here. I have no problem with formula fiction If the author is writing with love and care and that is the impression I get here. I enjoyed most the stories in which Miss Marple acts like a proto-Columbo and distracts the other characters with stories about the other inhabitants of her village, but the later stories in which she calls upon the resources of Scotland Yard and trades upon her mighty reputation would have been more enjoyable to me if I had read more of her exploits, I feel. Great fun, though, and the illustrations are lovely: simple yet evocative.