The Moving Finger

The Moving Finger is a detective fiction novel by Agatha Christie, first published in the US by Dodd, Mead and Company in July 1942 and in the UK by the Collins Crime Club in June 1943. The U.S. edition retailed at $2.00 and the UK edition at seven shillings and sixpence (7/6). It features the elderly detective Miss Marple in a relatively minor, deus ex machina-like role, appearing more than halfway through and in only a handful of scenes.

Explanation of the novel's title
The book takes its name from verse 51 of Edward FitzGerald's translation of the Rubáiyát of Omar Khayyám:


 * The Moving Finger writes; and, having writ,
 * Moves on: nor all thy Piety nor Wit
 * Shall lure it back to cancel half a Line,
 * Nor all thy Tears wash out a Word of it.

The poem, in turn, refers to Belshazzar's feast as related in the Book of Daniel, where the expression the writing on the wall originated.

Plot summary
(may contain spoilers - click on expand to read) Jerry and Joanna Burton, brother and sister from London society, take a country house in idyllic Lymstock so that Jerry can rest from injuries received in a wartime plane crash. They are just getting to know the town's strange cast of characters when an anonymous letter arrives, rudely accusing the two of being lovers, not siblings. They quickly discover that these letters have been recently circulating around town, indiscriminate and completely inaccurate.

Things flare up when Mrs Symmington, the wife of the local solicitor, commits suicide upon receiving a letter stating that her second child was born out of wedlock. Her body is discovered with the letter, a glass containing potassium cyanide and a torn suicide note which reads "I can't go on". An inquest is held and the verdict of suicide is brought in. The police begin to search for the anonymous letter writer. The Burtons' maid, Partridge, receives a call from the Symmington's maidservant, Agnes, who seems distraught over something. Partridge asks Agnes over to tea the next afternoon, but Agnes never arrives, and her body is discovered in the under-stairs cupboard the next day by Mr Symmington's step-daughter, Megan.

Scotland Yard sends an investigator, who comes to the conclusion that the letter-writer/murderer is a middle-aged woman who must be one of the prominent citizens of Lymstock. Progress is slow until the vicar's wife calls up an expert of her own, Miss Marple. Jerry Burton gives Miss Marple some vital clues by telling her of the contents of his dreams and his disconnected thoughts. There is a break in the case when the Symmingtons' beautiful young governess, Elsie Holland, receives an anonymous letter typed on the same typewriter, proven to have been used to create envelopes for all the previous letters. The village doctor's sister, Aimée Griffith, is arrested, since she was seen typing the letter and delivering it.

When Jerry goes to London for an appointment with his doctor, he takes Megan along with him. In London, he buys her some new clothes to make her look presentable. He begins to realize he has fallen in love with her. When they return to Lymstock, Jerry asks Megan to marry him, and she refuses. As a result, Jerry goes to Mr Symmington to ask for his permission and to inform him of her refusal. Symmington, who is eager to have Megan off his hands, tells Jerry he will speak with her. Later that evening, Megan goes to her step-father's office and tries to blackmail him by implying she has proof of his guilt in the murders. He coolly pays her off, but later, when she is asleep, he tries to murder her by putting her head in the gas oven. He is immediately stopped by Jerry and the police, who were lying in wait. It is revealed that Miss Marple wished to prove Mr Symmington's guilt and that Megan was brave enough to assist her.

Symmington had written all the letters as a cover-up for killing his wife. He had used phrases from a similar incident, done by a school-girl, which fooled the police into thinking that a woman had been the letter-writer. Miss Marple notes that it could not have been a woman who wrote the letters, because none of the accusations were true, and a typical middle-aged woman in a village like Lymstock would have known of real scandals, and would have used them. On the other hand, a man, especially a professional man like Symmington, would be uninterested in gossip.

Symmington poisoned his wife with cyanide, and then planted the letter and a fake suicide note to disguise the crime. He committed the murders because he wished to marry Elsie Holland. Aimée Griffith, who was in love herself with Symmington, had written only the letter to Miss Holland, out of jealousy and to try to protect the man she loved from marrying the wrong woman. Megan, in light of recent events, finally realizes that she does indeed love Jerry. His sister Joanna marries the local doctor, and both couples settle down in Lymstock instead of returning to London.

The book's title, The Moving Finger, is emphasized twice. The first is how the accusatory letters point blame from one town member to another, the second is from the addresses on the letters, which the Scotland Yard agent determines were all "typed by someone using one finger" in order to avoid a recognizable 'touch'.

Little Furze

 * Jerry Burton: a former pilot who moves to Lymstock to recover from injuries
 * Joanna Burton: Jerry's sister
 * Partridge: housekeeper
 * Beatrice Baker: maid
 * Emory: daily help

The Symmingtons

 * Richard Symmington - a solicitor in Lymstock, his wife Mona
 * Megan Hunter - Mona's daughter from her first marriage.
 * Colin Symmington and Brian Symmington - two children of Richard and Mona
 * Elsie Holland - governess
 * Agnes Woddell - maid
 * Rose - cook

Other Lymstock villagers

 * Reverend Caleb Dane Calthrop: the vicar, and his wife Maud Dane Calthrop
 * Emily Barton: an old lady and the owner of Little Furze
 * Emily's deceased sisters: Agnes, Edith, Minnie, Mabel
 * Florence Elford
 * Dr Owen Griffith: doctor in Lymstock
 * Aimée Griffith: the sister of Owen
 * Mr Pye
 * Mr Cleat - an elderly jobbing gardener and his wife Mrs Cleat
 * George - Beatrice's boyfriend
 * Jennifer Clark
 * Fred Rendell
 * Mrs Baker
 * Miss Ginch
 * Mudge
 * Jasper Harrington-West

