Surprisingly boring, this one. The action takes a very long time to get started and even at the halfway point, I still had no idea what mystery or crime we were trying to solve. Characters spend *the longest* time recounting stories/narratives, but it never feels like these recitals add that much new information. The mystery, when it finally arrives, is fine, I guess, but the entire book is much, much longer than it needed to be.

Whereas A Pocketful of Rye had some (poorly executed) Arthurian resonances, Nemesis leans more into Greek allusions, particularly those from The Oresteia.

Here it works: the comparison between Clotilde and Clytemnestra--both possessed by a love so jealous and obsessive that it justifies any other crime, both suffering from the torment of the Furies in the aftermath of committing murder--is resonant without being too heavy-handed. Anthea is a kind of suffering Electra, and Miss Marple gets to take her place as the unlikely Nemesis/Fury here to bring justice.

But speaking of justice…wasn’t Michael Rafael a rapist? This was established, right, that he’d raped some women even before he ever met Verity? So why are we rooting for him to get out of jail and meet a nice, new girl? Like, Miss Marple is a nice old lady and all, but yikes, don’t take relationship advice from her…