Everand Logo

Welcome to Everand!

  • Discover millions of ebooks, audiobooks, and so much more with a free trial

    Only $11.99/month after trial. Cancel anytime.

    The Moving Finger: A Miss Marple Mystery
    The Moving Finger: A Miss Marple Mystery
    The Moving Finger: A Miss Marple Mystery
    Audiobook6 hours

    The Moving Finger: A Miss Marple Mystery

    Written by Agatha Christie

    Narrated by Richard E. Grant

    4/5

    ()

    Switch to ebook

    About this audiobook

    The indomitable sleuth Miss Marple is led to a small town with shameful secrets in Agatha Christie’s classic detective story, The Moving Finger. 

    Lymstock is a town with more than its share of scandalous secrets—a town where even a sudden outbreak of anonymous hate mail causes only a minor stir.

    But all that changes when one of the recipients, Mrs. Symmington, commits suicide. Her final note says “I can’t go on,” but Miss Marple questions the coroner’s verdict of suicide. Soon nobody is sure of anyone—as secrets stop being shameful and start becoming deadly.

    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherHarperAudio
    Release dateMar 26, 2013
    ISBN9780062265845
    Author

    Agatha Christie

    Agatha Christie is known throughout the world as the Queen of Crime. Her books have sold over a billion copies in English with another billion in over 70 foreign languages. She is the most widely published author of all time and in any language, outsold only by the Bible and Shakespeare. She is the author of 80 crime novels and short story collections, 20 plays, and six novels written under the name of Mary Westmacott.

    More audiobooks from Agatha Christie

    Related to The Moving Finger

    Titles in the series (21)

    View More
    View More

    Related audiobooks

    Mystery For You

    View More
    View More

    Related podcast episodes

    Related articles

    • Article

      Homecoming

      Sep 20, 2021

      Homecoming
      7 min read

    • Article

      A Bed For The night

      Jan 26, 2023

      A Bed For The night
      5 min read

    • Article

      Book Extract

      Jan 20, 2020

      My year off was also interesting, in that I didn’t feel any less loved, or cherished, or wanted. Why? Because my life is already rich with soulmates, and I got the chance to behold that. You don’t have to shag someone for them to be a soulmate. We do

      7 min read

    • Article

      Take a Writer Like Him: My Complicated Love Affair with Kingsley Amis

      Aug 24, 2018

      1. As much as I may rack my brain, there are 15 minutes or so in the dark that I can’t account for and that I’ll never get back—15 minutes during which, I have to think, that creep’s hands were touching my body. It’s a weird thing to think about all

      12 min read

    • Article

      Ella’s Choice

      Oct 6, 2021

      Ella’s Choice
      7 min read

    • Article

      Wendy’s WALKOUT

      Jun 24, 2020

      “Well, I wasn’t expecting that. If you could get hold of the feather that was last year’s WW’s Best Dieter (Feather Category), you’d still be able to knock me down with it. This could even be the sort of crisis that requires two trips to the fourth e

      3 min read

    • Article

      LeTtERbOcks

      Nov 17, 2022

      LeTtERbOcks
      11 min read

    • Article

      Retirement Advice For The Self-employed Landowner

      Mar 2, 2020

      As a country person ages, there is a temptation to imagine the approach of a quiet and graceful retirement: long, dreamy summer afternoons napping in the porch swing while grandchildren romp in the yard. That might be a happy possibility for the hedg

      3 min read

    • Article

      All Of Us Here

      Jun 4, 2020

      All Of Us Here
      6 min read

    • Article

      I Finally Feel That I’m Free

      Jan 29, 2020

      I Finally Feel That I’m Free
      11 min read

    • Article

      Ella’s Choice

      Oct 6, 2021

      Ella’s Choice
      7 min read

    • Article

      Fearless, fabulous FERN

      Apr 7, 2022

      Fearless, fabulous FERN
      7 min read

    • Article

      Every CLOUD

      Aug 31, 2022

      Every CLOUD
      6 min read

    • Article

      LeTteR Bocks

      Aug 4, 2022

      ◻PLEASE find attached this trademark from a box of eggs, which appears to show a chicken lifting its leg to crack off an eggy one. Susan Butcher, Australia ◻FORMER Prime Minister Boris Johnson has been criticised for meeting an ex-KGB agent without h

      13 min read

    • Article

      Speedboat

      Mar 24, 2022

      Nobody died that year. Nobody prospered. There were no births or marriages. Seventeen reverent satires were written – disrupting a cliché and, presumably, creating a genre. That was a dream, of course, but many of the most important things, I fi nd,

      14 min read

    • Article

      ‘Sing to It’: Featured Fiction from Amy Hempel

      Mar 25, 2019

      If she was home at night in her husband’s bed, did he care what she did with her days? The post ‘Sing to It’: Featured Fiction from Amy Hempel appeared first on The Millions.

