"For an instant the two trains ran side by side. In that frozen moment, Elspeth McGillicuddy stared helplessly out of her carriage window as a man tightened his grip around a woman's throat. She watched on as the body crumpled. Then the other train drew away. But who, apart from Mrs. McGillicuddy's friend Jane Marple, would take her story seriously? After all, there are no other witnesses, no suspects, and no case. How could there be, with no corpse...

After the death of her husband, Dolly Bantry sold Gossington Hall to the former film star Marina Gregg and her husband. When the glamorous couple decide to throw a benefit party for the local hospital, the grounds are thronged with curious visitors, and for one of them, the day ends in tragedy.

The placid village of Lymstock seems the perfect place for Jerry Burton to recuperate from his accident under the care of his sister, Joanna. But soon a series of vicious poison-pen letters destroys the village's quiet charm, eventually causing one recipient to commit suicide. The vicar, the doctor, the servants -- all are on the verge of accusing one another when help arrives from an unexpected quarter. The vicar's houseguest happens to be none other...

The murder of Colonel Protheroe -- shot through the head -- is a shock to everyone in St Mary Mead, though hardly an unpleasant one. Now even the vicar, who had declared that killing the detested Protheroe would be 'doing the world at large a favour, ' is a suspect -- the Colonel has been dispatched in the clergyman's study, no less. But the picturesque English village of St Mary Mead is overpopulated with suspects. There is of course the faithless...

"Miss Marple receives a letter from a dead man instructing her how to conduct an investigation into a puzzlingly unspecific crime. In utter disbelief, Miss Marple reads the letter addressed to her from the recently deceased Mr. Rafiel--an acquaintance she had met briefly on her travels. He had left instructions for her to investigate a crime after his death. The only problem was, he had failed to tell her who was involved or where and when the crime...

"Rex Fortescue, king of a financial empire, was sipping tea in his "counting house" when he suffered an agonizing and sudden death. On later inspection, the pockets of the deceased were found to contain traces of cereals. Yet, it was the incident in the parlor which confirmed Miss Marple's suspicion that here she was looking at a case of crime by rhyme."--Back cover.

"Soon after Gwenda moved into her new home, odd things started to happen. Despite her best efforts to modernize the house, she only succeeded in dredging up its past. Worse, she felt an irrational sense of terror every time she climbed the stairs. In fear, Gwenda turned to Miss Marple to exorcise her ghosts. Between them, they were to solve a 'perfect' crime committed many years before"--Page 4 of cover.

One Tuesday evening a group gathers at Miss Marple's house and the conversation turns to unsolved crimes ... As each of her guests is mystified by the sinister tales they tell one another, the company is inclined to forget their elderly host. But there is a ruthless precision in Miss Marple's pursuit of the killers in each tale ... and a few surprises in store for 'The Tuesday Night Club'.

The unifying premise for this short story collection is the Tuesday Club: six people who meet socially one evening at Jane Marple's home and then decide to meet regularly each Tuesday night to solve a mystery which a group member must relate.

Anonymous letters are sent to almost everyone in the quiet village of Lymstock. After suicide and murder occur, the vicar's wife calls in her own expert--Miss Jane Marple.