- Miss Marple investigates when a young girl's dead body is found in her good friend's library.
- The corpse of a young girl is discovered in the library of Gossington Hall. The murder victim is platinum blonde and dressed appropriately for a party, but the middle-aged homeowners of the Hall have not invited any party guests. In fact, Colonel Arthur Bantry and his wife Dolly have no idea who that girl was. The local police is called to investigate. Dolly tasks the amateur detective Jane Marple to find answers to this mystery.—Dimos I
- Dolly Bantry is awakened one morning by housemaid Mary, who blurts out that a body has been found in the library. Dolly awakens her husband Colonel Arthur Bantry and insists that he go downstairs and look into this extraordinary claim. The colonel is met at the bottom of the stairs by his servants, headed by Lorrimer the butler who confirms there is a dead woman on the library's hearth rug.
As the police are notified the Colonel suggests that Dolly contact her friend Miss Marple for emotional support, with an idea she could also look into the crime, it being established that the dead woman was strangled. Dolly heads off to collect Jane and they return to Gossington Hall and the scene of the crime. Local Constable Palk arrives and they assure him they did not disturb the scene. In their short time in the library Jane notes how young, and cheaply dressed the dead girl is.
No one at the Hall recognizes the dead girl and Chief Constable Melchett, a friend of the Bantrys, begins his investigation by trying to identify the victim. He is told one possibility is the ostentatious platinum blonde girlfriend of equally ostentatious Basil Blake, a local whose lifestyle reflects his profession in "the pictures." While interviewing Blake at his home, the girlfriend arrives in a temper, having been left the night before at a party. So obviously she is not the victim.
Joining Melchett in the case is Inspector Slack, who is by-the-book and abrupt and rubs his superior the wrong way, although he is very efficient. They learn that a young woman was reported missing from a seaside hotel and drive to the location. The missing girl is 18 year old Ruby Keene, and the policemen return with her cousin Josie.
Josie is a dancer / hostess at the hotel and explains she brought Ruby to the hotel to take her place in the dance shows after she hurt her ankle. Josie identifies the corpse as Ruby, but claims she's never heard of Gossington Hall or the Bantrys.
Inspector Slack had discovered that Arthur Bantry dined at the hotel the previous week, and suggests they bring Josie to the Hall to see what reaction they get when the two meet. They do so, which gives Jane an opportunity to glean more information about the dead girl from the fact that her cousin seems more annoyed by the murder than grief-stricken.
Josie confirms she's never met Colonel Bantry and also that she was not the one reporting her cousin missing; that was done by an older man staying at the hotel by the name of Conway Jefferson, who is also a friend of the Bantrys.
Jefferson is an invalid, caused by a plane crash that killed his wife and two adult children. He lives with his daughter- and son-in-law and had taken a liking to Ruby, even planning to adopt her and provide handsomely for her in his will.
Returning to the Majestic Hotel, the police are joined by Inspector Harper, whose territory the hotel is in. They interview hotel staff, including Raymond Starr, the hotel tennis pro and Josie's and Ruby's dance partner. He confirms that Ruby missed the midnight dance routine and that he and Josie looked for her with no success. They also question a guest, George Bartlett, a young man who had been seen with Ruby the night before. They are interested in looking over his car for evidence Ruby was in it, but eventually discover the car is missing from the hotel. The police then question Mr. Jefferson and his daughter-in-law Adelaide and son-in-law Mark. They confirm that Ruby had become an important person in the older man's life. They discover that after the accident that crippled him, Jefferson split his fortune between Adelaide and Mark, which seemed to discount them from having a motive to remove Ruby (although Jefferson's grandson had already indicated that Adelaide and Mark had made remarks about Ruby's death "taking care of that.")
Meanwhile Dolly suggests that she and Jane spend a few days at the Majestic. It would give Arthur time to compose himself and aid in Jane's unraveling of the case. Jane knows the quicker it is solved the better since Arthur's reputation is bound to suffer at the hands of the local St. Mary Mead gossips. And so the women decamp to the seaside hotel.
Back in St. Mary Mead a young man named Malcolm accosts Constable Palk and says he had found a body. Knowing that Malcolm had some learning challenges Palk dismisses the claim, thinking he is trying to take credit for finding the body at Gossington Hall. Malcolm then bikes to a spot where he in fact confirms that he did find a body - the charred remains of one in a burnt out car.
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![Joan Hickson in Miss Marple: The Body in the Library (1984)](https://m.media-amazon.com/images/M/MV5BNDA4OGVhZjMtODE0Mi00N2U0LWIxY2EtZTRlZjE1ZDBjMjAzXkEyXkFqcGdeQXVyMTUzMTEzMTA@._V1_QL75_UY133_CR44,0,90,133_.jpg)
Top Gap
What is the broadcast (satellite or terrestrial TV) release date of Part 1 (1984) in Australia?
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