History Literature / TheThirteenProblems

* ContrivedCoincidence: In a few instances, the narrator of each tale only learns the truth because of some remarkable coincidence that seems highly implausible. In "The Idol House of Astarte" and "The Herb of Death," both Dr. Pender and Mrs. Bantry receives letters out of the blue from the killers in question confessing their role in their respective murders (Mrs. Bantry in particular lampshades the unlikely nature of this); in "The Companion," Dr. Lloyd just so happens to show up in Australia when the murderer is there; and in "The Blood-Stained Pavement," Joyce is visiting another randomly-selected seaside town when [[spoiler: the murderous couple from the previous year shows up to pull off their scheme again.]]

* ThatRemindsMeOfAStory: Miss Marple's M.O. Every case in the collection reminds her of a previous incident in her life, and she is able to determine the truth by making connections between the two. It's [[LampshadeHanging lampshaded]] by Sir Henry, who comments on her ability to draw "village parallels" no matter what she's hearing. Miss Marple herself explains that "human nature is very much the same everywhere," and so she's able to predict what people will do by recalling comparable situations from St. Mary Mead's history.

** The case in "The Blood-Stained Pavement" might not be as contrived as previously thought:[[spoiler: TheBluebeard has pulled off this scheme several times already (maybe even as many as a dozen). There's only so many seaside towns with the right combination of geography and isolation to pull off his signature scheme (remember, he gets caught because he uses the ''exact same method every time''), and by necessity he needs to keep well away from areas he's already used. It's not entirely contrived that someone else who goes to the same kind of places for innocent reasons would run across him sooner or later.]] It being Joyce who does so, however, might still qualify as this trope.

* HiddenDepths: "The Affair at the Bungalow" reveals that [[spoiler: Jane Helier isn't as dumb as she previously seemed to be; she was smart enough to devise a complex plan, and tell it to the group as something that had already happened to see if anyone else could figure it out. Miss Marple is the only one who does, and Jane, unlike many other would-be killers in Christie, is smart enough to decide against going through with her scheme.]]

* ImplacableMan: Weaponized by the killer in [[spoiler: "The Companion." Amy Durrant is the titular companion to the wealthy Mary Barton, but knows that since nearly every middle-aged English woman traveling abroad looks alike to the casual observer, she quickly murders Miss Barton and claims that ''she'' was the employer and the real Mary ''her'' companion. The trick works because no one else at the hotel where they're staying has known them long enough to think otherwise.]]

** In "The Four Suspects," Miss Marple notes that [[spoiler: the word "Honesty" in a letter from a mysterious person is capitalized, pointing that out to Mrs. Bantry. The two women then realize that ''all'' of the capitalized words in the letter, including Honesty, is a specific breed of dahlia, with their initial letters spelling "DEATH" as a secret message.]]

** The case in "The Blood-Stained Pavement" might not be as contrived as previously thought:[[spoiler: TheBluebeard has pulled off this scheme several times already (maybe even as many as a dozen); it's the insurance companies that become suspicious, even if he must use a different company every time. There's only so many seaside towns with the right combination of geography and isolation to pull off his signature scheme (remember, he gets caught because he uses the ''exact same method every time''), and by necessity he needs to keep well away from areas he's already used. It's not entirely contrived that someone else who goes to the same kind of places for innocent reasons would run across him sooner or later.]] It being Joyce who does so, however, might still qualify as this trope.

** Also in "The Affair at the Bungalow", Jane Helier mentions that at the time of the incident, she was playing the lead in W Somerset Maughm's play "Smith", and Dolly Bantry mentions "You're reviving it this autumn, aren't you?". [[spoiler: This foreshadows that Jane's scheme is not only connected with that play, as her costume is needed for the plan, but is yet to actually happen. [[GeniusBonus Someone familiar with the play would know]] that the lead character - which Jane would obviously be playing - is a domestic servant, hinting that Jane herself would play the fake Jane Helier's maid.]]