      7 min read

    • Article

      His Brilliant Career

      Mar 19, 2023

      His Brilliant Career
      9 min read

    • Article

      Park LIFE

      Aug 3, 2022

      We are sitting on a bench in the park on a bright sunny day, and Mr Dear is grumbling. ‘You realise,’ he says, ‘that not so long ago we could have been arrested for just sitting on a park bench, flouting lockdown rules.’ ‘Yes, dear,’ I reply. ‘You d

      3 min read

    • Article

      THE DUKE OF Edinbrough Hotel

      Nov 13, 2019

      THE DUKE OF Edinbrough Hotel
      6 min read

    • Article

      Notes on Etiquette

      Mar 1, 2019

      Notes on Etiquette
      10 min read

    Related categories

    Reviews for The Moving Finger

    4/5

    1,065 ratings51 reviews

    What did you think?

    Tap to rate

    Review must be at least 10 words

    • 4/5
      At least half of what made this book great was Richard E Grant's excellent and often hilarious narration!
    • 3/5
      A very clever, simple solution that makes you look back on everything that's gone before and see it in a different light. Miss Marple's hardly in it, so it doesn't really feel like a Miss Marple book, but there's so much good stuff in it, you don't really mind. Mrs Dane Calthrop, the vicar's wife, is a wonderful character.
    • 4/5
      Garden Spells by Sarah Addison Allen is an enchanting little book. It is the story of two sisters, Claire and Sydney Waverly, who have been estranged for many years. Claire is living in the family home in Bascom, North Carolina, when Sydney arrives with her daughter Bay in tow. Sydney is running from Bay’s abusive father and has nowhere else to go. Claire, a caterer, has trouble getting close to people for fear they will leave.The Waverly’s have a reputation around town for being different. They possess special gifts. Bay has an uncanny ability to know where things belong, from forks to people. Evanelle, an elderly cousin, is compelled to give people things that they will need in the future; things that will alter the course of their lives (although she never knows how they will be used when she gives them). Claire’s gift is her very special culinary skills. She uses edible flowers and herbs from her garden in her cooking, which can make people remember or forget, fall in or out of love, and any number of other mystical things as she sees fit. Sydney is determined NOT to be special as only a Waverly can be, but soon it’s clear that she is gifted as well. And then there’s the Waverly apple tree, which has it’s own brand of magic.I was captivated by Garden Spells. It is romantic and sweet and the story flows nicely. I would recommend it to anyone who enjoys fantasy or magical fiction. Is magical fiction an actual genre? If not, it should be.
    • 3/5
      This was an interesting story in its own right and I liked the main character, but maybe I was just disappointed that there wasn't much Miss Marple in it. Still worth a listen. The narration is very good.
    • 5/5
      True to form! Great Agatha Christie … love the characters and the plot!
    • 4/5
      Jerry and Joanna Burton have moved into a nice little home in Lymstock. The idea is for Jerry to fully recover from injuries sustained from a plane crash. However, quite village life is not all it is cracked up to be. Especially since many of the residents the Burton's included have been getting nasty gossip letters. Who could be sending them and Why? Leave it to an old friend of the Vicars wife..Miss Marple to solve it! She is invited to stay with the Vicar and his wife and is asked to look into it. She not only is able to determine the culprit, but is also able to aide in finding out why one of the residents killed themselves.
    • 5/5
      The voice of the reader was absolutely perfect! Spot on!
    • 3/5
      Not her finest work, but it’s far from beong her worst as well. Characters are not very original and their identities depend heavily on stereotypes of the author’s time. Plot is interesting, however it could have been executed better. All in all, not a waste of time.
    • 5/5
      Keep in mind that Miss Marple only appears at the very end of this book--and solves the mystery. Yet, this is an excellent story, and I love the characters. Another big hit from the Queen of Mystery!
    • 4/5
      Richard E Grant is a marvelous narrator. He brings this well crafted Christy tale to life.
    • 5/5
      The story is set again in a quiet little country town where nothing happens. Then two young Londoners move there and a story full of humor and suspense unfolds. The story is also very well read.
    • 4/5
      Written and set in WWII, this is hardly as Miss Marple book at all, since the genteel lady detective only appears towards the end to draw the threads together and solve the real crime which has taken place in the stereotypical village amidst a flood of poison pen letters. Peopled with a rich set of characters, the book is narrated by one of the characters and is interesting mainly from a sociological point of view rather than a criminal one. Throw in a little romance (or two), and this is a pleasant read for a journey or a wet afternoon. Working out whodunit hardly seems important. A few times the quite severe view Christie took of people slips out from the gentility.
    • 3/5
      with all the adaptations going around, it's sometimes hard to remember if you've actually read the book or not

