Mystery Review: The Moving Finger, the third Miss Marple novel, uses the tantalizing plot device of poison pen letters (later used in varying forms by Muriel Spark and Gabriel García Márquez). Told in the first person by a young man recently moved to the village of Lymstock from London with his sister. Miss Marple doesn't appear until she's rather awkwardly introduced on page 135. The Moving Finger is only my third Marple read, but it seems Agatha Christie chooses not to make (the always charming) Miss Marple the center of her own stories. She has found, however, a way to make the reader feel silly for not having solved the mystery sooner. Teasing with red herrings seems to make her day. As well as inserting gruesome murders in with the quaint and quirky countryside. Although Christie doesn't plumb the depths of her characters, I do enjoy how she sketches their qualities with just a few deft strokes, as a sort of sketch artist, perhaps reminding the reader of someone just like that. Just as Miss Marple is always reminded of someone she knows while working out the riddle. The Moving Finger is a solid Christie mystery, just as it should be: not a masterpiece, but certainly not a disappointment. [3★]
No comments:
Post a Comment