This is set just after WWII, when rationing is still in place, village life is changing - where people no longer know who their neighbours are - and where there is still a mistrust in "foreigners" such as the poor Mitzi, who has (or has not) been through so much in Germany during the war.

It starts out with an entry in the local newspaper, announcing a murder at 6:30 that evening at Little Paddocks. Naturally, people are curious, so there's plenty of witnesses that evening as the lights go out, shots are fired and a young man is found dead in the hall moments later. Of course, Bunch knows Miss Marple, and combined with Inspector Craddock who knows her reputation, she is called down to help out. People are more likely to say things to the dotty old woman knitting in the corner than the police after all.....

There's a veritable cast here, some of whom have very similar names, and the matter of the inheritance of millions of pounds, people pretending to be other people, and it all boils down to "do you really know your neighbour?".

As usual, a tight little story, where most of the clues are there if you are paying attention (though most people dont), an like the TV adaptations, a great way to spend an afternoon

Murder Foretold
Review of the William Morrow Paperbacks edition (2011) of the Collins Crime Club (UK) & Dodd, Mead & Company (US) hardcover (June 1950) originals.

“Just look, Letty.” Miss Blacklock looked. Her eyebrows went up. She threw a quick scrutinizing glance round the table. Then she read the advertisement out loud. “A murder is announced and will take place on Friday, October 29th, at Little Paddocks at 6:30 p.m. Friends please accept this, the only intimation.”

An advertisement in the Chipping Cleghorn Gazette tells the entire local village that a murder will take place at the home of Charlotte (Lettie) Blacklock. Curious neighbours just happen to drop by at the appointed place and time and lo and behold a death does take place, but it is the assailant who falls dead at their feet after an apparent murder attempt on the host. The police are baffled of course, and Miss Marple is called in to unravel the situation. But then yet another death occurs.

See cover at https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/9/9f/A_Murder_is_Announced_First_Editi...
The front cover of the original 1950 Collins Crime Club (UK) hardcover edition. Image sourced from Wikipedia.

This was yet another delightful outing for Christie's amateur senior sleuth. The amount of coincidences, changed identities and obscure motives were perhaps stretched to the edge of believability, but it was as entertaining and diverting as the best of Marple and Christie. I would even say it is my favourite to date (I am reading them in order of publication).

Confusion for Completists
A Murder is Announced is the 4th Miss Marple novel. Some lists, including the Goodreads Miss Marple Listopia, count it as Miss Marple #5 as the short story collection [book:The Thirteen Problems|31309] (1932) is counted as #1 only because some of those stories appeared in 1927.

Trivia and Links
A Murder is Announced was adapted twice for English language television. Both of those are reasonably faithful to the original plot. I did not find any free trailers or postings of either of them, but they are both available on the Britbox streaming service here in Canada.

The first adaptation was as part of the BBC's Miss Marple (1984-1992) series as Season 1 Episodes 6, 7 & 8 in 1985, which starred Joan Hickson as Miss Marple.

The second adaptation was as part of ITV's Agatha Christie’s Marple (2004-2013) reboot series as Season 1 Episode 4 in 2005 which starred Geraldine McEwan as Miss Marple.

There was a French language adaptation for the Les petits meurtres d'Agatha Christie [French: The Little Murders of Agatha Christie] (2009 - ongoing) series. The episode based on A Murder is Announced was Season 2 Episode 11 Murder Party (2015). This series does not feature a Miss Marple character and instead has a police detective and a reporter as the leads. The plots are transplanted to France and are considerably changed from the originals.

