The Moving Finger
Crime, Mystery
Agatha Christie
Miss Mapple, Book # 3
HarperCollins Publishers
July 1942
Paperback
299
English
November 28, 2021 November 30, 2021
Beat the Backlist, Cloak and Dagger, Finishing The Series, Library Love, The Backlist Reader, Virtual Mount TBR
The placid village of Lymstock seems the perfect place for Jerry Burton to recuperate from his accident under the care of his sister, Joanna. But soon a series of vicious poison-pen letters destroys the village's quiet charm, eventually causing one recipient to commit suicide. The vicar, the doctor, the servants—all are on the verge of accusing one another when help arrives from an unexpected quarter. The vicar's houseguest happens to be none other than Jane Marple.
About the book
The book is narrated by Jerry Burton, a pilot who must remain calm after an injury and what could be better than a country holiday in the small town of Lymstok where nothing happens? So he is in this village when anonymous letters start arriving to most of the citizens. These letters, full of absurdities, end up creating two deaths. The potential culprits are many, but only Miss Marple will be able to solve the case.
What I think
First of all I would like to say that Agatha may well be famous, but she she lack off inventive here, the protagonist is called Burton and the owner of the house where he lives, is Barton 🤦♀️ (which for me are pronounced the same way even though I know it’s different, I believe).
Miss Marple is a very marginal character, she is introduced after 70% of the book and coincidentally she is the one who solves the case without ever being present. I know this should prove how good she is but I find it unreal.
The case is not bad, I like the narrator even if, when he takes the girl at heart, Megan, daughter of the woman found dead, it makes me laugh since he calls her “child”… I know we are in other times, but it feels like mentally ill man to me. And I stop here.
As said, the case is not so bad, but I can’t give more than three stars due to the fact that Miss Marple is missing for the most part (even if I usually can’t stand her) and because in the end the narrator marries that person (which obviously only those who have read the book can understand). I don’t know, I think Miss Marple is that character who you love or hate her and honestly she doesn’t give me anything, I prefer Poirot between the two major Christie series.
But I will finish this!
