54 pages • 1-hour read
The Moving Finger
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Background
Series Context: The Miss Marple Series
The Moving Finger is the third novel in Christie’s Miss Marple book series, which is named after their heroine, Jane Marple. The first books in the series are Murder at the Vicarage and The Body in the Library. The Moving Finger is followed by 10 more Miss Marple mysteries, including A Murder is Announced and The Mirror Crack’d From Side to Side. Miss Marple also makes numerous appearances in Christie’s short story collections The Thirteen Problems and The Regatta Mystery and Other Stories.
The Moving Finger is a standalone story and the reader does not need to read the first two novels to follow the plot. Agatha Christie used different points of view in her Miss Marple books, with some being narrated from a third-person perspective and others using the first person. The Moving Finger is told from the perspective of Jerry Burton, a character unique to this novel.
As in the other books of this series, in The Moving Finger only Miss Marple can accurately piece together the clues to solve the mystery and bring a killer to justice. The amateur sleuth, who relies on life experience and rational problem-solving, solves the crime with her usual gentle demeanor. She allows herself to fade into the background as a typical granny, working on her knitting and chatting with locals. What seems like idle chitchat is actually skilled detective work, however, and Miss Marple eventually intervenes to make sure the right person is arrested for the crimes. According to Agatha Christie’s official site, Miss Marple’s “unassuming” presence is her greatest strength, since she remains “hidden behind her love of knitting, gardening and gossip” and therefore has the “freedom to pursue the truth” (AgathaChristie.com).
In an interview Agatha Christie revealed that some of the inspiration for her Jane Marple character came from her grandmother, who was also a “cheerful person” but “always expected the worst of everyone and everything, and was, with almost frightening accuracy, usually proved right” (“Miss Marple.” The Home of Agatha Christie).
Authorial Context: Agatha Christie
Christie was born in Devon, England in 1890. She is remembered as a prolific and celebrated novelist who is renowned as one of the world’s greatest crime writers. Christie began her career as a nurse, volunteering at a Red Cross Hospital in her hometown of Torquay during World War I. In 1914 she married the British military pilot Archie Christie. During this time Christie began writing detective novels, drawing on some of her real-life experiences as a nurse for inspiration. Her first novel, The Mysterious Affair At Styles, was published in 1920. The novel’s protagonist is Belgian detective Hercule Poirot, whom Christie based on a Belgian policeman war refugee she met in Torquay. 10 years and many successful novels later, Christie introduced readers to the equally beloved heroine Miss Jane Marple in her 1930 book Murder at the Vicarage.
Over the course of her career Christie authored over a dozen short story collections and 66 novels. Agatha Christie died in Oxfordshire, England in 1976, but her engaging characters and twisty plots remain popular today. According to her official website, Christie holds the title of “the best-selling novelist of all time” (“About Agatha Christie.” The Home of Agatha Christie). Her works have sold over a billion copies, and have been translated into over 100 languages. Christie’s novels have inspired countless television and film adaptations, including the BBC television series Miss Marple. More recently, Kenneth Branagh has performed the role of Hercules Poirot in films based on Christie’s novels Murder on the Orient Express, A Haunting in Venice, and A Death on the Nile.
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