From the Bookshelf of Reading the Detectives…

The Moving Finger (Miss Marple, #3)

Agatha Christie

Start date: June 1, 2025

Finish date: June 30, 2025

Discussion: Group Challenges

Why we're reading this: Next in our Christie challenge
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Group Challenges

* Sept 25: The Mystery of the Blue Train (1928) by Agatha Christie
By Susan · 17 posts · 20 views

last updated Sep 25, 2025 01:00PM

* Sept 25: The Mystery of the Blue Train (1928) - SPOILER Thread
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last updated Sep 16, 2025 12:58PM

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What Members Thought

May 05, 2018 Kavita rated it really liked it

In this Miss Marple mystery, the narrator is Jerry Burton, a recuperating pilot, who is advised by his doctor to go and relax in some remote village. He chooses Lymstock and goes there with his sister for company. Joanna and Jerry both instantly stand out like fish out of water in the rural scenery. However, that is not sufficient cause for them receiving a poison pen letter. When the siblings reveal this to their neighbours, they get to know that this has been happening for a while in the villa ...more

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Feb 21, 2017 Lady Clementina ffinch-ffarowmore rated it really liked it

Book 4 for the Miss Marple challenge. This one takes us to the picturesque village of Lymstock—pretty and seemingly peaceful to look at but of the kind that Sherlock Holmes described as one which made him think of the “impunity with which crime may be committed there”. In Lymstock, Agatha Christie creates what she does best, a village with a complete cast of characters, or rather people, each well fleshed out and with their own individuality and issues—Miss Barton, a old spinster left behind whe Book 4 for the Miss Marple challenge. This one takes us to the picturesque village of Lymstock—pretty and seemingly peaceful to look at but of the kind that Sherlock Holmes described as one which made him think of the “impunity with which crime may be committed there”. In Lymstock, Agatha Christie creates what she does best, a village with a complete cast of characters, or rather people, each well fleshed out and with their own individuality and issues—Miss Barton, a old spinster left behind when her domineering mother and sisters have passed on, an ordinary country solicitor Symington with a stepdaughter, Megan who is twenty but still seemingly a child in mind and habits, Miss Griffiths the energetic sister of the doctor, who can’ bear to see any one slacking, and Mrs Dane Calthorp, the vicar’s wife who sees much more than people would like her to, among others equally colourful and rather complex too. It is to this village that our narrator, pilot Jerry Burton moves with his sister Joanna, for a much needed rest-cure after an injury in a bad crash. But peace is the last thing that he finds when the village is hit by a poison pen, sending scurrilous letter after letter which shows the evil lurking in the village and which doesn’t spare Jerry and Joanna, outsiders though they are.

Matters take a more serious turn when one of the letters leads to a suicide, followed quite soon by a murder. It is then that Mrs Calthorp decides to call in an expert—who better to understand these complex personalities than the expert on human nature, Miss Marple. Miss Marple arrives fairly late on the scene in the book and pretty much remains on the sidelines, it is she who gets to the bottom of the events that have taken place and interprets the cues that Jerry has unknowingly picked up to reveal the completely unexpected solution. Although I had read this before, I had forgotten the solution, so AC had me thinking on the wrong track yet again. Like Miss Marple, AC too is a great observer of people—her best and most interesting stories are where she brings out their idiosyncrasies and complexities of character—this was one such. A great read.
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Mar 17, 2017 Damaskcat rated it it was amazing

Shelves: miss-marple

Jerry Burton and his sister Joanna lease a house in the country to enable him to recover from serious injuries. He has been ordered to lead a quiet life with no upsets. At first life in the village seems idyllic - the locals are friendly and call on the newcomers welcoming them into their circle. Then Jerry receives an anonymous letter which suggests that his sister is not really his sister at all but enjoys a closer relationship to him. It is only when he hears that others have had anonymous le ...more

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Jun 25, 2023 Jazzy Lemon rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

Shelves: classics, english-authors

Poison Pen letters begin to arrive in the post boxes of the villagers - then one of them ends up dead.

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Mar 05, 2017 Ellie Oberth rated it it was amazing

This is one of my favorite Agatha Christie books

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Jan 20, 2021 Sarah G rated it really liked it

I really enjoyed this, even the barely there Miss Marple.

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Jul 25, 2019 Becky rated it it was amazing

A great miss Marple story

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Mar 14, 2018 Pranit rated it really liked it

Shelves: miss-marple

This book is a must-read to understand how crazy the mind of a murderer works. An important thing in the story which was the letters sent to everyone is something which sheds light on how people gossip about others even today.

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