Ebook A Murder Is Announced Azw3 Tác Giả Agatha Christie

Introduction of the ebook: A Murder Is Announced

Đánh giá : 4.00 /5 (sao)

“A Murder is Announced” is a staple of crime fiction and often considered as the best Miss Marple novel. The villagers of Chipping Cleghorn, including Jane Marple who is staying nearby, are agog with curiosity over an advertisement in the local gazette which reads: ‘A murder is announced and will take place on Friday October 29th, at Little Paddocks at 6.30 p.m.’ Is this a “A Murder is Announced” is a staple of crime fiction and often considered as the best Miss Marple novel. The villagers of Chipping Cleghorn, including Jane Marple who is staying nearby, are agog with curiosity over an advertisement in the local gazette which reads: ‘A murder is announced and will take place on Friday October 29th, at Little Paddocks at 6.30 p.m.’ Is this a childish practical joke? Or a hoax intended to scare poor Letitia Blacklock? Unable to resist the mysterious invitation, a crowd gathers at Little Paddocks at the appointed time when, without warning, the lights go out…

The novel was promoted on both sides of the Atlantic as Agatha Christie’s 50th book and published in 1950 by William Collins.

Librarian’s note: this entry is for the novel, “A Murder is Announced.” Collections and other Miss Marple stories are located elsewhere on Goodreads. The series includes 12 novels and 20 short stories. Entries for the short stories can be found by searching Goodreads for: “a Miss Marple Short Story.” …more

Review ebook A Murder Is Announced

By this point, I have given up trying to play Guess The Culprit with Agatha Christie mysteries. It’s just not possible. She’s like a magician who tells an audience that she’s going to make a coin disappear and reappear. The coin disappears, and she tells you to watch her right hand. You, who have seen magic shows before, think “Aha! Misdirection! I’ll watch her left hand, and then I’ll see how the trick is done.” So you’re watching her left hand, and everyone else is watching her right hand, and By this point, I have given up trying to play Guess The Culprit with Agatha Christie mysteries. It’s just not possible. She’s like a magician who tells an audience that she’s going to make a coin disappear and reappear. The coin disappears, and she tells you to watch her right hand. You, who have seen magic shows before, think “Aha! Misdirection! I’ll watch her left hand, and then I’ll see how the trick is done.” So you’re watching her left hand, and everyone else is watching her right hand, and then suddenly the coin appears out of nowhere and no one has any idea how she did that. Meanwhile the assistant, who you’ve completely forgotten about, has just transformed into a dog and then your brain explodes.

That’s what reading a good Agatha Christie book is like. This is one of the good ones. My favorite Christie stories are the ones where multiple people get murdered. A murder occurs, people start looking for the killer, and then BAM somebody else is found dead and you realize that whoever the killer is he/she is fucking nuts and you don’t know who’s going to die next. It adds a great deal of tension and urgency to the story, and I love it.

Now I have two complaints, one serious and one absurd, that contributed to this book’s four-instead-of-five star rating.

The serious: Miss Marple is more present in this book than she was in The Body in the Library, but she still keeps to the sidelines a lot and it’s frustrating. She’s not even mentioned by name until page 95, and I think it’d be nice if she could solve a mystery on her own instead of waiting for the police to invite her into their Boys Only Mystery Solving Clubhouse.

The absurd: Quotes like this, when the police are discussing the inhabitants of the village where the murder took place: “‘Nice old pussies and retired colonels. …Lord, I wish I had my own particular old pussy here. Wouldn’t she like to get her nice ladylike teeth into this?’
‘Who’s your own particular pussy, Henry? An aunt?'”

Okay. I understand that Agatha Christie’s definition of “pussy” is vastly different from my own. But this is like that part in Arrested Development where they actually got a character to call someone a pussy without it being censored, because they claimed it was a British term for a nice person. We all know what they’re really doing, and that’s delighting in being able to use that word freely on TV. (Speaking of Arrested Development, you should all be proud of me for resisting the urge to toss out an “It’s an illusion!” reference during that magician analogy I made up there. You’re welcome.)

Once would be understandable, and a sign that my dirty mind has gone too far, but then it happens again: “‘Ye gods and little fishes,’ said Sir Henry, ‘can it be? George, it’s my own particular, one and only, four-starred pussy. The super pussy of all old pussies.'”

Oh come on, Christie. Now you’re just messing with me.
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