{"id":3459,"date":"2013-01-09T19:59:37","date_gmt":"2013-01-10T00:59:37","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/klishis.com\/reading\/?p=3459"},"modified":"2025-10-01T16:12:49","modified_gmt":"2025-10-01T20:12:49","slug":"the-moving-finger","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/klishis.com\/reading\/archives\/3459","title":{"rendered":"The Moving Finger"},"content":{"rendered":"

The Moving Finger<\/a><\/em> (1943) Agatha Christie<\/a><\/p>\n

\"The<\/a>Jerry Burton and his sister Joanna have rented a house in Lymstock, on doctor’s orders, in the hopes that time in the country will make Jerry’s recover from his serious injury easier.<\/p>\n

Sadly, the quite stay in the country is spoiled by a series of poison pen letters sent to Jerry and everyone in the village. <\/p>\n

…(S)omebody wanted to hurt. To take it with a laugh was perhaps the best way–but deep down, it wasn’t funny…<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

On the other hand, his interest in the letters keeps him from thinking about his injury and slow recovery.<\/p>\n

It’s interesting that although the copyright is 1943, there’s no particular mention of WWII. I suppose that people wanted to forget the war while it was going on.<\/p>\n

And again, I’ll note that the despite being written 70 years ago, so much of the dialog is timeless.<\/p>\n

‘Don’t you think you’re being rather morbid?’ I asked. ‘Yes,’ said Megan. ‘That’s what people always say when you’re saying the truth.’<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

‘God doesn’t really need to punish us, Miss Barton. We’re so very busy punishing ourselves.’<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

I’m thoroughly enjoying re-reading these books, and may well read them all before this damned cold is through with me.
\nRating: 8\/10<\/strong><\/p>\n

Published by HarperCollins<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The Moving Finger (1943) Agatha Christie Jerry Burton and his sister Joanna have rented a house in Lymstock, on doctor’s orders, in the hopes that time in the country will make Jerry’s recover from his serious injury easier. Sadly, the quite stay in the country is spoiled by a series of poison pen letters sent […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[12,30,8],"tags":[228,898],"class_list":["post-3459","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-8-10","category-british","category-mystery","tag-agatha-christie","tag-ww-ii"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/piQkW-TN","jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":24591,"url":"https:\/\/klishis.com\/reading\/archives\/24591","url_meta":{"origin":3459,"position":0},"title":"The Moving Finger","author":"Michelle","date":"May 7, 2025","format":false,"excerpt":"The Moving Finger (1942) Agatha Christie (Miss Marple) \u2018I can see you are a very clever young man\u2014but not quite enough confidence in yourself. You ought to have!\u2019 Joanna gave a loud hoot. \u2018For goodness\u2019 sake don\u2019t encourage him to feel like that. He thinks quite enough of himself as\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "8.5\/10"","block_context":{"text":"8.5\/10","link":"https:\/\/klishis.com\/reading\/archives\/category\/8-5-10"},"img":{"alt_text":"The Moving Finger","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/klishis.com\/reading\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/10\/the-moving-finger.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":12878,"url":"https:\/\/klishis.com\/reading\/archives\/12878","url_meta":{"origin":3459,"position":1},"title":"The Moving Finger","author":"Michelle","date":"May 21, 2020","format":false,"excerpt":"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\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "7.5\/10"","block_context":{"text":"7.5\/10","link":"https:\/\/klishis.com\/reading\/archives\/category\/7-5-10"},"img":{"alt_text":"The Moving Finger","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/klishis.com\/reading\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/05\/The-Moving-Finger.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":20899,"url":"https:\/\/klishis.com\/reading\/archives\/20899","url_meta":{"origin":3459,"position":2},"title":"The Moving Finger","author":"Michelle","date":"May 29, 2020","format":false,"excerpt":"The Moving Finger (1942) Agatha Christie (Miss Marple) This is the third Miss Marple mystery, and one I've reread multiple times, yet this time through I picked up some things I'd not noticed before. Which isn't unusual, but is fascinating, as things I have learned elsewhere shine a different light\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "8.5\/10"","block_context":{"text":"8.5\/10","link":"https:\/\/klishis.com\/reading\/archives\/category\/8-5-10"},"img":{"alt_text":"The Moving Finger","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/klishis.com\/reading\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/10\/the-moving-finger.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":20854,"url":"https:\/\/klishis.com\/reading\/archives\/20854","url_meta":{"origin":3459,"position":3},"title":"A is for Arsenic: The Poisons of Agatha Christie","author":"Michelle","date":"October 9, 2022","format":false,"excerpt":"A is for Arsenic: The Poisons of Agatha Christie (2015) Kathryn Harkup Agatha Christie volunteered as a nurse during the first world war, and ended up working at the pharmacy. In order to prepare for the Apothecaries Hall examination Christie was tutored in practical, as well as theoretical, aspects of\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "8.5\/10"","block_context":{"text":"8.5\/10","link":"https:\/\/klishis.com\/reading\/archives\/category\/8-5-10"},"img":{"alt_text":"A is for Arsenic: The Poisons of Agatha Christie","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/klishis.com\/reading\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/10\/A_is_for_Arsenic.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":3652,"url":"https:\/\/klishis.com\/reading\/archives\/3652","url_meta":{"origin":3459,"position":4},"title":"A Pocket Full of Rye","author":"Michelle","date":"March 25, 2013","format":false,"excerpt":"A Pocket Full of Rye (1953) Agatha Christie Rex Fortescue dies in his office, immediately after drinking his morning tea. Besides the strange poison used to kill me, police are confused by the fact he coat is full of cereal--rye. Miss Marple doesn't make her appearance until almost halfway through\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "British"","block_context":{"text":"British","link":"https:\/\/klishis.com\/reading\/archives\/category\/british"},"img":{"alt_text":"A Pocket Full of Rye","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/klishis.com\/reading\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/03\/pocket-full-of-rye-182x300.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":4902,"url":"https:\/\/klishis.com\/reading\/archives\/4902","url_meta":{"origin":3459,"position":5},"title":"Miss Marple: The Complete Short Stories","author":"Michelle","date":"October 24, 2014","format":false,"excerpt":"Miss Marple: The Complete Short Stories (2013) Agatha Christie From The Thirteen Problems (1953) The Tuesday Night Club The Idol House of Astarte Ingots of Gold The Bloodstained Pavement Motive v. Opportunity The Thumbmark of St. Peter The Blue Geranium The Companion The Four Suspects A Christmas Tragedy The Herb\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "10\/10"","block_context":{"text":"10\/10","link":"https:\/\/klishis.com\/reading\/archives\/category\/10-10"},"img":{"alt_text":"Miss-Marple-The-Complete-Short-Stories","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/klishis.com\/reading\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/10\/Miss-Marple-The-Complete-Short-Stories.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]}],"jetpack_likes_enabled":false,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/klishis.com\/reading\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3459","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/klishis.com\/reading\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/klishis.com\/reading\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/klishis.com\/reading\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/klishis.com\/reading\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3459"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/klishis.com\/reading\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3459\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/klishis.com\/reading\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3459"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/klishis.com\/reading\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3459"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/klishis.com\/reading\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3459"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}