Review: The Moving Finger

The Moving Finger by Agatha Christie
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

“I never can stand seeing people pleased with themselves,” said Joanna. “It arouses all my worst instincts.” 

 An apparently idyllic English village is tormented by poison pen letters. Who is sending them? When the letters lead to murder the police step in but they can't unravel the mystery until Miss Marple comes along to sort everything out. The novel is told from the point of view of a young man who has left London temporarily so he can recover from an airplane accident. He and his sister Joanna are fish out of water in the tiny village and their fresh perspective on the place, and private remarks to each other about the people around them, add a lot to the novel. Miss Marple doesn't turn up for over 100 pages and when she does she is still far from the center of attention. There is also a bit of romance thrown into the story which fit in quite nicely. This isn't a challenging book in any way, but it was a good solid story and the role of the letters in the crime was an intriguing twist. 

I am counting this book toward the  Postal Reading Challenge 2014.