There was a Korean language TV adaptation for the Ms. Ma, Nemesis (2018) limited series. There were 32 episodes to this series which adapted several Miss Marple stories, including A Murder is Announced, into a modern day plot of an prison escapee who seeks to clear her own name of her daughter’s murder and solves that and other crimes in the process. The lead role was played by Yunjin Kim, best known in English language television from the TV series Lost (2004-2010). ( )

This is an amusing murder mystery novel, and I managed to figure out about half of the (original) crime before the big reveal. There were, of course, things that I didn't get quite right, but that's what I expect from a Christie novel. The cast of characters in this one was enjoyable to read about, and the whole set-up was more believable than I'm used to from mystery novels. I really enjoyed this one. ( )

A Murder is Announced by Agatha Christie presents a fragile Miss Marple, who still aids in solving the mystery of Miss Blacklock’s problems. The story presents many character with dual identities, like a Shakespeare drama. The action and setting did little to draw me into the story. The constant mention of the frailty of Miss Marple bored me to death. The casual love stories and the hint of two ladies being lesbians did nothing to enhance the story. This is not a favorite tale with Miss Marple. ( )

This was excellent - lots of twists and turns, and as usual I suspected each character in turn. Miss Marple was ably assisted by Inspector Craddock, and even Mitzi emerged from the xenophobia everyone addressed to her somewhat triumphant. ( )

“The latest idea,” said Rydesdale, “is to advertise one’s murders beforehand. Show Sir Henry that advertisement, Craddock.”

Christie, Agatha. A Murder Is Announced: A Miss Marple Mystery (Miss Marple Mysteries Book 5) (p. 41). HarperCollins. Kindle Edition.

The fifth Miss Marple book, A Murder is Announced starts off with an advertisement in the paper announcing that a murder will take place on the 29 October. No one knows what to think of the advertisement in the paper - including the residents of the location themselves. Everyone thinks it's a joke, until a murder actually takes place.

I really enjoyed this one. I found the cast of characters interesting and the plot well written. I loved Miss Hinchcliffe and Miss Murgatroyd. Their friendship was hilarious. And I liked getting to see Bunch Harmon again (she was present in the Miss Marple short story, Sanctuary). Miss Marple herself arrives about halfway through and quickly gets to work ferreting out the finer details the police were having trouble with. I really like that Marple never really takes over the case as such. She's never the lead detective in any of these matters, rather works with the police to help them solve the case. It gets a bit old seeing the police reduced to useless and often moronic in crime and mystery fiction.

The ending was surprising. I had no idea where it was going to go. Even when it was clearly being led there, I was still doubting. So total shock. Overall an entertaining and sufficiently complex mystery that kept me riveted for the solution. 4 stars. ( )

Agatha Christie gleefully handed me all the materials to build my own little theory and feel quite clever about it, while she quietly built the real solution over in the corner, on the sly.
This one is a surprising one! And sad. ( )

Interesting, but not terrific. A lot of characters to keep track of. Miss Marple is rarely seen.

(Update) On a second read, I found many more nuances to the story to enjoy. ( )

What appeared to be a practical joke takes a grim turn when the prankster kills himself by accident or on purpose. Was it actually an attempt to murder Letitia Blacklock?

I noticed a major clue but dismissed it.

SPOILER

bloody ebooks full of typos - NOT

/SPOILER ( )

A classic Miss Marple mystery with a village setting soon after World War II, containing a good cast of characters and based on a carefully constructed plot. The clues are there from the start, but many do not notice them. ( )

Durante uma manhã no vilarejo inglês de Chipping Cleghorn, um anúncio no jornal convida à todos para presenciar um homicídio. Pensando ser apenas um jogo de detetive, os vizinhos comparecem em peso. Em meio a passados e jogos de aparências, o cenário descortinado busca revelar que ninguém é o que parece ser. Para resolver o mistério, a polícia conta com Miss Jane Marple. Por trás dos cabelos brancos e das agulhas de tricô, a velhinha tem conhecimento do ser humano e das atrocidades de que ele é capaz.

