A Pocket Full of Rye

A Pocket Full of Rye is a 1953 detective novel by Agatha Christie featuring the recurring character of the elderly and discerning spinster Miss Marple. Christie wrote dozens of detective novels and short stories during her lifetime, and her play The Mousetrap ran continuously from 1952 until the COVID-19 pandemic began in March 2020, setting a record for the longest running play in the world.

Miss Marple is featured in multiple volumes of short stories and 12 novels, including Christie’s last work, 1976’s Sleeping Murder. A Pocket Full of Rye has been adapted for television multiple times, most recently for Season 4 of iTV’s Marple, with Geraldine McEwan in the role of Miss Marple and Matthew McFadyen as Inspector Neele.

This guide refers to the Kindle edition.

Content Warning: The source text and this guide discuss period-typical stigmatization of sexually transmitted infections and dementia, specifically the later stages of syphilis, as well as murder and suicide.

Plot Summary

The work opens with the sudden and suspicious death of businessman Rex Fortescue at his London office. He was a wealthy but unscrupulous man, and he is found with grains of rye in his pocket. Later investigation reveals that he was poisoned, likely at his family home of Yewtree Lodge. The poison that killed him, taxine, is derived from the yew berry tree. Inspector Neele interviews Rex’s secretaries, family, and servants. Rex’s older son, Percival, will inherit the business, while the bulk of his fortune will go to his much younger wife, Adele, along with his daughter, Elaine. On the day of the murder, the family’s estranged younger son, Lancelot (Lance), announces his return from Kenya at his father’s behest, shocking the family. Brief scenes from his point of view establish that Lance was in Paris when his father died and that he is deeply devoted to his young wife, Pat, contemplating a respectable business career for her sake. After his arrival at the house, he warmly greets Adele and is welcomed back by his elderly aunt, Miss Ramsbottom, who tells him that she suspects that the housemaid, Gladys Martin, knows more about the murder than she has revealed. Lance asks her a series of questions to determine if Gladys has visited the police, foreshadowing the revelation that he tricked her into poisoning Rex.

Neele’s investigation soon grows more complicated, as Adele is murdered with poison in her tea on the same day that Gladys is found strangled with a clothespin on her nose. Neele previously suspected Adele of murdering Rex, as she would gain the most from his death and was having an affair with her golf instructor. From the extremely competent but highly cynical housekeeper, Miss Mary Dove, Neele learns that the entire family is motivated by money and intensely dislikes Rex and one another. Elaine is marrying a radical schoolteacher, Gerald Wright, now that her father can no longer forbid it, and she has inherited her share of the corporation. Fortunately for Neele, Miss Jane Marple soon arrives at Yewtree Lodge, eager to provide the family with information about Gladys, who was her housemaid not long before. The elderly spinster helps Neele see a motif in the murders: Rex died in his office with rye in his pocket, like the king in the nursery rhyme “Sing a Song of Sixpence,” who is concerned only with his money. His wife died during a tea where bread and honey were served in the household’s parlor. Gladys died in the garden, surrounded by the laundry, with a clothespin standing in for a bird pecking at her nose.

Miss Marple prevails upon Rex’s elderly sister-in-law, Miss Ramsbottom, to let her stay and tells Neele that blackbirds must feature in the case somewhere, if he can find them. He learns that Rex made an enemy of a woman named Mrs. Mackenzie, whose husband was Rex’s business partner. Mr. Mackenzie died on an expedition to the Blackbird Mine in East Africa, and his wife suspected Rex of murdering him. She promised that she or her children would murder Rex one day. Lance encourages this speculation, openly wondering if a member of the Mackenzie family is ensconced in the family. Jennifer, Percival’s wife, is increasingly nervous when asked about her knowledge of recent incidents where blackbirds were left in Rex’s desk and the savory pie for his dinner. Neele learns that the poison that killed Rex was administered via a new jar of marmalade, which only Rex ate for breakfast: This expands the number of suspects, as almost anyone could have tampered with the jar’s contents without attending the family meal. Neele learns that Mrs. Mackenzie has been placed in a psychiatric hospital and blames her daughter for abandoning the family vengeance scheme. Lance and Percival squabble over the future of the business, and Neele uncovers the family’s secret: Rex had been manifesting increasing symptoms of dementia as a result of syphilis, and his sudden death prevented the business from dissolving entirely.

Miss Marple finds herself drawn into confidences by the women of the household: Pat confides her dislike of the family’s greed and coldness, and Jennifer admits that her marriage to Percival is lonely and unhappy. Miss Marple investigates Gladys’s mood and outlook in her final days and learns that she was seeing a young man named Albert Evans. Neele comes to suspect Percival of the murder, as Rex’s will benefits him in the event of Adele’s death. Lance encourages these suspicions, though he privately admits to Neele that he has no interest in the family business.

Neele becomes increasingly concerned that the timing of the murders does not fit the nursery rhyme: Gladys was likely killed in the afternoon, before Adele drank poisoned tea and before her “place” in the rhyme. He decides that the killer must therefore be Ruby Mackenzie, who he believes is irrational. She coolly tells him to prove it. Miss Marple reveals to Neele the significance of Gladys getting dressed up before she died: She had been going to see Albert. Using a false identity, “Albert” had encouraged her to poison Rex under the guise of administering a truth serum that would reveal the depths of his crimes. Gladys was stunned to discover that the “potion” was fatal, accounting for her odd behavior after the murder. “Albert” then killed her to prevent her from revealing the truth.

Albert was really Lance, who killed Adele and his father to preserve the business and lied about being summoned back by Rex. He acted out of a selfish desire to provide Pat with the lifestyle he felt she deserved. Neele deduces that Rex’s final key asset was the Blackbird Mine, now rich with uranium deposits, which would have secured Lance’s fortune. Neele doesn’t have any material proof of Lance’s guilt, but Miss Marple is sure that he will find it. Miss Marple tells Neele that Jennifer is Ruby Mackenzie, and she confesses to putting dead blackbirds in Rex’s study, though she abandoned her mother’s murder scheme. Miss Dove had learned Jennifer’s identity and was blackmailing her. Neele discovers that Miss Dove is likely involved in burglaries that take place in the houses of former employers after she departs. He warns her that he will be keeping an eye on her.

As Neele hunts for evidence to convict Lance, Miss Marple bids farewell to the inhabitants of Yewtree Lodge. Miss Ramsbottom assures her that it is best that Lance face the consequences of his actions, though she has always been fond of him. Miss Marple tries to prepare Pat for the shock of her husband’s crimes, urging her to return to her roots in Ireland. Upon her return home, Miss Marple finds a letter from Gladys describing Albert’s plan and asking for her help proving his innocence. A photograph is enclosed, the final proof that Albert and Lance Fortescue are the same person. Miss Marple is triumphant, certain that Neele will be able to secure a conviction.