Line #16 Literature/TheMovingFinger


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4	''The Moving Finger'' is a 1942 novel by Creator/AgathaChristie.
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6	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. Just as they are getting to know some of the town's rather strange inhabitants, they receive an anonymous letter accusing them of being lovers, instead of siblings. They are told that these anonymous "poison pen" letters have been circulating widely around the town, making various accusations that are unpleasant, but inaccurate. The situation takes an ugly turn when a woman commits suicide after receiving a letter, and the police move in to investigate. Eventually, one of the women of the town calls in a friend of hers with an uncanny knack for solving puzzles--[[Literature/MissMarple Miss Jane Marple]].
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8	The title is from the Rubaiyat of Omar Khayyam, as well as a reference to Beshazzar's Feast in the Book of Daniel.
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10	One of only two Christie novels in which the American edition substantially differs in content from the original British (the other is the Poirot novel ''Literature/ThreeActTragedy''). The American version cuts out much of the incidental description and character development, focussing more tightly on the mystery.
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12	Adapted for TV [[Series/MissMarple1984 in 1985 by the BBC]] and [[{{Series/Marple}} in 2006 by ITV]].
13	----
14	!!This work contains examples of:
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16	* AbsenceOfEvidence:
17	** [[spoiler: Mrs Symmington's poison letter was a plant]], and poor Agnes figured this out when, [[spoiler: in the process of watching for her boyfriend, she realised that nobody had come to the house to deliver mail that day.]]
18	** [[spoiler:Elsie Holland]] doesn't receive a letter. [[spoiler:Given that she's an obvious target, the lack of such a letter is a clue in itself.]]
19	* AbusiveParents:
20	** Of the emotionally abusive kind. Megan's mother and step-father usually ignore her, and it's observed by Jerry Burton and others that Megan's presence upsets what would have been a traditional nuclear family. It is evident that Megan feels this.
21	** Emily Barton, Jerry and Joanna's landlady, is the last of five sisters whose mother [[MyBelovedSmother kept them from ever going out on their own or getting married, while blaming them for this]].
22	* AdvertisedExtra: Miss Marple herself only has a handful of scenes and doesn't even appear until about the final third of the novel.
23	* AlliterativeFamily: Jerry and Joanna Burton, brother and sister.
24	* ArcWords: "No smoke without fire" is stated by a number of people in reference to the letters; even if the statements they make are untrue, the people receiving them must have ''some'' guilty secret, or otherwise they wouldn't be so upset by them. [[spoiler:The murderer is exploiting this very mindset.]] Jerry thinks about this, his mind wandering to "smokescreen" [[spoiler:which is actually the real purpose of the letters.]]
25	* AssholeVictim: Jerry has a rather striking MoralMyopia moment when he considers that the current state of affairs required the deaths of [[spoiler:Mrs. Symmington and Agnes]], and gets over it by thinking that the former was a prudish, neurotic hypochondriac and the latter wasn't really liked by her boyfriend. [[spoiler:On the other hand, the first was an emotionally abusive parent to Jerry's fiancee, Megan, and the latter was someone he'd never actually met]]. This ''was'' in response to Miss Barton (a life-long village resident who knew both murder victims well) remarking that "everything really has worked out for the best"!
26	* BeautifulAllAlong: Jerry's ongoing frustration at Megan's poor self image and aggressively down-at-heels appearance, combined with her wistful expression as she sees him off to London, results in him 'going mad' and taking her to his sister's stylist in town. The results rather stun them both.
27	* BlackmailBackfire: As is standard for a Christie novel, an attempt to blackmail the murderer results in the blackmailer being [[spoiler:almost]] murdered. Subverted in that [[spoiler:it wasn't a real attempt but a case of BluffingTheMurderer.]]
28	* BluffingTheMurderer: Turns out to be the only way to catch the very cunning murderer who has succeeded in framing somebody else.[[spoiler: Engineered by Miss Marple with Megan as TheBait.]]
