A Murder is Announced, Agatha Christie

The Book

It's a strange Oct. 29, 1950 when the characters of this book sit down to breakfast only to discover a murder has been announced in the personals section of their local newspaper. Nobody, but nobody, believes it's real. They all think it's a general invitation to a murder party. Many people decide to go. The owner of the house, Letitia Blacklock, gets read. A man shows up, the lights go out, attempts to hold people hostage, a gun is fired, the would-be robber ends up dead. The local police call it an accident, but nobody really believes it real. 

Lettie house is in a whirl. The dead man, an immigrant from Austria seems to have made problems where ever he went. 

And dear Bunch from the first Miss Marple novel keeps her cool as always. 

Stumped, the cops call in Miss  Marple, who runs through the clues and figures out who the murder is and why. 

My Thoughts

I read through the first half of the book in like a day and half. Then I caught The Clue that unraveled it all. It took three more days to finish the book, and it's a classic Christie.

My son and I had a discussion about this book. He wonders why I figured out the clues so fast. It is the 39th book of hers I've read and documented for this project. If I don't know how Agatha Christie constructs a novel at this point, when will  I learn? 

It remains true that Christie is a study in parallel thinking, something I see many a novelist express in their novels, but I don't see them pull it off with as much aplomb as Christie. I've take a few notes along the way, and I am happy to report that I have given some classic Christie clues in my Haunted House Charlie Snow novelette, and so far, my critique team has fallen for the red herrings. It's so hard to hide my delight when I see really smart people struggle with the clues. I should feel a bit bad because they are trying to solve it, so I hope they aren't disappointed when I get to the reveal. 

That's the other thing Christie does pretty well. She gives us a great as they call it in the news business tick tock of the crime. She explains how the clues fit together to get a satisfying result. It's the hardest part of a mystery story to write, and the most important. 

 If you like Agatha Christie, you should enjoy this book. 

How Much My Library Card Saved Me

This book came to me from the Park Ridge Public Library District. It's in really good shape. The 294 page book seems nearly new. A quick flip through the book shows it entered their library in October of 2024. We're getting pretty good a judging this. The cover says the cost was $18.99 that's the number I will use. 

Library Book                               $18.99

Private Book                                 $0.00

Items Reviewed This Year        $295.91