Dr Jacques COULARDEAU


almost a 5   April 25, 2004
The narrator of the 1942 story is Jerry Burton, an RAF pilot who was sent to recuperate from a crash in a quiet environment. Jerry and his sister Johanna moved to an out of the way little village but soon found that life there would be anything but peaceful. The first unsettling event was the arrival of a poison pen letter, an occurance that made them part of the village. Most of the rest of the town had gotten one already. Just as they were getting acquainted with their neighbors there was a suicide, or was it murder?

As time passed there were more letters, more deaths and romances. A less skillful writer would have made a confused mess of all of the various threads but Christie keeps the focus on the mystery while maintaining the romance as an interesting subplot.

The story has worn well in the intervening fifty years. The only dated aspect is that women's lives were more restricted then. So why is this story an 'almost' 5? The problem is that Miss Marple arrives on the scene about 3/4 of the way through the book and then does very little. For Miss Marple fans this is not nearly enough of her. In my opinion Christie should have either brought her in sooner or left her out altogether.

Despite this THE MOVING FINGER is an excellent story and one of Christie's most memorable stories.


My Favorite Christie Mystery!   March 16, 2004
 4 out of 4 found this review helpful

I read almost all of Christie's books at one point 4 or 5 years ago. One of the last I hit upon was "The Moving Finger", and it turned out to be my favorite Christie mystery. I loved the main narrator - Jerry Burton; his neurosis, wit, simplistic arrogance and ultimately good heart were so novel to me, especially in a murder mystery. He was a breath of fresh air from the likes of Miss Marple and Poirot.

These many years later, I picked up the title again to see what I thought. I see now that the narrator reminds me in some ways of Grimes' main characters for her murder mysteries - intelligent, reserved, seemingly aloof, somewhat cynical, and ultimately kind bachelors written by females authors. Apparently I find this character irresistable as I love all of Grimes' work.

However, in going back and rereading some Grimes and some Christie, I am noticing how different their styles are. While I read Grimes' books the first time only 2 or 3 years ago, I find I can't remember the solution to her mysteries when I reread them because she buries her clues below a rich surface of character development. Christie, on the other hand, doesn't ever wander far from her murder mystery plot - no matter how much she may twist and turn it; and as soon as I started into this book I thought, "Oh, ______ did it". Even so, I enjoyed reading this little gem again.

That all said, in addition to having a neurotic narrator - which you may or may not enjoy - this mystery focuses on the reactions in a small country village as racy anonymous letters are received by everyone in town. Jerry Burton, the narrator, and his sister arrive from London for some needed R&R right about when these letters start becoming known and so are drawn in to the town's little scandal.

While Christie expounds on the psychology of those who write such notes, you have to watch all the details of the case. Like the murderer, Christie is masterful at getting you to focus on the wrong things...and then surprising you with the obvious solution. Very well done and a tribute to her uncanny gift of creating puzzles and then solving them for you.


The Moving Finger- A pretty good book   February 20, 2004
 1 out of 2 found this review helpful

I thought this book was pretty good. I had the audio book and I did not really like the reader. She was a little hard to understand. I love murder mysteries. I really like the part when the maid was killed for seeing something she was not suppost to. The letter writer must have been pretty smart. I felt bad for the writer because they must have been pretty lonely to start doing this to people. Jerry is so into mysteries and even though he is suppost to be settling down he can't help but get involved. I recomend this book to everyone with a sense of adventure, and loves mysteries. I had a good time listening to this book, but i recomend reading it rather than listening to it.