Book Review: A Murder is Announced by Agatha Christie (1950)
Synopsis: The residents of Chipping Cleghorn are amused by an announcement in the morning paper advertising a murder later that day at the Little Paddocks estate owned by Letty Blacklock and go to her house believing it is either a game or a prank. They are less amused, however, when someone turns off the lights at the advertised time and fires a revolver, striking Miss Blacklock in the ear before either accidentally or purposely killing himself. Local police, baffled by the motive, turn to Jane Marple and, with her insight, come to a terrifying conclusion. The dead man was nothing more than a ruse and one of the people closest to Miss Blacklock is trying to kill her.
Review: Several years ago, I made reading all of Agatha Christie's mysteries one of my goals. However, I ended up taking a break from that after reading the first Miss Marple books and realizing I wasn't as big of a fan of her as I was of Christie's other detectives.
Since it had been a while, I decided to give it another shot with A Murder is Announced. While I am still undecided about Miss Marple, I did enjoy this murder mystery.
I think the thing that intrigued me most about this book was the murkiness surrounding the apparent attempted murder of Miss Blacklock. For one, as was pointed out in the book, if someone wanted her dead, there were plenty of other ways to do it that didn't involve inviting a bunch of witnesses to the house (and, frankly, I'm even more confused about that part after learning the truth about what happened).
The lack of a solid motive made the attempted murder even more confusing. Yes, there was a very convoluted motive involving distance relatives of Miss Blacklock's former boss who potentially would want her dead before she inherited money from his wife but, based mostly on the fact that motive was mentioned early in the book, I had my doubts about it being more than a red herring.
The book did take a "less is more" approach with Miss Marple, limiting her to a few chapters while Inspector Craddock did most of the heavy lifting, and I did find I liked that balance. She was able to spot a few things he missed, putting him on the right path, without (as I've complained about in the past) sounding like someone who read the final page of a murder mystery and was now pretending to have solved it on their own.
My biggest complaint about the book would be the decision to share conversations between the various characters while out of earshot of either Craddock or Marple. Those conversations revealed a few too many details, in my opinion, both making it easier to figure out who the killer was and quashing other theories and, at times, put the reader a couple steps ahead of the detective.
I thought the ending was a bit drawn out as well, especially since the killer is identified and even confesses prior to Marple making her reveal. Even with the details that were added later, it took a little something away from it.
Final Opinion: There are parts of the book, especially the ending, that could have been a bit less revealing, but the overall mystery was entertaining. At minimum, it gave me renewed hope I'd be able to make it through the rest of Christie's Miss Marple books.
My Grade: B+
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Here are some reviews of other Agatha Christie Books:
Book Review: Dumb Witness by Agatha Christie (1937)
Book Review: The Man in the Brown Suit by Agatha Christie (1924)
Book Review: And Then There Were None by Agatha Christie (1939)
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