29	* CampGay: Mr Pye, who is alluded to be gay, is also described as "abnormally feminine," worries quite a bit about home decorating, can recognize a makeup brand when seeing it on Joanna's face, and is included by the police as a suspect even though they insist, on experience, that the culprit must be female. [[spoiler: Though it isn't.]]
30	* ContrivedCoincidence: Looking for a book to smooth out a curled photograph, Jerry just happens to select the one [[spoiler:used to supply the words that made up the anonymous letters]]. Similarly, Joanna goes for a long walk and just happens to stop by a cottage where Dr. Griffith is attending an emergency birth, and gets roped into assisting him.
31	* CrouchingMoronHiddenBadass: Dr. Griffith is bumbling and awkward when faced with Joanna's bold, flirtatious, big-city personality, and his idea of courting is showing her pictures of diseased internal organs. He impresses the hell out of her when, as she has faked interest in medicine, he requests her assistance in a difficult birth. Thankfully, both mother and baby survive.
32	* CutAndPasteNote: The nasty "poison pen" letters are composed by cutting out words from a book and pasting them on a page.
33	* DidNotThinkThisThrough: Combined with a near-terminal case of SkewedPriorities. [[spoiler: Aimee Griffith decides to use the murderer's poison-pen campaign as a cover for her ''own'' poison-pen letter to a romantic rival, reasoning that the murderer will be blamed. (Two people are dead, but sure, now is a ''great'' time to work out your petty romantic rivalries.) However, she does not make the next logical conclusion, which is that if anyone finds out she wrote ''this'' letter, they will then have a good reason to think she's the murderer. Which is exactly what happens.]]
34	* DissonantSerenity: Referenced when Jerry marvels that Inspector Graves is surprisingly cheerful for an expert in anonymous letters, who has to look into some pretty twisted minds on a regular basis.
35	* DistractedByTheSexy: Jerry is so shocked by his first look at Elsie Holland, the Symmingtons' governess, that he drops the groceries he has just bought.
36	* DramaticDrop: Dr. Griffith "dropped his bag on the floor" (his doctor's bag) when he finds out that Jerry received a nasty letter.
37	* DrivenToSuicide: Mrs. Symmington is so shocked and offended by the anonymous letter she receives that she kills herself [[spoiler:or so her husband would like everybody to believe]].
38	* DrivingQuestion: Who is sending these letters? But as Miss Marple points out, [[spoiler: this was the wrong question]].
39	* EarnYourHappyEnding: Emily Barton is finally freed from [[spoiler:keeping the house her domineering mother had forced her to live in her whole life]] and goes on a round-the-world cruise, taking [[spoiler:Aimée Griffith with her for the ride.]]
40	* EveryoneIsASuspect: Pretty much every woman in the village (and [[CampGay Mr. Pye]]) is suspected of authoring the letters at first. The texts were assembled from words and letters cut from a book, and the envelopes are addressed using a typewriter at the Women's Institute, which anybody could have accessed.
41	* FairPlayWhodunnit: It is hinted at and implied a couple of times (though only that... this is Creator/AgathaChristie, after all) [[spoiler: the first is Jerry's reaction to Elsie Holland herself - he's been absolutely oblivious to the fairer sex, to Joanna's disbelief and slight worry. But one look at Elsie (described more or less as the physical embodiment of Helen of Troy, but minus the charisma) and he's shocked back to life. But she's a live-in nanny... for a man who seems ''completely oblivious'' to this. More importantly - as the Inspector lampshades and Miss Marple states in her summation - this beautiful, single girl doesn't get an anonymous letter (and in the normal run of this sort of thing, she should have received one of the very first). The only reason for this is that the letter writer cares for her deeply. Given that Elsie ''is'' unattached, what reason would a man have for hiding his interest in her, other than he's married? And the nearest available married man is her employer.]]
42	** One revealing clue is actually pointed out by the narrator at the time, although he doesn't say ''why'' it's revealing until later. [[spoiler:The envelopes of the letters are addressed using a typewriter. Mr. Symmington addressed them using his typewriter, before donating it to the Women's Institute. However, Jerry and Joanna Burton moved to the village after he'd done this, and so the letters addressed to Joanna are sent in envelopes originally meant for Emily ''Barton'', with the "a" crossed out and replaced with a "u".]]
