Forgotten Kill

Gwenda Reed, nee Holiday - a woman of 21 years old, an Englishwoman born in India , where her father served, and then spent her whole life in New Zealand with her mother's relatives. Gwenda’s mother died when she was two years old, her father a few years later, Gwenda’s parents practically do not remember. Recently, she married Giles Reed, the newlyweds decided to settle in England . Gwenda finds a house in the resort town of Dilmouth, quite old, but in good condition. Here she immediately feels at home; she thinks she always lived here. Gwenda buys a house, begins work on putting the house and garden in order. Strange things begin: the further, the more Gwenda receives confirmation that she knows from somewhere how everything was in this house and in the garden twenty years ago. She becomes creepy, because she never lived in England.

Gwenda and Giles are visiting a friend of Giles, Raymond West, in London . In the theater, on the production of the play “ Duchess of Malfi ” by Webster , when the words sound: “Cover her face. I can not see. She died young ... ", Gwende becomes unbearably scared. She suddenly sees herself standing in her house upstairs, in front of the staircase to the hall, looking down. Down there, a young woman with blond hair and a blue face is lying on the floor - she is strangled. Someone’s male voice pronounces this very phrase: “Cover her face ...” The man’s faces are not visible, only his hands are visible, gray, wrinkled, like monkey legs. Unable to overcome fear, Gwenda flees from the play, returns to the house of friends and goes to bed, almost sure that she is going crazy.

The next morning, Raymond's elderly aunt, Miss Marple , reassures Gwenda and asks to talk about the reasons for the breakdown. She talks about all the strange coincidences and her fears. She even recalls the name of the murdered woman - Helen, although she still does not understand how she knows this. Gwenda is desperate, but Miss Marple offers not to rush to conclusions and consider another possibility: that Gwenda really lived in this house for some time as a child. And it turns out: after India, Gwenda lived for some time with her father and stepmother in the south of England. All predictions are explained: Gwenda accidentally saw the house where she lived as a child, and, thanks to childhood memories, she liked her so much that she bought it. Coincidence is unlikely, but quite possible.

But now, in the hands of the newlyweds Reed and Miss Marple, there is an old, eighteen-year-old riddle: if everything that Gvenda remembered was in fact, it means that a murder happened in the house that remained unsolved, because none of the old-timers remembers any murder in this house . Miss Marple persistently advises young people to leave this topic: an investigation of a long-committed crime will not bring any practical benefits, but it may turn out to be unsafe for both the nerves of the spouses and their life. However, Giles and Gwenda are determined to uncover the old secret. Guessing that her advice would not work, Miss Marple arrives at the resort in Dilmouth to tackle the mystery of Gwenda's memories and, if possible, protect young people from the dangers of such an investigation. However, another murder takes place.

“Forgotten Murder” is the chronologically last novel about Miss Marple, but it was one of the first to be written back in 1940 . Not wanting to complete the series about the adventures of Miss Marple, Agatha Christie did not publish this novel, as a result it was published only in 1976 , after the death of the writer.

• In 1986, the Air Force television movie was filmed with Joan Hickson in the title role.
• In 2007, another film was shot by ITV , starring Geraldine McEwan .