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Words, the Most Dangerous Weapons of All
| Customer Rating:  | "Such a peaceful smiling happy countryside - and down underneath, something evil..."
-- The Moving Finger, p. 28
After a wartime plane crash, Jerry Burton's doctor advises him to find a nice, quiet country village and "live the life of a vegetable" to speed along the recuperation process. Jerry and his sister Joanna settle in Lymstock, an idyllic country town that is three miles from a main road. It is a place where, as an astonished Joanna observes, "People really call - with cards!"
Jerry's peaceful, vegetative life in Lymstock is, however, soon shattered. A few days after their arrival, Jerry receives a malicious anonymous letter. The letter alleges that the Burtons are not brother and sister, but an unmarried couple living in sin. Jerry and Joanna are initially quite amused by the novelty of receiving such a letter, but they soon view the letter as a sign of something much more sinister.
All of Lymstock, it seems, has been receiving these letters. When a woman apparently commits suicide after receiving a letter, the search for the writer intensifies. After another character is murdered, presumably by the anonymous writer, a palpable fear settles over the community. Neighbor suspects neighbor and the whole of Lymstock wonders who amongst them could be capable of such despicable acts.
The indomitable Miss Marple makes her first appearance in the last quarter of the novel. For a less skillful writer than Dame Christie, the lack of the primary character could have made this story very tedious for the reader, but Christie's characters are so well-drawn and compelling that the reader does not notice the loss. The primary sleuthing has been done by Jerry and a few of the other residents of Lymstock, but only Miss Marple is able to connect the myriad of clues and bring the killer to justice.
The Moving Finger was originally published in the United States in 1942. For a novel that is over sixty years old, it has aged incredibly well. Agatha Christie's extraordinary understanding of human nature gives her characters and her stories a timeless quality.
One of my favorite Christie novels, The Moving Finger is a compelling read that will keep you guessing until the end. |
Bleak and beautiful
| Customer Rating: | Agatha Christie is an English prodigy. She is able to transform some banal and particularly obnoxious situation into some kind of normal banality. And Miss Marple is the old spinster she uses most of the time to do this. Urban bleakness will go to Hercule Poirot, the continental and Belgian private eye, the very challenger of Sherlock Holmes. The bleakness of a village where everyone is locked up in set roles they have to play day after day and forever. Let some new character appear and everything is prone to tilt over without even showing what is really happening. Since one cannot get out of his or her role, he or she is going to correct the problem to his or her advantage and without anyone knowing about it. So let's have a smoke screen to cover up in advance what is really happening. Then let's do some surgical operation to get rid of what has to be gotten rid of. And then let's do it and pray for salvation (not to be found out for the criminal, and for that criminal to be sent to the gallows for the reader). Of course Agatha Christie shows how the truth can only be discovered by someone from outside because anyone from inside, including the police, will be blind to small details and will be trapped into blindness by the smoke screen. But the truth can only come from someone who knows exactly what it is to live in a small village. The two people from London cannot discover the truth though they are the only ones to see the real facts. It takes Miss Marple to put the real facts in perspective and then to do the slightly illegal act that will get the wolf out of the wood, using an innocent girl as bait. Miss Marple has a sorry side to her personality: and she is not even sorry about it: "we are not put into this world, Mr Burton, to avoid danger when an innocent fellow-creature's life is at stake". And she forgets that the bait is put in danger by her because the double murderer is quite satisfied by now even if a third person could be sent to the gallows for his crime. And strangely enough she forgets the two young sons of the murderer in the final settlement of the novel. And Agatha Christie adds one charming touch on top of that: she manages to get two marriages arranged in that small village, probably to make us forget that two people were killed there too. And that's the discreet charm of Agatha Christie that is inimitable and will remain so forever I guess.
Dr Jacques COULARDEAU, University Paris Dauphine, University Paris 1 Pantheon Sorbonne & University Versailles Saint Quentin en Yvelines
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This is a great book
| Customer Rating:  | I really enjoyed this novel, it was a great read. I was certain I had figured out who the murderer was and I hoped I had gotten it wrong because quite often I am able to guess the murderer in Agatha Christie's books, but however this time I was wrong and the true identity was a nice surprise.
Jerry and his sister Joanna move to the countryside for Jerry's health after a serious injury he received during the war. However it seems that this was the wrong place to move to to get a bit of relaxation because when they arrive they discover that a lot of people have been receiving anonymous letters. Soon Mrs Symmington receives an anonymous letter and apparently kills herself as a result. Soon a proper murder occurs and the police find themself in a complicated murder inquiry. It seems the right idea for one of the villagers to call in some help, and Ms Marple comes along. One problem with this book was that Ms Marple only came in in the last few chapters and she is hardly in the chapters that she is in, excluding the chapter where she cleverly reveals all.
This is a highly enjoyable on and I highly reccomend it. One other thing that I might add is that if you like a bit of romance in her books ( agatha christie doesn't usually bother with this in her books ) this book has got some. |
Bullseye!
| Customer Rating: | | Agatha Christie's Miss Marple has been tremendously well served by Joan Hickson, first on television and now on CD. This unabridged version of my favourite Marple is excellent; JH makes the most of the various characters and the nuances of the plot. Although 'The Moving Finger', like 'Murder at the Vicarage', has a first person narrator (here the injured pilot Jerry), JH takes this in her stride and really conjures up the atmosphere of the village in the grip of the deadly poison pen. Can Miss Marple intervene to prevent more deaths? Is the Pope a Catholic? |
The Moving Finger
| Customer Rating: | | “The Moving Finger” is one of my favourite Agatha Christie books because not only is it a classic whodunit of classic Christie proportions but it’s also an extremely sweet love story with some brilliant characters. Poor Jerry Burton is a Royal Air Force pilot who has been shot down in action in the Second World War. Ordered to convalesce by his doctor in a quiet countryside backwater he and his sister, Joanna, decide to rent a small cottage in the rural tranquillity of the small village of Lymstock. They soon settle down to the gentle ways of the small village and get to know the local characters; prim and proper Miss Emily Barton (from whom they have rented the cottage) Dr Griffith, shy and devoted to his patients and who seems to have taken a shine to Joanna. Then there’s Dr Griffith’s sister the redoubtable Aimee, hale and hearty and forever trying to organise everyone else. Finally there’s the Symmington family consisting of Richard Symmington the local solicitor, his wife their two sons and their very attractive and young governess Elsie Holland. Mrs Symmington also has a daughter from her first marriage the awkward but somehow charming Megan All seems to be going well until the Burtons receive a poisonous letter and it would seem that several other of the villagers have also received one or more of these malicious letters. Unfortunately one is sent to Mrs Symmington and it would seem that the contents disturb her so much that shortly after receiving the letter she takes her own life. When shortly after this tragic event the Symmington’s maid is murdered the police are called in and they begin work to find out who is behind the letters. The local vicar’s wife, Mrs Dane Calthrop also decides to take action and call in an old friend of hers, a petite and frail looking little old lady call Miss Jane Marple. As I say, not only is the book a classic Christie murder mystery will all the usual ingredients of jealous loves, legacies and social classes but it also has a double love story concerning both Jerry and Joanna Burton. Although the love story seems unlikely and old fashioned when reading it today it still comes over as extremely charming. Although Miss Marple does appear in the book, she doesn’t pop up until the last couple of chapters so any big fans of hers might be slightly disappointed, but considering the rest of excellent value of the book they have no reason to be so. |
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