In the novel The Moving Finger, Rose is the cook at the house of Richard Symmington. She is from Nether Mickford and visits the town during her free days. Rose is around forty years old, and is described as a "plump pudding-faced woman".
After the death of Agnes Woddell, Rose tells the police that Agnes had been upset ever since Mrs Symmington's death, and had been getting more and more worried, saying she did not know what she ought to do. Superintendent Nash asks Rose to tell her story several times, as she tells a different version each time, and he feels that the mire times she tells it, the more likely it is that some truth will be incorporated. Rose complains of "coming over queer all the morning", and embellished her story with details such as Agnes going about in deadly fear, and saying that it would be death if she told Rose what she had on her mind.
Rose also gives an account of her own movements on the day of Agnes' death. She had taken the bus to Nether Mickford, and spent the afternoon and evening with her family. She claims to have had "extraordinary presentiments of evil" all the afternoon, and says that she had not been able to touch a morsel of seed cake.
Portrayals[]
In the BBC 1985 adaptation of the novel which formed part of the Miss Marple series, Rose is played by Catherine Owen.