The Moving Finger by Agatha Christie

Lymstock is a town with more than its share of shameful 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 said 'I can't go on'. Only Miss Marple questions the coroner's verdict of suicide. Was this the work of a poison-pen? Or of a poisoner?

     I'd like to begin this review by telling you that I am an Agatha Christie fan. I absolutely loved her book And Then There Were None and I was really looking forward to reading another one of her books. When I began reading, I was enthusiastic, but after a few pages, I was already disappointed. I continued reading with a hopeful attitude and faith in Ms. Christie's work. 

     I continued through the book and realized that my interest in the story was fading. I dragged through most of the story. Around page 150 of only 216 pages, the story picked up a bit when one of the characters commits suicide after receiving another anonymous letter. Unfortunately it didn't pick up as well as I hoped it would. There are two reasons that I continued to read. Number one was that The Moving Finger was assigned reading for school, so I was required to read it. Number two was a self inflicted reason- I was almost sure that Agatha Christie would wrap up the story with a perfect and completely unexpected ending. Thankfully, she did!  The ending was great and I would have never guessed who wound up committing the various crimes throughout!   

     One of the main reasons that I didn't enjoy the majority of the book was because of 

all the characters in the book. Agatha Christie made it so that almost every person in the town of Lymstock had received an anonymous letter. Unfortunately that meant that almost every one with a letter had to be written into the storyline. So many characters were introduced until I had no idea who was who!  Every other character besides Jerry( the narrator) and his sister Joanna became almost nonexistent in my mind. Everyone just blurred together. Unfortunately that weakened my understanding of most of the story.  

     Overall, I didn’t really enjoy The Moving Finger.  It dragged a long too much for me, but maybe you’ll have some luck with it.  Let me know what you thought, or if you have anything to say in the comments.

Final Grade: