Hello crime readers and food lovers! This month our menu is a tribute to The Moving Finger, a 1942 novel by Agatha Christie featuring many people’s favourite amateur crime solver, Miss Jane Marple. In contrast to the last few novels in which we have dined with the Dame, The Moving Finger is loaded with mentions of food including an Irish Stew. My own opinions of stew match those of Megan Hunter (below) so when I made it, I thought that I would just have a taste and then the Fussiest Eater in the world could eat the rest. This is exactly the type of food he loves. My spoonful ended up being a whole bowl and I would have had another for lunch the following day if the leftovers hadn’t been commandeered by someone else! So success all round. I’ll definitely be making Irish Stew again.
The Moving Finger – The Plot
Jane Marple. Look at her well. I tell you, that woman knows more about the different kinds of human wickedness than anyone I’ve ever known.
Agatha Christie – The Moving Finger
Jerry Burton and his sister Joanna move to the “quiet” village of Lymstock so he can recover from injuries after a flying accident. Shortly thereafter, they receive an anonymous letter accusing them of being lovers. They burn the letter but soon learn that they are not the only people who are being targeted by the poison pen writer.
Although offensive, the letters consist of wild speculation and don’t seem to target actual wrongdoing. Then, one of the people from the village is found dead with a letter accusing her of adultery beside her.
We have:
- The Police unable to solve the crimes
- Another grisly murder where a housemaid is skewered to death. Did she see something she shouldn’t have
- A book found with pages ripped out – the source of the letters
- Local citizens suspecting each other
Good thing one of the villagers has the sense to call on her friend Jane Marple to set things right!
There are lots of things to love in The Moving Finger. The details of village life and the characters who live in it are well-written. My personal favourite is Mrs Dane Calthrop the Reverend’s wife. She is an original thinker and the person to contact Miss Marple. I love this response from her when asked if she has had a poison pen letter:
Oh yes, two, – no three. I forget what they said. Something very silly about Caleb and the schoolmistress, I think. Quite absurd, because Caleb has absolutely no taste for fornication. He never has had. So lucky being a clergyman
What we might call today “too much information”.
I also very much liked Partridge, Jerry and Joanna’s cook who seems to be in a constant bad temper.
There are also some things not to like. There is a more than likely gay man in the village and a few homophobic comments made about him. And there’s a weird romance going on between Jerry Burton and Megan Hunter.
Also, for a Marple novel, Miss Marple only enters on, in my edition, page 121 of a 160-page novel!
Apart from these few niggles, I very much enjoyed this novel.
The Moving Finger – The Covers
I was delighted to find so many non-English covers for The Moving Finger – we have French, Spanish, German, Czech, Swedish and others I cannot identify. My favourites are the German Die Scattenhand third row second left and the Swedish MordPer Korrespondens on the same row far right. The English cover, bottom row, far left is terrifying!
The Recipe – Irish Stew
“Murder is a nasty business on an empty stomach.”
Agatha Christie – The Moving Finger
For my Irish Stew I used the recipe on BBC Good Food by Bruno Desmazery.
As mentioned, this was delicious and, despite my initial reluctance was something I would definitely make and eat again! And, contrary to the quote from Megan Hunter below is not mostly potato and flavour. Although, maybe in 1942 with wartime rationing it may well have been.
I went round to apprise Partridge of the fact that there would be three to lunch. I fancy that Partridge sniffed. She certainly managed to convey without saying a word of any kind that she didn’t think much of that Miss Megan. I went back to the verandah. Ïs it quite alright?”asked Megan anxiously. “Quite alright ” I said.” Ïrish Stew.” “Oh well, that’s rather like dog’s dinner anyway isn’t it? I mean it’s mostly just potato and flavour””
Agatha Christie – The Moving Finger
Links To The Christieverse
None that I could find
Other Food & Drinks Mentioned in The Moving Finger
December’s Read is Sparkling Cyanide.
