Sleeping Murder — Agatha Christie, Dodd Mead 1976

📖 Sleeping Murder: Miss Marple’s Last Case by Agatha Christie (1976, Dodd, Mead & Company) — the final Miss Marple novel, published posthumously. This first US edition hardcover with original dust jacket by S. Neil Fujita is a true Christie farewell: she wrote the manuscript during the Blitz in 1940 and placed it in a bank vault for posthumous publication, alongside Curtain (Poirot’s last case).

QUICK FACTS

• Author: Agatha Christie (1890–1976)
• Publisher: Dodd, Mead & Company, New York
• Year: 1976 (First US Edition)
• Format: Hardcover (cloth-backed boards) in dust jacket
• Pages: 256 | ISBN: 0-396-07828-7
• Original price: $7.95 (per jacket flap)
• Condition: Book VG/VG+, Jacket G/G+ — full report below

THE STORY

Newlywed Gwenda Reed travels from New Zealand to find a home in England and purchases Hillside, a Victorian seaside villa that feels hauntingly familiar. When renovation workers open a long-sealed door, they discover the exact wallpaper Gwenda had envisioned — and a doorway between rooms that existed years earlier. During a performance of The Duchess of Malfi, Gwenda screams at the line “Cover her face; mine eyes dazzle; she died young” — she has just seen a man speak those exact words while strangling a blonde woman she thinks of as Helen. Miss Marple is called in to unravel a decades-old crime buried in the architecture of the house itself.

THIS EDITION

The 1976 Dodd, Mead first US edition is the book’s true first appearance in America. Originally titled Murder in Retrospect (and before that, Cover Her Face), the manuscript changed titles multiple times after P. D. James used Cover Her Face for her 1962 debut. Christie authorized publication in October 1976 but died before it reached shelves. The UK edition (Collins Crime Club) retailed at £3.50; the US edition at $7.95. It was one of the bestselling books of 1976.

COVER ART / DESIGN

Dust jacket design by S. Neil Fujita (© 1976). The jacket features a pale yellow/cream background with bold typography — “Agatha Christie” in dark brown serif and “Sleeping Murder” in a stylized orange-brown font. The subtitle “Miss Marple’s Last Case” appears in smaller black text. The spine repeats the same color scheme with “DODD, MEAD” at the base. Beneath the jacket, the boards are pumpkin-colored paper over a brown cloth spine — a handsome two-tone design. This copy has deep maroon sprayed upper edges and deckled outer edges.

WHY IT MATTERS

• Agatha Christie’s final published novel — the 15th Miss Marple book and her ultimate farewell to the character
• Included in H. R. F. Keating’s 100 Best Crime and Mystery Books
• Written during the Blitz (c. 1940) and held in a bank vault for 36 years before publication — Christie’s insurance policy against dying in the war
• The novel explicitly references the line from Webster’s The Duchess of Malfi as a plot device — “Cover her face; mine eyes dazzle; she died young” — connecting literature to murder in Christie’s signature style

FREQUENTLY ASKED

What edition is this? First US edition, published 1976 by Dodd, Mead & Company, New York. Hardcover with original dust jacket.

What condition is it in? Book is Very Good (VG) to Very Good+; dust jacket is Good (G) to Good+. Full condition report below.

Is the dust jacket included? Yes, the original dust jacket by S. Neil Fujita is included, with wear and closed tears along the upper edge as detailed in the condition report.

FOR COLLECTORS

The Dodd Mead first US edition is the definitive American printing of Christie’s last Miss Marple. The Fujita jacket design is distinctive — clean, typographic, unmistakably mid-1970s. Christie’s posthumous editions (Curtain in 1975, Sleeping Murder in 1976) carry a particular poignancy: these were the books she chose to outlive her, her final statements to readers. This copy’s bright jacket colors, tight binding, and clean internal pages make it a solid reading or collection copy.

Condition Report

Overall Grade: Book: Very Good (VG)/Very Good+ (VG+) // Jacket: Good (G)/Good+ (G+)

Cover & Spine: Pumpkin paper-wrapped boards over brown cloth spine. Boards are clean, not tanned, there is a light circular thin circle on the back board; front upper mildly bumped, the rest are sharp. Spine cloth uniform, lettering lightly rubbed in a few places; head and tail edges bumped.

Dust Jacket: Upper edge of the jacket has at least 4 closed tears along entire length, most with triangular creasing and a little loss. Lower edge has one at the back cover spine corners. Both flap folds have lower corner tips folded over. Colors are bright all around, not faded or sunned. Remnants of a round colored tag on front cover upper corner.

Text Block & Pages: Deep maroon sprayed upper edge uniform, not spotted. Deckled outer edge and lower edge are clean, bright, square. Internally the pages are clean and bright, no writing or marks. No loose, torn or folded pages.

Binding: Tight and square, with crisp, solid hinges front and back.

See accompanying images for full condition details. Will ship promptly, carefully packaged.

HFB-SEO-v1: 2026-09-16

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