The Moving Finger

The Moving Finger (1943) Agatha Christie (Miss Marple)

Jerry and his sister Joanna have taken a house in Lymstock while Jerry recovers from a plane crash.

This book is set at a time just as British society was changing.

When we had settled in and been at Little Furze a week Miss Emily Barton came solemnly and left cards. Her example was followed by Mrs Symmington, the lawyer’s wife, Miss Griffith, the doctor’s sister, Mrs Dane Calthrop, the vicar’s wife, and Mr Pye of Prior’s End.

Joanna was very much impressed.

‘I didn’t know,’ she said in an awestruck voice, ‘that people really called— with cards.’

She dangled the letter thoughtfully by one corner and asked what we were to do with it.

‘The correct procedure, I believe,’ I said, ‘is to drop it into the fire with a sharp exclamation of disgust.’

I suited the action to the word, and Joanna applauded.

‘You did that beautifully,’ she added. ‘You ought to have been on the stage. It’s lucky we still have fires, isn’t it?’

‘The waste-paper basket would have been much less dramatic,’

A spate of anonymous letters, accusing the good people of Lymstock of various tawdry actions, however, puts the community into an upheaval, and eventually something terrible happens.

Although Miss Marple comes in at the last minute, Lymstock has its own ladies looking to set things right.

Her clear uninterested eyes looked at me thoughtfully, and I suddenly understood why Lymstock was afraid of Mrs Dane Calthrop.

In everybody’s life there are hidden chapters which they hope may never be known. I felt that Mrs Dane Calthrop knew them.

Despite not having a great deal of Miss Marple, I do like this story.

Publisher: William Morrow Paperbacks
Rating: 7.5/10

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