43	* FirstPersonPeripheralNarrator: Jerry Burton.
44	* HeKnowsTooMuch: [[spoiler:Agnes was murdered because she figured out that no mail had been delivered on the day on which Mrs. Symmington was supposed to have received the poison pen letter that allegedly prompted her to commit suicide.]]
45	* IChooseToStay: Jerry and Joanna came to Lymstock so that Jerry can recuperate from his injuries. The initial plan was to stay only for 6 months, but both eventually marry and settle down in the village.
46	* IWantMyBelovedToBeFashionable: After Megan remarks that [[IAmNotPretty she doesn't care about her appearance because she could never be good looking anyway]], Jerry spontaneously brings her to London for a makeover. Afterwards, he realizes that he did it because he's in love with her.
47	* {{Jerkass}}: Aimee Griffith isn't a very likable person. She goes on about how the letter writer must have hit onto something about Megan's mother [[{{Hypocrite}} while scoffing at how a letter]] ''[[{{Hypocrite}} she]]'' [[{{Hypocrite}} received certainly couldn't be taken seriously]]. She harshly mocks the idea of anyone (even great thinkers) being idle and throws around claims of misogyny when she's questioned. She makes a snide, racist comment about the Chinese in response to a drawing Jerry made of a Chinese man. After the deaths and the police investigation, she cheerfully comments about how nice the excitement is. She bullies Megan into moving back to her stepfather's house (where she's miserable) just in order to prevent an air of scandal attaching itself to her stepfather (like Aimee feels it would if he was left alone in the house with Elsie). She [[spoiler: sends a nasty anonymous letter of her own to Elsie.]]
48	* LiteraryAllusionTitle: The title comes from Edward [=FitzGerald's=] translation of "The Rubáiyát of Omar Khayyám":
49	-->''The Moving Finger writes, and having writ\
50	Moves on: nor all thy Piety nor Wit\
51	Shall lure it back to cancel half a Line,\
52	Nor all thy Tears wash out a Word of it.''
53	%% * LittleOldLadyInvestigates: Obviously, as a Literature/MissMarple novel.
54	* LoveMakesYouEvil: This story has both a male and a female example: [[spoiler:Mr. Symmington, and, to a much lesser extent, Aimee Griffith. The former murders his wife in order to be able to marry Elsie Holland, while Miss Griffith is driven by her love of Mr. Symmington to type a foul letter to Elsie in order to drive her away.]]
55	* MakeoverFairy: Having promised Megan a makeover, Jerry hands off the details to an expert: his sister's stylist "Mirotin".
56	* MaliciousSlander: Somebody is sending anonymous letters to people all over the village, accusing them of various misdeeds, mostly sex-related.
57	* MarryTheNanny: Aimee Griffith thinks this will happen with Elsie Holland and Mr. Symmington, because Elsie is essentially running the domestic side of the house in the wake of Mrs. Symmington's death (also, she's gorgeous) and he'll come to rely on her so much he can't help but marry her. [[spoiler:As Aimee has been desperately in love with Symmington for years, she writes an anonymous letter to Elsie accusing her of this.]] And then it turns out [[spoiler:Mr Symmington has been secretly in love with Elsie the whole time, and that he killed his wife in order to marry her.]]
58	* NeverOneMurder: The murderer is caught on his third attempt - fortunately in time. [[spoiler:Poor Agnes.]]
59	* NeverSuicide: Mrs. Symmington commits suicide after receiving a poison pen letter accusing her of adultery. [[spoiler:Actually, she was murdered.]]
60	** Also, [[spoiler:after dosing Megan's glass of milk with a sedative, Mr. Symmington carries her to the kitchen and puts her head in the gas oven, to make it look like she killed herself, but the police are waiting for him.]]
