The Moving Finger by
Agatha Christie
hbk out March 00
Published by Collins Crime
at £15.99
A spate of anonymous letters forms the prelude to murder in this classic village mystery. The narrator is Jerry Burton, who has been invalided out of the Royal Air Force and gone to stay with his sister Joanna in seemingly tranquil Lymstock. The recuperative idyll is disturbed when Jerry receives a virulent unsigned diatribe; he and Joanna laugh it off, but it soon emerges that similarly unpleasant letters have been sent to others, including the local solicitor and doctor. The lawyer, Symmington, involves the police, but the culprit cannot be traced. Tragedy strikes when Symmington's nervy wife Mona is found dead. She has apparently received one of the letters, and although the allegations it contained did not have a grain of truth, it has tipped her over the edge and she has committed suicide. When murder follows, the stage is set for the belated entrance of Miss Marple, summoned by one of the village residents, who believes that her friend's gift for understanding human nature will help to cast light on
who is poisoning the life of the Lymstock community. This is an entertaining mystery, breezily told and with plentiful romance and a
plausible solution.
(
Martin Edwards
- author of the highly acclaimed Harry Devlin Mysteries)
