A Murder is Announced by Agatha Christie

A Murder is Announced

 

Review of the novel A Murder is Announced by Agatha Christie.

Published by William Collins on 5^th June 1950.

Cost: 95p 1980 [£3.25 1989, £7.99 2015]

ISBN 0-00-616528-1 (Paperback Edition - 221 pages)

Dedication: To Ralph and Ann Newman at whose house I first tasted "Delicious Death!".

A Murder is Announced is one of Agatha Christies best novels. The setting is the quite typical English village of Chipping Gleghorn. It was Christie’s 50^th story and introduces Miss Marple for the seventh time, although she does not appear until page 73. Set in the 1950s in rural England, the story is littered with clues for the keen reader, but will be skipped over as they race to the end of the story trying to guess the murderer. This novel is a real favourite of mine and was the June book of the month on the Agatha Christie Website for 2015.

At the centre of the story is an advert that appears in the local newspaper, traditionally called The Gazette:

A murder is announced and will take place on Friday, October 29^th at Little Paddocks at 6.30 p.m. Friends please accept this, the only intimation

Chipping Cleghorn is a rural English village described as:

A large sprawling picturesque village. Butcher, baker, grocer, quite a good antique shop – two tea-shops. Self-consciously a beauty spot; caters for the motoring tourist. Also highly residential. Cottages formerly lived in by agricultural labourers now converted and lived in by elderly spinsters and retired couples. A certain amount of building done round about in Victorian times.

The reader is quickly introduced to all the relevant local characters. Chapter 1 is split into five parts, detailing the main characters in more detail as they sit at their own breakfast table on Friday morning. We learn that gossip and a keen interest of the local inhabitants is high on the list of priorities for the inquisitive few. Most importantly, we know that they have a daily newspaper delivered and a copy of the ‘North Benham News and Chipping Cleghorn Gazette’.

The story centres on the occupants of Little Paddocks, Miss Blacklock and Miss Bunner her companion. In Chapter 2, Christie starts presenting the reader with clues as the confused Miss Bunner is unable to remember names of individuals, has problems with the laundry and has apparently lost bills and letters. But it’s the setting of the intended murder that is crucial to the story.

It's still Friday 29^th and Chapter 3 opens with the residents of Little Paddocks in the lounge, just before 6.30 p.m. and anticipating a few of the villagers to appear, particularly friends of Miss Blacklock. However, although most people in the village have possibly read the invitation, only seven people respond to the invitation.

With everyone gathered in the lounge, at the appointed time, 6.30 p.m., without warning the lights go out, there is screaming and a torch is shone around the room and a gunshot is heard. When the lights eventually come back on, a gruesome scene is revealed. An impossible crime, in a ‘locked room’? While the suspense is maintained very skilfully until the final disclosure, some of the best, and most infuriating clues, are verbal having been spoken by the characters: in this case, you could even say typographical.

Following the shooting and murder at Little Paddocks, the police get involved, but they pick up on the wrong motives and the investigation stalls until Miss Marple appears on the scene. She encourages Inspector Craddock to look deeper into the background of everyone who attended the gathering on that Friday. As she considers each character in turn, Miss Marple reflects on her village experiences and finds some hidden facts that suggest a motive for one individual. As the story nears its end, individuals that attended the gathering at Little Paddocks also begin to unravel the events of the Friday night themselves, but that results in further killings. Finally, Inspector Craddock gets everyone back in the room at Little Paddocks to present his findings and resolve the case, in typical Agatha Christie fashion.

On a second reading the reader should pick-up on the clues they have no doubt missed first time round and can’t believe they missed them, particularly as there are so many of them. This is a wonderful story of local village life, it captures the difficulties of living in an English village in the early 1950s;, rationing, and shortage of items in general, and the way the local community had to barter for items they needed to make their lives easier. Aside from the plot the story covers several other issues that Christie was contemplating with at the time and were contemporary with in the period covered by the book, particularly people’s relationships. Although this is the seventh book to have Miss Marple as the detective, it really is a must read for keen Christie fans. Rating: 5 stars

Dr James Sheppard

20th July 2015

Note: The 1962 Fontana paperback edition of A Murder is Announced was the first to feature a cover commissioned from Tom Adams - more than 90 other designs were to follow.