Agatha CHRISTIE : The moving finger - Miss Marple #3

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... 

 

 

 

Many readers are disappointed by this one because they all expect a Miss Marple mystery complete with plenty of Jane Marple on the inside and they are aghast to see, in fact, very little of her. I wasn't disappointed because, as much as I adore Miss Marple, the story itself and the characters were very engaging and I read it delightfully, with tea and biscuits on the side.

It's the classic poison-pen story : people receive degrading letters and everybody is at loss as to who wrote them - or conjecturing wildly. This takes place into one of these villages where people all know each other and can't believe one of them did it but are quick to suspect everyone. The whole case is told from the point of view of Jerry Burton, ex-pilot who came to Lymstock with his sister for peace and quiet in order to recover from a war accident. Little did he expect what he found ! 

I loved every minute of it, the atmosphere, the suspicion, the characters, Agatha Christie's wonderful sense of humour, such as in these quotes :

 

"In novels, I have noticed, anonymous letters of a foul and disgusting character are never shown, if possible, to women. It is implied that women must at all cost be shielded from the shock it might give their delicate nervous systems.

I am sorry to say it never occurred to me not to show the letter to Joanna."

"What on earth is this ?"

"Oh", said Joanna, "I think it's a photograph of a diseased spleen or something. Dr Griffith seemed to think I'd be interested to see it."

I looked at the photograph with some interest. Every man has his own way of courting the female sex. I should not, myself, choose to do it with photographs of spleens, diseased or otherwise."

Aaaaaaaah, so good !