Ruthlessness in Agatha Christie's Nemesis

Abstract Characterized at the end of Agatha Christie's Nemesis (1971) as “‘So gentle—and so ruthless’,” Miss Marple is defined by a quality that many characters interacting with her do not associate with her. To them, she is a harmless, elderly spinster, a role she deliberately adopts as camouflage to effectively use a range of strategies to get at the truth and bring criminals to justice. Focusing on Nemesis , this article will examine Miss Marple's “ruthlessness” in terms of how she constructs a complex and often inconsistent ethical identity. It will make sense of how Christie's version of her as an “old pussy” contrasts with how the character pursues proactively and single‐mindedly, often adopting morally dubious methods, a mode of investigation that stops at nothing to right wrong. The article will contextualize the detective in relation to other ruthless characters, both male and female, including the murderer, Clotilde Bradbury‐Scott (but also characters from other Christie fiction). Focusing on Miss Marple's dispassionate investigative method, it will argue in favor of a reading that defines Christie's sleuth as frequently unethical and untruthful in the cause of justice, yet defined by absolute moral boundaries, which her double, the passion‐defined Clotilde, is shown to lack.