Other characters

 * Miss Marple
 * Marcus Kent: Jerry's doctor in London
 * Paul: Joanna's ex boyfriend in London.
 * Captain Hunter: the father of Megan
 * Colonel Appleton
 * Mary Grey
 * Miss Batworthy

Police

 * Superintendent Nash
 * Detective Inspector Graves
 * Sergeant Parkins
 * Bert Rundle - local police constable

Literary significance and reception
(long section - click on expand to read)

Maurice Willson Disher in The Times Literary Supplement of 19 June 1943 was mostly positive, starting, "Beyond all doubt the puzzle in The Moving Finger is fit for experts" and continuing, "The author is generous with her clues. Anyone ought to be able to read her secret with half an eye – if the other one-and-a-half did not get in the way. There has rarely been a detective story so likely to create an epidemic of self indulgent kicks." However, some reservations were expressed: "Having expended so much energy on her riddle, the author cannot altogether be blamed for neglecting the other side of her story. It would grip more if Jerry Burton, who tells it, was more credible. He is an airman who has crashed and walks with the aid of two sticks. That he should make a lightning recovery is all to the good, but why, in between dashing downstairs two at a time and lugging a girl into a railway carriage by main force, should he complain that it hurts to drive a car? And why, since he is as masculine in sex as the sons of King Gama does he think in this style, "The tea was china and delicious and there were plates of sandwiches and thin bread and butter and a quantity of little cakes"? Nor does it help verisimilitude that a bawling young female gawk should become an elegant beauty in less than a day."

Maurice Richardson in the 13 June 1943 issue of The Observer set the tone thus: "An atmosphere of perpetual, after-breakfast well-being; sherry parties in a country town where nobody is quite what he seems; difficult slouching daughters with carefully concealed coltish charm; crazy spinsters, of course; and adulterous solicitors. Agatha Christie is at it again, lifting the lid off delphiniums and weaving the scarlet warp all over the pastel pouffe." And he concluded, "Probably you will call Mrs Christie's double bluff, but this will only increase your pleasure."

An unnamed reviewer in the Toronto Daily Star of 7 November 1942 said, "The Moving Finger has for a jacket design a picture of a finger pointing out one suspect after another and that's the way it is with the reader as chapter after chapter of the mystery story unfolds. It is not one of [Christie's] stories about her famous French detective, Hercule Poirot, having instead Miss Marple, a little old lady sleuth who doesn't seem to do much but who sets the stage for the final exposure of the murderer."

Robert Barnard: "Poison pen in Mayhem Parva, inevitably leading to murder. A good and varied cast list, some humour, and stronger than usual romantic interest of an ugly-duckling-into-swan type. One of the few times Christie gives short measure, and none the worse for that."

Miss Marple (BBC TV Series)
A TV film adaptation was made as episode 2 of the BBC series Miss Marple starring Joan Hickson as Miss Marple. It was first broadcast in two parts, on 21–22 February 1985.

Agatha Christie's Marple (ITV series)
Another film adaptation was made in 2006 as episode 4 of season 1 of the ITV series Agatha Christie's Marple. This featured Geraldine McEwan as Miss Marple. This episode was first transmitted on February 12, 2006 in the UK.

Radio adaptation
A radio adaptation was broadcast on BBC Radio4 on 5 May 2001 in the Saturday Play slot, starring June Whitfield as Miss Marple.

Publication history

 * 1942, Dodd Mead and Company (New York), July 1942, Hardcover, 229 pp
 * 1943, Collins Crime Club (London), June 1943, Hardcover, 160 pp
 * 1948, Avon Books, Paperback, 158 pp (Avon number 164)
 * 1948, Pan Books, Paperback, 190 pp (Pan number 55)
 * 1953, Penguin Books, Paperback, 189 pp (Penguin number 930)
 * 1961, Fontana Books (Imprint of HarperCollins), Paperback, 160 pp
 * 1964, Dell Books, Paperback, 189 pp
 * 1968, Greenway edition of collected works (William Collins), Hardcover, 255 pp
 * 1968, Greenway edition of collected works (Dodd Mead), Hardcover, 255 pp
 * 1970, Ulverscroft Large-print Edition, Hardcover, 331 pp; ISBN 0-85456-670-8
 * 2005, Marple Facsimile edition (Facsimile of 1943 UK first edition), September 12, 2005, Hardcover; ISBN 0-00-720845-6

The novel's first true publication was the US serialisation in Collier's Weekly in eight instalments from 28 March (Volume 109, Number 13) to 16 May 1942 (Volume 109, Number 20) with illustrations by Mario Cooper.

The UK serialisation was as an abridged version in six parts in Woman's Pictorial from 17 October (Volume 44, Number 1136) to 21 November 1942 (Volume 44, Number 1141) under the slightly shorter title of Moving Finger. All six installments were illustrated by Alfred Sindall.

This novel is one of two to differ significantly in American editions (the other being Three Act Tragedy), both hardcover and paperback. The American edition of The Moving Finger has been abridged to remove sections of chapters. Some minor characters do not appear.

Christie admitted that this book was one of her favourites, stating, "I find that another one [book] I am really pleased with is The Moving Finger. It is a great test to re-read what one has written some seventeen or eighteen years before. One's view changes. Some do not stand the test of time, others do."

International titles

 * Czech: Není kouře bez ohýnku (There's No Smoke without Fire)
 * German: Die Schattenhand (Shadow's Hand)
 * French: La Plume Empoisonnée (The Poison Pen)
 * Polish: Zatrute pióro (The Poisoned Pen)
 * Spanish: El caso de los anónimos (The case of the anonymous)
 * Swedish: Mord per korrespondens (Murder via Correspondence)