The Moving Finger
Ratings72
Average rating3.6
“There is too much tendency to attribute to God the evils that man does of his own free will. I must concede you the Devil. God doesn't really need to punish us, Miss Barton. We're so busy punishing ourselves.”
Summer and winter are begging for an Agatha Christie masterpiece. Well, any season is fine, really, but extreme heat and extreme cold make most us seek a nice, cozy atmosphere, a good mystery (and what Agatha mystery isn't good?) and the lovely Miss Marple. Every July and August I re-read Miss Marple's adventures and I usually reserve winter for lovely Hercule. In any case, The Moving Finger is one my most favourite Marple mysteries.
The gossiping community, the theme of self-harm, the position of the girl that fits nowhere, the uncompromising socialite with a heart of gold...This is a very particular mystery among Jane's escapades because it is populated with very interesting, complex characters and I've always felt that this is a story where the mystery has been given a secondary role, letting characters like Jerry, Megan and Joanna shine through the pages. It is not accidental that Marple appears rather late and yet she is not missed at all. And I've always had a fondness for stories that include threatening letters and a sassy vicar's wife...
The 2006 ITV adaptation was rather marvellous as well.
“A man travels fastest who travels alone.”
藏在匿名信背后的简单谋杀案，最后马普尔小姐出场，从人性出发，才找到凶手——那个为了新娶一个美貌的教师为妻的人。和其他作品相比，这本书的观感不是很好，或许是没有什么新意，或许是阅读过程比较碎片化，最终我不太喜欢这本书。
I'm not sure how to feel about it, the whole letter idea is very intriguing, but the execution and lack of Miss Marple (she's in the book for like, 10 pages?) left me wanting a bit more. The Poirot series doesn't compare to Marple (maybe because Agatha likes for Marple to not even be in her own series?) from what I've read till now...
Although an enjoyable story, it was slow going and not much happened in the end. Also not a huge amount of Marple. She could easily have not featured and the book wouldn't have missed her.
I'm writing this a bit after finishing the book, and the crime/killer apparently wasn't at all memorable to me, because I completely forgot about it until I googled it. It was a good book though, as is, in my opinion, every Agatha Christie murder mystery, but what I think sets this novel apart is the characters, and by that I mean the sibilings. I found them both really charming and funny, and their presence as outsiders in the town was relatable to the reader. They both had more personality than the average Christie character (excluding recurring ones), and while the lack of personality is not a deal-breaker, or even an issue, to me in these types of books (hot take?), it made reading this particular novel really fun.
It's not a Miss Marple mystery really, more of a Miss Marple cameo. The mystery was interesting but it got all sidetracked with the town gossip. I guess it's the point of the book, but with the narrator not being part of the mystery or trying actively to figure it out, it got a bit boring. The mystery in itself is as always good, it being written by Agatha Christie.
I was totally drawn in from the beginning with Jerry Burton's narration, he's a bit of a numpty but that makes the character all the more believable. Once again I had no clue as to who was behind anything (no spoilers here) and certainly didn't expect the surprise guest (which, I now notice, Goodreads spoils).
Thoroughly recommended to all Christie fans. Once again I had the pleasure of reading a lovely old paperback with a beautiful cover, only spoilt by the glue having given up so half the book kept falling out!
I have been reading through all of Christie's mysteries chronologically and this one felt very much like The Murder of Roger Ackroyd, but had a different ending. I must say, I loved the narrator and found myself laughing out loud at various points. I am starting to think like Christie a bit and see patterns in her plots (thirty books in I suppose that's to be expected) so I guessed the perpetrator from the point of the murder, though I am happy to say that isn't always the case. It is a Poison Pen novel, which was refreshing–though it bears nothing on Gaudy Night, Dorothy Sayers's famed Poison Pen novel of the same era. One thing to note: it barely can be considered a Miss Marple novel. It honestly feels like the publishers were discouraging her from writing one-off mysteries so she had to bring in a beloved character backhandedly. It's still one of my favorites thus far, and that's saying something!
I found it bizarre that Miss Marple appeared in page 225/300 and had a virtually nonexistent role in the plot until the penultimate chapter where she explained the solution to the murder.
Not my favorite. I didn't really like the narrator and the resolution was just fine. The mystery was lacking a bit. Miss Marple didn't even show up till two thirds of the way through and was very peripheral at that.