      This is a Miss Marple story, though she does turn up late and is hardly in the story at all.

      This is a story of Burton (and his sister) taking a house in the coutry after his flying accident. Soon they have received a poison pen letter accusing them of not being brother and sister, and not long after this people start dying. Burton has most of it worked out, even if he doesnt realise it, before Miss Marple arrives and ties everything up into a neat bow.

      Once again, a short neat little story and a quick read to while away an afternoon or two
    • 5/5
      A series of poison letters leads to a death but was it really a suicide? A 2nd body is found that raises suspicions. Only Miss Marple's questions not only leads to the poison pen writer but also the real killer. But it takes the courage of a young woman to bring the murderer out into the open.
    • 2/5
      This book was recommended by a friend, and happened to be the first Agatha Christie mystery I ever read. Hoping to get a sense of Miss Marple, a character I always heard about, I was disappointed that she didn't appear on the scene until the last quarter of the book, and she played a minor role at that. Just not my cup of tea.
    • 3/5
      Slightly creepy entry (but maybe because I was listening to an old radio play rather than reading the novel). Miss Marple gets up to speed with a village gossiping about a suicide perhaps caused by a flurry of poison pen letters. A wounded airman becomes interested in a young woman who dresses like a child (rather unsettling for contemporary ears).But an interesting puzzle that beat me.
    • 4/5
      Fairly standard Agatha Christie. An easy read, plot twists and turns, and lots of red herrings. Although this is a reread, i didn't remember it from roughly 30 years ago, but still pegged the villain by assuming the red herrings were red herrings and looking for the most likely other candidate. Decent story, nice way to kill a few hours, good follower to lots of serious tomes I've been reading.
    • 5/5
      I enjoyed this story. Even though Miss Marple was not present during the whole story I quite enjoyed the other characters. The Moving Finger is a mystery of who is writing these anonymous letters to the residents of a quiet little town called Lymstock and who murdered the maid. I enjoyed the interaction of the out of town guests on holiday Jerry and Joanna Burton, brother and sister.
    • 2/5
      Jerry is sent to the countryside on doctor's orders after a flight accident. He arrives there with his sister for the rest and relaxation, but they quickly find a drama unfolding in the town. Someone is anonymously sending letters to people throughout the village accusing them of uncouth acts (e.g., cheating on a spouse). Things quickly escalate and soon the town is investigating murder.This has to be my least favorite of the Miss Marple series by Christie. For starters, I kept doubting myself as to whether I had gotten the wrong book, as Miss Marple doesn't show up until two-thirds of the way into the book! Even then, she is so few scenes, it's easy to forget about her. (Although, of course, she does end up unmasking the killer.) So much of the book is caught up in mundane descriptions of village life (e.g, how the town is laid out) before the action begins. I really did not care for any of the characters, least of all our narrator Jerry. In fact, Jerry skeeved me out quite a bit with his sudden romantic interest in Megan; although Megan is 20 years old, she is frequently referred to by everyone in town including Jerry himself as a "child." Jerry's own sister says he is only interested in Megan because he wants a "dog" to "lead about on its leash." In fact, the book seems to have rather negative views about women in general, with mentions of how hysterical, jealous, etc. women can be.The mystery itself was really not all that intriguing and its denouement was rather anticlimatic. Christie did manage to present a person I hadn't suspected as the murderer, but the rather mundane husband-kills-wife-so-he-can-be-with-another-woman reveal is much more tame than the scenario I was playing out in my head. Oh well. I suppose not every mystery can be a winner. After this doozy following on the heels of a previous 'eh' Miss Marple mystery, I'm not sure if I'm going to continue on with the series.
    • 3/5
      I’ve been working through all of Christie’s Miss Marple novels, going out of order until I had them all purchased. I’ve read five now, and this was the first one to really disappoint. Miss Marple may as well have not even appeared and there is very little mystery until more than half way through.Jerry Burton and his sister, Joanna, travel to Lymstock so that he can rest and recover after a bad accident. The sleepy little town is unnerved by anonymous letters being delivered to residents accusing them of various unsavory things. The letters turn deadly, however, when Mrs. Symmington commits suicide after receiving one. The police are called in to find the writer, helped by Jerry who has been getting to know all the residents, especially the young and naïve Megan - daughter of Mrs. Symmington. My problem was that the entire first half of the book was really nothing more than gossip, with the occasional reference to the letters. Jerry, with or without Joanna, visits every resident, multiple times, to chat and/or have tea. I was hoping for Peyton Place-like shenanigans, but it was just boring. Even when a person turns up outright murdered, I just didn't care (nor did most of the residents). Miss Marple doesn’t even enter the story until more than two thirds of the way through, and the way she “solves” the case is completely unsatisfying. She doesn’t “observe” and collect clues, or interview people, like in other mysteries. She has a conversation with Jerry, who tells her everything that has occurred, and she just knows who the writer is.The ending, and ultimate culprit, was a surprise (probably because we never really learn anything to point to any particular suspect), which is why I gave it 3 stars. Disappointing, but not enough to put me off reading more.
    • 4/5
      Vies with Sleeping Murder for the title of my favourite Aggie! Great love story with a murder thrown in. Re read after a half-way decent adaptation shown on TV (most of the TV adaptations are so heavily adapted they may as well be new stories!).
    • 4/5
      Miss Marple Win It All!This story is a little bit different when confronted with other Marple mysteries. Miss Marple and her incomparable wisdom appear late in the plot. With that said, one will experience another well designed puzzle with a lot of good ingredients: anonymous letters, murder, a lot of gossip, even romance. A well written tale presented in the first person by its main character.
    • 3/5
      3.5*
      I am slowly rereading the Miss Marple books this year. This 3rd one barely qualifies as a Miss Marple as she doesn't make an appearance until about 80% of the way through. Of course, she quickly solves the case once she appears on the scene! It is almost as if Christie's publisher talked her into adding in a familiar sleuth rather than making it one of her stand-alone mysteries...

