Miss Marple invites a group of acquaintances to her home for the Tuesday Night Club, where they engage in a competitive intellectual exercise of solving cold cases and mysterious crimes. The protagonist, Jane Marple, utilizes her keen observation of human nature and rural village life to dismantle complex puzzles presented by her guests. These guests, representing various professional backgrounds, offer their own theories, yet they consistently fail to match the elderly spinster's sharp, intuitive logic. The narrative framework is episodic, structured as a series of parlor-room discussions where each participant presents a conundrum that Miss Marple subsequently resolves.

This collection is widely regarded as a quintessential example of the classic whodunit format, showcasing the early development of one of literature's most iconic detectives. Readers frequently highlight the cleverness of the individual puzzles and the charm of the domestic setting, which contrasts sharply with the grim nature of the crimes discussed. The book is often praised for its economy of prose and the way it establishes Miss Marple's unique methodology of comparing criminal behavior to village life. It remains a staple for those interested in the evolution of the mystery genre and the structural ingenuity of Christie's short-form storytelling.