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The Amazing Miss Marple: The Moving Finger / A Murder is Announced / 4:50 from Paddington
Three of the very best Miss Marple novels. by Agatha Christie!
1. The Moving Finger,
2. A Murder is Announced, and
3. 4:50 from Paddington (aka What Mrs. McGillicuddy Saw!)
If readers have time for only three of the twelve Miss Marple novels, why not take in those that have been ranked among the best? Let's look at the three: poison pen letters are making the rounds in Lymstock; someone placed an advertisement in the personal section of the local paper giving the time and place for a murder, and an elderly woman saw a murder being committed on a passing train but no one, except Jane Marple, believed her.
Librarian's note: this entry is for the collection "The Amazing Miss Marple." Each of the individual titles, and the 9 other novels and 20 short stories, can be found elsewhere on Goodreads.
1. The Moving Finger,
2. A Murder is Announced, and
3. 4:50 from Paddington (aka What Mrs. McGillicuddy Saw!)
If readers have time for only three of the twelve Miss Marple novels, why not take in those that have been ranked among the best? Let's look at the three: poison pen letters are making the rounds in Lymstock; someone placed an advertisement in the personal section of the local paper giving the time and place for a murder, and an elderly woman saw a murder being committed on a passing train but no one, except Jane Marple, believed her.
Librarian's note: this entry is for the collection "The Amazing Miss Marple." Each of the individual titles, and the 9 other novels and 20 short stories, can be found elsewhere on Goodreads.
Hardcover
First published January 1, 1943
2 people are currently reading
213 people want to read
About the author
Agatha Christie
5,794 books76.1k followersAgatha Christie also wrote romance novels under the pseudonym Mary Westmacott, and was occasionally published under the name Agatha Christie Mallowan.
Dame Agatha Mary Clarissa Christie, Lady Mallowan, DBE (née Miller) was an English writer known for her 66 detective novels and 14 short story collections, particularly those revolving around fictional detectives Hercule Poirot and Miss Marple. She also wrote the world's longest-running play, the murder mystery The Mousetrap, which has been performed in the West End of London since 1952. A writer during the "Golden Age of Detective Fiction", Christie has been called the "Queen of Crime". She also wrote six novels under the pseudonym Mary Westmacott. In 1971, she was made a Dame (DBE) by Queen Elizabeth II for her contributions to literature. Guinness World Records lists Christie as the best-selling fiction writer of all time, her novels having sold more than two billion copies.
This best-selling author of all time wrote 66 crime novels and story collections, fourteen plays, and six novels under a pseudonym in romance. Her books sold more than a billion copies in the English language and a billion in translation. According to Index Translationum, people translated her works into 103 languages at least, the most for an individual author. Of the most enduring figures in crime literature, she created Hercule Poirot and Miss Jane Marple. She atuhored The Mousetrap, the longest-running play in the history of modern theater.
Associated Names:
Agata Christie
Agata Kristi
Агата Кристи (Russian)
Агата Крісті (Ukrainian)
Αγκάθα Κρίστι (Greek)
アガサ クリスティ (Japanese)
阿嘉莎·克莉絲蒂 (Chinese)
Dame Agatha Mary Clarissa Christie, Lady Mallowan, DBE (née Miller) was an English writer known for her 66 detective novels and 14 short story collections, particularly those revolving around fictional detectives Hercule Poirot and Miss Marple. She also wrote the world's longest-running play, the murder mystery The Mousetrap, which has been performed in the West End of London since 1952. A writer during the "Golden Age of Detective Fiction", Christie has been called the "Queen of Crime". She also wrote six novels under the pseudonym Mary Westmacott. In 1971, she was made a Dame (DBE) by Queen Elizabeth II for her contributions to literature. Guinness World Records lists Christie as the best-selling fiction writer of all time, her novels having sold more than two billion copies.
This best-selling author of all time wrote 66 crime novels and story collections, fourteen plays, and six novels under a pseudonym in romance. Her books sold more than a billion copies in the English language and a billion in translation. According to Index Translationum, people translated her works into 103 languages at least, the most for an individual author. Of the most enduring figures in crime literature, she created Hercule Poirot and Miss Jane Marple. She atuhored The Mousetrap, the longest-running play in the history of modern theater.
Associated Names:
Agata Christie
Agata Kristi
Агата Кристи (Russian)
Агата Крісті (Ukrainian)
Αγκάθα Κρίστι (Greek)
アガサ クリスティ (Japanese)
阿嘉莎·克莉絲蒂 (Chinese)
Ratings & Reviews
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Displaying 1 - 8 of 8 reviews
August 12, 2017
"Agatha Christie was the greatest exponent of the classical detective story. Her unique literary talents have crossed every boundary of age, race, class, geography and education. While she refined the template for a fictional form, the reading of her books became an international pastime." John Curran
I started reading and collecting Agatha Christie books when I was 9 years old. I adored her books and still do. There is a great comfort, as an adult, in reading her books and acute observations of people that favours style over the penny horrors of sadism, torture, and graphic violence favoured by some authors.
I started reading and collecting Agatha Christie books when I was 9 years old. I adored her books and still do. There is a great comfort, as an adult, in reading her books and acute observations of people that favours style over the penny horrors of sadism, torture, and graphic violence favoured by some authors.