* HiddenDepths: "The Affair at the Bungalow" reveals that [[spoiler: Jane Helier isn't as dumb as she previously seemed to be; she was smart enough to devise a complex plan and tell it to the group as something that had already happened to see if Miss Marple could figure it out.]]

** In "Motive V. Opportunity," it's mentioned in passing that Grace Clode marries a chemist after moving in with her uncle Simon. [[spoiler: He was probably the person who provided the disappearing ink to the younger Clodes to prevent Simon from disinheriting them, as it was composed of water, starch, and iodine, all things that he had in his possession.]]

** Mrs. Bantry in general is constantly described as flower-obsessed; when stories aren't being told, she's either reading garden catalogues or planning her latest border. [[spoiler: As might be expected, this knowledge lets her help Miss Marple solve the mystery in "The Four Suspects.")

** Joyce Lemprière, the artist, boasts that not only does her history of world travel and ability to literally draw the world help her, but she also has the [[WomenAreWiser innate advantages of being a woman]] at her disposal;

* WritingIndentationClue: In "The Tuesday Night Club", very shortly before his well-off wife dies, Mr. Jones writes a letter; the rather suspicious phrases "entirely dependent on my wife... when she is dead... hundreds and thousands" are picked up from the blotting-paper. He explains, however, that he was writing a reply to his brother who had asked for money; whilst he would have money after his wife was dead, he had none currently, and that hundreds and thousands of people were in the same boat. [[spoiler:He's lying, but the "hundreds and thousands" do not refer to money, but to the dessert topping,[[note]]"sprinkles" or "jimmies" to you Yanks[[/note]] which was his means of poisoning his wife.]]

* WifeHusbandry: The desire of [[spoiler:Sir Ambrose from "The Herb of Death". He's a [[TheYandere Yandere]] in love with his younger ward Sylvia, whom he murders to stop her from marrying someone else, after realising that opposing the match openly would be pointless.]]

* ObviouslyEvil: Mr. Kelvin in "Ingots of Gold" is presented as an unpleasant and suspicious character. [[spoiler:He's actually been made a scapegoat in an elaborate plot.]]

** In "The Companion", Miss Barton seems like an obvious suspect for an earlier suspicious drowning leaves a suicide note and herself is presumed drowned; her body is not found. In fact, she [[spoiler:had been using a fake identity when she killed the real Miss Barton and stole ''her'' identity; the faked suicide allowed her to return to her own identity.]]

* LineOfSightName: Played with at the beginning of "The Tuesday Night Club"; Joyce tries to think of a proper name for their spontaneously-made club, so she simply asks "What day of the week is it?" While it isn't stated that there's a calendar in her line of sight, it seems likely.
* LostWillAndTestament: In "Motive vs. Opportunity", Simon's will had been recently rewritten to leave all his money to a PhonyPsychic, instead of his family. However, when the envelope that should have contained the will is opened, all it contains is a piece of blank paper. [[spoiler: Then it's subverted, as the will is still right where it was, but was written with an ink solution that vanishes, leaving no trace.]]

* {{Foreshadowing}}: Jane Helier's initial attempt to conceal the fact that she herself is the subject of her story, "The Affair at the Bungalow", foreshadows [[spoiler:her concealment of the fact that she herself is the mastermind of the crime she's describing - though it is just a plan and has not yet been committed.]]

* NotSoFakeWeapon: In "The Herb of Death", Sir Henry mentions a case where someone was shot with an antique pistol that had been hanging on the wall, and they had to work out who had opportunity to tamper with the weapon, and who brought the conversation round to where someone would do this, because the person who actually fired it was entirely innocent.

''The Thirteen Problems'', also known as ''The Tuesday Club Murders'', is a mystery short story collection by Creator/AgathaChristie, featuring the first canonical appearance of Literature/MissMarple. Although ''The Thirteen Problems'' was published as a collection in 1932 - the year after the first Marple novel ''Literature/MurderAtTheVicarage'' - the individual short stories had been published separately beforehand in magazines between 1927 and 1931.