A Murder is Announced

First Published: 1950
Setting: Chipping Cleghorn 

Starring: Miss Marple, Letitia Blacklock, Dora Bunner, Inspector Craddock

Important Other People: Patrick and Julia, Pip and Emma, Hincliffe and Murgatroyd, Mitzi, Philipa Haymes, Colonel and Mrs. Easterbrook, Edmund and Mrs. Swettenham, Bunch Harmon, Belle Goedler

Sticking with the theme of the post-war world, we are reminded at the beginning that all you know about people is what they say of themselves. Just like in Roger Ackroyd, we need to remember that that statement applies to everyone. No one is exactly who they seem. Due to all of the disruption that occurred after World War II, it was much more difficult to establish connections with people or to find a common friend or relative. There was also the secret black market world that was going on, even with seemingly-respectable spinsters and other pillars of the community. England after the war was much different than it had been before the war, and even people living in small villages had to adjust their worldviews accordingly. 


In keeping with the idea of a disrupted world, this is the first book where we get explicit talk of premarital relations, but still couched in Agatha's Victorian terminology. Referring to war widows, Edmund says he'll "take her to bed." This to me is a clear indication of goings-on that should not be going on, and it once again shows how much England changed in the years right after the war. 


I don't really have anything else to say without giving a ton of plot points away, but I do have to say that if you haven't read this book, you need to. It's one of the best, for sure, and it's one of my favorites. Mitzi is ridiculous, and Miss Marple is ingenious. It's just so good.

Interesting facts: Sir Henry Clithering and Inspector Craddock are in this book. I love both of them. 

Favorite? Yes. I love how intricate the plot and details are, all of the mystery characters that keep popping up, and how everything really comes together at the end. It is just brilliant. 

Death by: shooting, poisoning, strangulation 

Body Count: 3; Cumulative: 111

The Count: Poirot-22, Miss. Marple-4, Tommy and Tuppence-2, Hastings-7, Japp-7, Colonel Race-4, Superintendent Battle-5, George-2, Goby-1, No Recurring Character- 5, Mrs. Oliver-1, Albert- 2

Agatha's Life Lessons: All you know of people is what they say of themselves. Youth is the time to have your fling. People like living. You can get away with a great deal if you have enough audacity. One is alone when the last one who remembers one when they were young is gone. It's never a mistake to marry a man you want to marry- even if you regret it. Weak and kindly people are often very treacherous. People with a grudge against the world are always dangerous. It's what's in yourself that makes you happy or unhappy.

Up Next: They Came to Baghdad