Miss Marple: A Murder is Announced
“Really, I have no gifts – no gifts at all – except perhaps a certain knowledge of human nature. People, I find, are apt to be far too trustful. I’m afraid that I have a tendency always to believe the worst. Not a nice trait. But so often justified by subsequent events. ”
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Hello everyone,
I’m back this week with a lovely Miss Marple novel that really hit the sweet spot. I also have to say, I’m loving the Miss Marple attitude in general, and leaning into some of the qualities that I was thrown by at first.
In the books Marple is completely non-judgmental, has a ton of friends and sweet friendships with people around the country, is seemingly loved by everyone and on at least two occasions, she travels across the country because a relatively distant acquaintance is involved in a murder.
On the other side, she also, as the quote above indicates, expects everyone other than herself to be a terrible person and is remarkably pragmatic and unemotional with a fairly lax sense of culpability. In The Moving Finger, she put a young girl in a position to be murdered when trying to catch the killer, and in this book she digs and probes and gossips, and then says later, with regret, but not a shred of guilt, “it was her conversation with me that sealed her fate”. It is a fun juxtaposition to play with, and one that I think is often overlooked in adaptations and general Miss Marple conversation.
In A Murder is Announced, the entire town gets involved when a notice of an upcoming murder is published in the local paper. After the inevitable party of people show up, the lights go out and someone is left dead. The book itself covers the police and Miss Marple’s efforts to question, with officially and unofficially, everyone who was at the house that night as they try and figure out what actually happened.
This book has the best use of Miss Marple yet, as she enters earlier in the book, and plays a key part in the investigation that mostly consists of knitting and gossiping, but is ultimately quite satisfying. The mystery itself is fun because there is both the “locked room” HOW side of it as well as the hidden identity WHO side of it. Both these lines of investigation have multiple twisty-turny moments which makes the entire book feel like an excellent puzzle in the best way.
This is also the first book to explicitly uses the time in which the book takes place as part of the plot. Written in 1950, and set immediately after World War 2, both the black market and the fact that people were moving around a lot become part of the plot. Also, I loved that, in a book written in 1950, two of these characters are clearly meant to be in a same sex relationship.
If I have one qualm, it is that we never get to know what Mrs Easterbrook’s secret is! Once again, I am honestly stunned at the amount that Christie manages to pack into such a slim book, and the entire experience was simply pure enjoyment.
Adaptations
I’m finding the contrast between the two ways of adapting Christie to be absolutely fascinating – I often prefer one version to the other, but especially when Joan Hickson and Geraldine McEwan are on screen, I like them both pretty much the same.
In both of these, I don’t love how they make the “Miss Marple being a nuisance” into a narrative when the reality in the books is that (usually thanks to Sir Henry Clithering), she is accorded a certain amount of respect from the police, which I actually prefer.
A Murder is Announced 1985 – Joan Hickson
This was super satisfying, and in the 1980s adaptations, I generally find I like the 3 part ones the best. It was pretty much faithful to the book in all aspects, although I thought the women in the book felt more independent and “cool” than the ones in the adaptation. This is an essentially “female” book with a lot of focus on various types of women from around Britain, and that stands out better in the book than in the show.
However, this is subtext and hard to get into a show, and for the most part, this was excellent. The characters did seem to match the descriptions in the book, and I really enjoyed it. Once again, Joan Hickson is a wonderful actress, and her Miss Marple is truly one to beat. This is one I would watch again.
A Murder is Announced 2005 – Geraldine McEwan
I liked this one too, even though it was only one episode. This is just a great story and it translates so well to screen. The women in this adaptation were more comparable to the books, with a bit more sass and agency. They did conflate a few characters, but when the show I shorter I sometimes appreciate this as it allows for stories to focus better.
This was also just so fun to watch and I do like having great British actors who I know and love make surprise appearances in these shows!
I’ll be back next week with some great Irish books in honor of St Patrick’s Day, and in two weeks with They Do It With Mirrors, so have a great week, and talk to you soon!
