Two Words, One Answer.
announced
 Murder is Announced (Miss Marple) $12.00 This was the third book of Agatha Christie's that I read, and the one that cemented my opinion of her as an utterly ingenious storyteller. "A Murder is Announced" is a book that I can come back to again and again, noticing something different each time, and marveling at the amount of foreshadowing and carefully-placed clues that have been strewn throughout the narrative, so obvious in hindsight, yet so carefully woven into the story that it takes a keen eye to pick up on them. The residents of Chipping Cleghorn are astonished at an advertisement placed in their local paper, claiming that a murder is to take place in the home of Miss Letitia Blacklock that night. Even more strangely, Miss Blacklock is as baffled at the appearance of the announcement as the rest of them. The other residents of the house (a childhood friend, two distant relatives, a refugee and a somewhat mysterious boarder) all claim innocence, and so it is a rather bemused gathered in the drawing room once her neighbours converge on Little Paddocks for what they assume is a murder-mystery party. As the clock chimes the half-hour, the lights go out, and gun-shots are fired. When the confusion passes, someone is dead. Luckily the elderly Miss Marple is staying with a friend in the village, and offers her services to the police to help gather some more information about the people involved. What with the authorities having come to the shaky conclusion that the events of the night in question were some kind of botched burglary, the spinster-sleuth decides to do some of her specialized snooping. That is, she socializes with those involved, and draws parallels between the impression she has of them with the residents in her own village in an attempt to understand character, background and possible motivation. The amount of detail used in building the mystery is wonderfully complex, particularly in the dialogue: the second time around, I could pick up on the fact that several characters are saying completely different things to what we assume they are the first time. In hindsight, there are several early details that practically scream the solution at you, and even what first appears to be a typo is a clue! If you're sharp enough, you can certainly deduce who the killer is; as Christie lays out all the information...but then proceeds to baffle you with it. The general time-period of the story is informative without being obtrusive. Set in the years directly after WWII, we get the sense of a society still trying to find its footing after great turmoil, and coping with drastic changes in the world. Along with mention of ration books and identity cards, displaced refugees from Eastern Europe, the decrease in hired servants, illegal bartering system among neighbours, housing development and distrust of foreigners, there is a prevailing sense of uncertainty and hardship as communities try to rebuild their understanding of the world. One feature of the postwar world in particular has an important bearing on the mystery: the upheavals in population settlement, in which old families died out or moved on, resulting in previously close-knit village residents suddenly becoming strangers to one another. There was one thing though that seemed to go unresolved; when the police are discussing the case, one of them opens a file and says: "Here's a little something we've dug up on Mrs Easterbrook." We never do find out what this something is, unless I missed something obvious. Can anyone enlighten me? At the time of its publication, "A Murder is Announced" was heavily advertised as her fiftieth story; a somewhat dubious claim, but one that gives this particular mystery an added bit of renown. As one of Christie's best and rewarding mysteries (yeah, I know I probably say that about all of them) my advice is to read carefully, as everything means something.  OAM Off-hook Announced Module $29.00 This unit is required to provide key telephones the ability to receive a voice announced intercom call and respond hands-free while in an off-hook condition. The OAM offers the following: 1 per key telephone requiring this feature Installed in-side the telephone set The OAM unit is compatible with digital instruments Maximum 24-OAM per system  Miss Marple - 3 Feature Length Mysteries (The Body in the Library / A Murder Is Announced / A Pocketful of Rye) $39.98 A well put together set of 3 of the Miss Marple series. Even though I had seen some of them before I was still spell bound due to the great cast and direction |
|
