STORY SUMMARY
Jerry and his sister Joanna are taking a vacation from London while Jerry recuperates from a back injury. They are in the village of Lymstock a place where everyone knows one another and each other's business.
While they are there, Jerry receives an anonymous letter filled with filthy language and accusations all of which are untrue. His sister also gets one. Soon many other townsfolk get one. What is going on? who hates people so much that he or she is sending these vile letters through the post office?
And then one of the letter receivers is found dead. At first it is an apparent suicide but as the police begin to investigate, they find that Mrs Symmington has been murdered with cyanide! Mrs Symmington leaves behind her oldest child, age 20, named Megan whom she had with her first husband. With Mr Symmington she leaves behind their two sons, Brian and Colin and their nanny governess, Elsie Holland a very young and very attractive woman.
While the police are trying to find out who is sending these letters and who has killed Mrs Symmington, another dead body is discovered. It is Agnes Woddall a young maid in the Symmington home. What is going on?? She was found with her head bashed in and the base of her skull was skewered. She was found in the staircase closet.
Meanwhile, all of the townspeople have different opinions as to who the anonymous letter writer could be. The police have determined that it is a woman based on many different clues and a bit of profiling.
When it finally appears that they have figured it out, another attempted murder takes place! This time, they have the real perpetrator. But just who is it?? and what was the motive??
MY THOUGHTS
This is a quick read but the beginning for me was a bit slow going compared to the first two books. I was a bit put off by reading it in the first person (told by Jerry). I just don't always care for books told in the first person.
As usual in the Miss Marple series, there are many characters and I found it sometimes difficult to figure out just who said what and who went where particularly because some of the names were similar spelling or sounding.
The setting is a small village as so far all of the Miss Marple books are and I always love the description of these towns.
Character development is so well executed. This seems to be a huge strength for this author.
The thing I found odd was that Miss Marple doesn't appear in the story until almost the last chapter. I think it was the next to last chapter that she finally makes an appearance. She seems to be a minor character in this story. And yet of course it is with her sharp mind and experience of humankind that she helps the police solve this case.
There are some subplots to this story as well and the main one was a love story. I enjoyed the character of Megan and ended up feeling so sorry for her. But then some thing happens where I then was so happy for her. I don't want to reveal too much as I don't want to spoil it for you. It bugged me though that Christie has Megan at age 20 being very childish. I actually thought she was one of the smartest characters!!
I couldn't quite figure out why this title was used....at first I thought it was because the finger was used in typing the last letter and then I saw a review by someone that thought it stands for the pointing of a finger at various townsfolk....accusations all over the place as to who was writing the letters. Which makes more sense symbolically.
I'm looking forward to book 4.
In my opinion, this book is appropriate for ages 14 and older.
On a scale of 1-10, with 10 being the highest, I rate this an 8.
2 comments:
I like your goal of reading all the Miss Marple books, you are enjoying them I can see.
I have never read anything by Agatha Christie but this series sounds good.
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