      Richard E. Grant is marvelous in his narration of the audiobook. I really appreciated all the different voices he did for the different characters!
    • 5/5
      Jerry Burton soll auf ärztliche Anordnung „dem Stumpfsinn fröhnen“. Er zieht vorübergehend mit seiner Schwester Joanna in die ländliche Stadt Lymstock. Doch es bleibt nicht lange ruhig. Anonyme Briefe werden verschickt, die gespickt mit Obszönitäten und Unwahrheiten auch Jerry nicht verschonen. Niemand nimmt die Briefe wirklich ernst, bis eines Tages durch solche ein Brief getrieben, ein Selbstmord geschieht. Lymstock ist entsetzt. Wie gut, dass die Pfarrersfrau Miss Marple zu Rate zieht.Auch wenn das Buch in die Reihe der Miss Marple Geschichten eingegliedert ist, so ist doch hier Jerry der eigentliche Protagonist. Unterstrichen wird dies durch die Ich-Perspektive der Erzählung. Er schildert den Fall aus seiner Sicht und kommt der Lösung gefährlich nahe, doch fehlt ihm das Selbstvertrauen, die richtigen Schlussfolgerungen zu ziehen.Dass er in diese Stadt zieht, sieht er zunächst als eine gute Möglichkeit, Klatsch und Tratsch zu erfahren, um so seine Rückenheilung voranschreiten zulassen. Durch seine sympathische Art wird er schnell in die Gemeinde integriert. Besonders die kleine Megan hat es ihm angetan. Megan lebt mit ihrer Mutter, ihrem Stiefvater und ihren Halbbrüdern zusammen und ist eigentlich alt genug, um auf eigenen Beinen zu stehen. Doch die Ignoranz ihrer Familie ihr und ihren Bedürfnissen gegenüber, macht sie zu einem melancholischen Mädchen, das lieber noch einmal klein sein möchte. Erst die Zuneigung Jerrys lockt das doch eigentlich intelligente Mädchen aus der Reserve.Mysteriöse Briefe und die Beziehung zwischen Megan und Jerry bilden die Fixpunkte dieser Geschichte. Christie zeichnet die Hauptpersonen hier besonders persönlich und sympathisch. Man wird regelrecht in diese Erzählung hineingezogen, es bilden sich stille Hoffnungen und nicht umsonst bezeichnet die Autorin diesen Roman als einen ihrer stärksten. Und damit hat sie meiner Ansicht nach recht. Das Buch steckt voller vordergründiger und unterschwelliger Gefühle. Und dabei kommt die eigentliche Kriminalgeschichte nicht zu kurz. Doch Christie schweift hier auch einmal ab, geht neue Wege in der Charakterzeichnung und das macht diesen Roman so faszinierend.Eine sehr emotionale Kriminalgeschichte.
    • 4/5
      I really enjoyed this story. The mystery was well-written and enjoyable. I liked these characters very much. It was fun reading about city folk" moving to the country and causing a stir. Even though this is listed as a Miss Marple mystery, she doesn't appear until the end (just in time to solve the case) and she could have been left out entirely. But, I still enjoyed the story very much."
    • 4/5
      Jerry Burton and his sister, Joanna, have temporarily located to the sleepy town of Lymstock while Jerry recuperates from injuries from a plane crash. But Lymstock is not as quiet as it appears. Shortly after their arrival Jerry and Joanna are the recipients of a nasty, anonymous letter and they're just one of the many victims in town. But when one of the recipients of a letter commits suicide, things begin to take a much darker turn.Yet another delightful mystery from Agatha Christie. Jerry is a fine narrator for the mystery, which is well-crafted of course. I once again utterly failed to determine whodunnit. Of course, Christie's fantastic dry wit still remains one of my favourite parts of her novels. This one is nominally a Miss Marple novel although she makes a very slim appearance. Still, a highly enjoyable read.
    • 3/5
      A rather enjoyable mystery book. Christie keeps you guessing exactly what is going on in it, but when you come to the end of the book you come to the realization that it all falls into place rather nicely and if you had just looked at things from a slightly different angle you would have gotten there yourself. I rather found it pleasing to read and glad I finished it. I would recommend it to those that want to be able to dissect a mystery novel as this one seems rather ease for that purpose.
    • 4/5

