A Pocket Full of Rye is a highly memorable Miss Marple novel, published in 1953, famous for its plot structure based on the traditional nursery rhyme "Sing a Song of Sixpence." The story begins when the wealthy, unpleasant businessman Rex Fortescue is poisoned at his office, and soon after, his wife is murdered at home. The police find grains of rye in Fortescue's pocket, connecting the crime to the rhyme. Miss Marple is drawn into the case when a connection is made to a former maid of hers. The subsequent murders follow the sequence of the rhyme, creating a chilling, almost ritualistic pattern. The novel is a superb example of Christie's ingenuity, as she cleverly uses the innocence of the nursery rhyme to conceal a deeply complex and cynical motive for murder.
