Book Review
Oct. 3rd, 2025 09:26 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
kenjariThe Moving Finger
by Agatha Christie
This is the third Miss Marple mystery, although she plays a pretty small role in it. The main perspective on the whole thing is our narrator, Jerry Burton. He and his sister Joanna are renting a cottage in the small village of Lymstock while he convalesces from a serious but not permanent injury. Shortly after their arrival, they become aware of a series of anonymous letters being sent to the villagers alleging extremely scandalous goings-on. It's not long before Jerry and Joanna each receive one of these letters. The village treats the letters mostly as a nuisance, until one of the recipients is found dead, an apparent suicide.
As the police investigate, and Jerry and Joanna start puzzling it out with the eventual assistance of Miss Marple, they interact with a fascinating set of characters and learn a lot about the villagers, their relationships, and their potentials as poison pen writers and murderers. This collection of characters was the best thing about the book - seeing how they all fit together and the ways in which they were all candidates for the culprit was a delight. Jerry is a great narrator, too. I wasn't trying too hard to figure it all out, so the resolution was a surprise, but worked very well and was satisfying.
by Agatha Christie
This is the third Miss Marple mystery, although she plays a pretty small role in it. The main perspective on the whole thing is our narrator, Jerry Burton. He and his sister Joanna are renting a cottage in the small village of Lymstock while he convalesces from a serious but not permanent injury. Shortly after their arrival, they become aware of a series of anonymous letters being sent to the villagers alleging extremely scandalous goings-on. It's not long before Jerry and Joanna each receive one of these letters. The village treats the letters mostly as a nuisance, until one of the recipients is found dead, an apparent suicide.
As the police investigate, and Jerry and Joanna start puzzling it out with the eventual assistance of Miss Marple, they interact with a fascinating set of characters and learn a lot about the villagers, their relationships, and their potentials as poison pen writers and murderers. This collection of characters was the best thing about the book - seeing how they all fit together and the ways in which they were all candidates for the culprit was a delight. Jerry is a great narrator, too. I wasn't trying too hard to figure it all out, so the resolution was a surprise, but worked very well and was satisfying.