      Jerry Burton (a pilot recuperating) and his sister Joanna have let a house in the quiet village of Lymstock.... Soon they are victims of poison pen letters, as are most of their neighbors.

      When the mother of the odd & unwanted young Megan commits suicide and her maid is poisoned, the village is thrown into even more of a frenzy of accusations & suspicions...

      The vicar's wife, who with her acid tongue & pronouncements, is not above suspicion herself, calls in her friend Miss Marple to help solve the problems.

      Meanwhile Jerry not only takes a keen interest in Megan and is surprised find his interest to be romantic, but an even keener interest in solving the crimes.

      When Megan decides to blackmail her stepfather (at the behest of Miss Marple) the solution of the poison pen letters & the murder is solved.

      I liked the mystery, the plot, the romance, and the twists made for good reading, but I found Miss Marple's intervention too pat.
    • 3/5
      Miss Marple doesn't come in until the last third of the book, and even at that point, she's still a secondary character.

      The foreshadowing was interesting (but didn't help me "solve" the mystery)

      I had to skip to the back and see "whodunnit" before I could finish reading.
    • 4/5
      One of the cosier Christies --some are pretty grim but this is mild. A recuperating wounded airman and his sister come to a small village which is afflicted with a spate of nasty anonymous letters. The police believe they are written by a repressed respectable lady, but this turns out not to be the case. Miss Marple appears only briefly at the end to solve the case. One of the nicer features us a budding romance between te POV character (the wounded man) ad a troubled young woman.