61	* NonIndicativeName: As Jerry points out, no one really likes Aimée (French for "Loved") Griffith. Especially not [[spoiler:Symmington, who pins the murder of Agnes on her despite her carrying a torch for him for years.]]
62	* NoodleIncident: in the latter half the of the book, Mrs Dane Calthrop tells Jerry that she's bringing in an expert on murder: enter Miss Marple. But while Reverend and Mrs Calthrop also appear in ''Literature/ThePaleHorse'', Miss Marple doesn't. ''So how does Mrs Calthrop know Miss Marple and what she can do?'' This is especially peculiar, because in all her other novels and short stories, it's very clearly stated how Miss Marple was introduced to all her cases outside St Mary Mead; it's usually by one of her army of godchildren, (who all call her Aunt Jane) someone she knows from a previous case, or her nephew Raymond takes action to put her in the right place or knows someone involved.
63	* NothingExcitingEverHappensHere: Jerry observes that he moved to the town due to this reason, then all the letters started.
64	* QuizzicalTilt: Inspector Graves of the police "put his sad head a little on one side" when he asks Jerry if he knows of anyone that hasn't received a poison pen letter.
65	* RealDreamsAreWeirder: Jerry Burton describes some strange dreams, including one with the Vicar's wife in a bathing suit.
66	* RippedFromTheHeadlines: In story. [[spoiler:Mr. Symmington got the idea of poison pen letters from a couple of other publicized cases, as a way to make his wife's murder look like suicide.]]
67	* SheCleansUpNicely: Megan can't believe how attractive she can look with a little effort. Jerry recognizes that much of the transformation is due to her improved self-image.
68	* SingleSexOffspring: Emily Barton, Jerry and Joanna's landlady, is the last of five sisters.
69	* StatingTheSimpleSolution: Miss Marple asks a very simple question: who cares who's writing the letters, what has actually ''happened''? She says they should focus on the tangible events and work back from there, rather than trying to untangle who wrote what or whether any of the allegations in the letters are true. [[spoiler: The first real happening is Mrs. Symmington's death, and who would want her dead? The husband who wants to marry the beautiful nanny without the stigma of divorce. The letters are a smokescreen.]]
70	* TransparentCloset: Mr. Pye, an "extremely ladylike" man who is a lifelong bachelor and a {{Gossipy Hen\|s}}. When the authorities decide that the letter-writer must be a woman, they also think that it ''might'' be Mr. Pye, because, well....Superintendent Nash thinks that Mr. Pye has "an abnormally female streak in his character."
71	* TheUnfavorite: Megan's mother and step-father have children of their own, and her parents clearly prefer them over her. Jerry is disgusted to realize that Mr. Symmington pays no attention to Megan unless she's right in front of him, and thinks that this might be even worse than Symmington actively disliking her--at least in that case he would ''see'' her.
72	* TheVerse: Reverend and Mrs Dane Calthrop also appear in another Creator/AgathaChristie novel, ''Literature/ThePaleHorse'', which also features Literature/HerculePoirot's companion Ariadne Oliver in a minor role.
73	* WhatHappenedToTheMouse: [[spoiler: After Megan's mother is murdered and her stepfather is arrested for the crime, no mention is made of who would take care of her two young half-brothers. It is mentioned in-story that she's not quite 21 yet, and is not yet married. By the standards of the time and place, she might not have been deemed a suitable guardian, and custody might have gone to an aunt or uncle of the boys. Either way, we never find out.]]
74	* WomanChild: Megan is in her early twenties but gives the impression of still being a teenager, in large part due to her mother and stepfather making no effort to help her grow.
75	* WorthyOpponent: Downplayed, but in TheSummation, Miss Marple says more than once that the killer (and their plan) was very clever.
76	* WoundedGazelleGambit: Discussed. When the characters wonder if Elsie is sending the letters because she's the only woman who hasn't gotten one, Graves explains that it's actually a mark in favor of her innocence, because in poison-pen cases the culprits almost always send themselves something vile to throw off suspicion and soak up the sympathy.

Context Literature / TheMovingFinger