Genre
Mystery
The Plot
In Chipping Cleghorn the villagers are astonished by an advertisement published in the local gazette: ‘A murder is announced and will take place on Friday, October 29th, at Little Paddocks at 6.30 p.m.’ They all think it’s a joke and pay a visit to Letitia Blacklock at Little Paddocks the night of the supposed murder. When the lights flash off, and a masked burglar falls dead, though, nobody laughs anymore. Luckily, Bunch, the vicar’s wife, is a friend of Miss Jane Marple, who starts to investigate.
❤️ What I liked about A murder is Announced by Agatha Christie
🗞 Advertising the murder in the Gazette. This is just brilliant. It’s a great way of starting a mystery and diving straight into it.
👵The characters. They are all so lovely and so well described that I almost cried when a couple of them fell victim to the murderer. My favourite was Miss “Hinch” Hinchcliffe. Described as a really tall woman with short hair, she’s strong, clever, and she almost outsmarts the killer.
👵👮♂️Miss Marple and Inspector Craddock. I loved how they work together and how the Inspector’s sceptical attitude towards Miss Marple drastically changed at the end of the book. One of the aspects I enjoy the most about this book is how important Miss Marple is to the plot.
🔎 The whodunit. I managed to solve the mystery (or at least a part of it) towards the middle of the book. And this is not a very good sign, is it? Even though, with all the Agathas I read, I have learnt one thing or two!
To the score
⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ 5/5 I’ve always loved this book, and I am really glad to have been able to read it again. This was January’s @murderatthebookclub read and I am looking forward to this month’s because I’ve never read it: Mr Parker Pyne investigates.