April 7, 2021
5 Stars. Agatha Christie at her best. Miss Marple at her best. I checked my individual reviews. Gave 5 to each of them - no averaging up here. It's the originality of Christie's mind which stands out. In "The Moving Finger," a brother and sister in their 20s have moved to a small town and soon receive a nasty letter accusing them of living in sin. They laugh. But it's no longer funny when another recipient commits suicide. Miss Marple is on call. In "A Murder is Announced," it appears that someone is staging a little theatre at the home of a leading citizen in a small village, but the lead player is not acting when he's found shot to death. Miss Marple is staying at a nearby hotel. In "4:50 from Paddington" (aka "What Mrs. McGillicuddy Saw!"), a man strangles a woman in a moving train and the only witness can't convince anyone of the veracity of her story. Miss Marple is her long-time friend. What situations Agatha Christie devises. What lengths Miss Marple goes to ensure the guilty are revealed. (April 2021)
December 17, 2017
Miss Marple is a pleasant character. Despite the twists and turns, the mysteries were fully explained in detail in the final chapters.
November 11, 2020
Fun! A little old-fashioned, but good mysteries and good characters.
November 12, 2022
I have read that Agatha Christie did not bear fools gladly. These three novellas give some insight from her earlier career into that allegation. These are not the novels that made her reputation, but sturdy building blocks from which the Christie edifice was made. In fact, I withdrew the collection only by accident from my local library, mistaking it for another. And so, the insight they offer into the author’s character, her perspective on writing and on humanity are the pearls which I retrieve from this immersion in her work.
In, A Murder Is Announced, Miss Marple says, “Weak and kindly people are often very treacherous. And if they’ve got a grudge against life it saps the little moral strength that they may possess.” Conflating weakness with kindliness is cynical and rolling that into a ball with treachery is something more. That these individuals are likely to lack morality would be openly slanderous if it were applied in the real world as the algorithm, he is kindly, therefore immoral. I suspect this sort of thinking goes on more than one might wish. We have here also the notion of, “a grudge against life,” as a possible character flaw, which I had not previously contemplated.
In the same tale, Miss Marple serves as the mouthpiece for, “…once a weak person gets really frightened, they get quite savage with terror and they’ve no self-control at all.” She is speaking of a suspect who, in the line above, is specified as, “a weak, kindly murderer,” to remind us of the connection which seems to underlie much of Christie’s work and her view of human nature. That the kindly are weak and capable of ultimate savagery seems to be the message. If Miss Marple may be taken to express the views of the author (I know, a questionable assumption, but not far-fetched), it can fairly be said that Agatha Christie had a low opinion of mankind. In fact, there is not a sympathetic character in either of the first two novellas in this collection. I did not go on to the last.
It is always of interest when an author speaks about the medium, she works in. In A Murder Is Announced, a young writer describes his WIP, “Such a nice book, all about how miserable the world is. It’s frightfully easy to be clever about how miserable everybody is.” Christie was frightfully clever and found it easier than almost anybody to write a book. Just look at the list of her publications. Driven is how she would be described, rather than weak. Concatenating in reverse, not weak implies not kindly. And to return to the notion of a “grudge against life,” it may be the hunched shoulder of a grudge may be glimpsed here.
In, A Murder Is Announced, Miss Marple says, “Weak and kindly people are often very treacherous. And if they’ve got a grudge against life it saps the little moral strength that they may possess.” Conflating weakness with kindliness is cynical and rolling that into a ball with treachery is something more. That these individuals are likely to lack morality would be openly slanderous if it were applied in the real world as the algorithm, he is kindly, therefore immoral. I suspect this sort of thinking goes on more than one might wish. We have here also the notion of, “a grudge against life,” as a possible character flaw, which I had not previously contemplated.
In the same tale, Miss Marple serves as the mouthpiece for, “…once a weak person gets really frightened, they get quite savage with terror and they’ve no self-control at all.” She is speaking of a suspect who, in the line above, is specified as, “a weak, kindly murderer,” to remind us of the connection which seems to underlie much of Christie’s work and her view of human nature. That the kindly are weak and capable of ultimate savagery seems to be the message. If Miss Marple may be taken to express the views of the author (I know, a questionable assumption, but not far-fetched), it can fairly be said that Agatha Christie had a low opinion of mankind. In fact, there is not a sympathetic character in either of the first two novellas in this collection. I did not go on to the last.
It is always of interest when an author speaks about the medium, she works in. In A Murder Is Announced, a young writer describes his WIP, “Such a nice book, all about how miserable the world is. It’s frightfully easy to be clever about how miserable everybody is.” Christie was frightfully clever and found it easier than almost anybody to write a book. Just look at the list of her publications. Driven is how she would be described, rather than weak. Concatenating in reverse, not weak implies not kindly. And to return to the notion of a “grudge against life,” it may be the hunched shoulder of a grudge may be glimpsed here.
November 9, 2021
Fun mystery’s - 3 stories
February 11, 2025
I will forever love Miss Marple! The writing,story line and characters are perfect.
February 1, 2026
A classic.
Displaying 1 - 8 of 8 reviews