“A história mais engenhosa que Agatha Christie já escreveu.” Daily Express Durante mais uma tranquila e monótona manhã no pequeno vilarejo inglês de Chipping Cleghorn, um anúncio no jornal local deixa os habitantes em polvorosa: todos são convidados a presenciar um homicídio. Pensando ser apenas um jogo de detetive, os vizinhos comparecem em peso, sem estar preparados para o que viria a seguir. Em meio a passados nebulosos e jogos de aparências, o cenário descortinado revela que ninguém é o que parece ser. Para resolver o mistério, a polícia conta com a perspicácia de Miss Jane Marple. Por trás dos cabelos brancos e das agulhas de tricô, a simpática velhinha imortalizada por Agatha Christie tem um profundo conhecimento do ser humano – e das atrocidades de que ele é capaz.

4/8/22

A Murder is Announced - Christie
4 stars

I tend to prefer Poirot to Miss Marple when I read Christie. I also like to listen to her books, but I haven’t really enjoyed the female readers of the Marple books. All that’s to say why I hadn’t read this classic mystery before. And yet… somehow I knew ‘who-dun-it’ from the first. I didn’t know how or why, but I knew who. It puzzled me more than the mystery.

It begins with a classically clever Christie premis; an announcement of a murder to take place appears in the personal section of the local paper. It is naturally assumed to be a prank. And just as naturally a murder does occur. (Everyone knows, murders are commonplace in English villages.) I loved the gossipy atmosphere of this story. It’s postwar England with discussions of rationing and the fine line between bargaining and black market racketeering. There were the usual red herring side plots that did surprise me. In the end I was right about the murderer.

It wasn’t till the very end of the book that I remembered Joan Hickson and Masterpiece Mystery. That’s how I knew the killer’s identity. Mystery solved. ( )

An apparent practical joke turns into a real murder, but neither the supposed intended victim nor the suspects are who they pretend to be. Complex case aided by Miss Marple's insights.

I was completely blindsided by that one. Took off a star because I couldn't keep people straight... which is probably one of the reasons the solution crept up on me like that. ( )

Another entertaining mystery! Makes we want to read more of Miss Marple particularly-- I wish Bunch was her sidekick in more mysteries, but I take it that's not the case.

I would definitely recommend the audiobook-- Emilia Fox's voices for the characters were superb, particularly Bunch, Mrs. Easterbrook, and Patrick, and everyone was differentiated nicely. ( )

This is another of my re-reads, so I can contribute to a book discussion on the first 5 or 6 Miss Marple novels. While Jane Marple was introduced in a set of short stories in the late 1920s, the first novels were spaced well apart.

THE MURDER AT THE VICARAGE 1930
THE BODY IN THE LIBRARY 1942
THE MOVING FINGER 1943
A MURDER IS ANNOUNCED 1950

The last in that list seems to be placed just after World War II has ended, and there is even thought that another war is inevitable, with reference to the horrors of atomic war.
England has much changed, and it's residents are no longer necessarily English. There are many migrants, and people are no longer whom they seem to be.

Fifteen years ago one knew who everybody was. The Bantrys in the big house—and the Hartnells and the Price Ridleys and the Weatherbys … They were people whose fathers and mothers and grandfathers...

But it’s not like that any more. Every village and small country place is full of people who’ve just come and settled there without any ties to bring them. The big houses have been sold, and the cottages have been converted and changed. And people just come—and all you know about them is what they say of themselves.
They’ve come, you see, from all over the world.

There were just faces and personalities and they were backed up by ration books and identity cards—nice neat identity cards with numbers on them, without photographs or fingerprints. Anybody who took the trouble could have a suitable identity card —and partly because of that, the subtler links that had held together English social rural life had fallen apart. In a town nobody expected to know his neighbour. In the country now nobody knew his neighbour either, though possibly he still thought he did …

Miss Marple is introduced relatively early in this novel. She is staying at a local hotel, having treatment for her "rheumatic leg." she is introduced as an old "Pussy" who has written to the local police saying that she might have something to contribute in the matter of the recent murder that has taken place at Little Paddocks.

Miss Jane Marple was very nearly, if not quite, as Craddock had pictured her. She was far more benignant than he had imagined and a good deal older. She seemed indeed very old. She had snow-white hair and a pink crinkled face and very soft innocent blue eyes, and she was heavily enmeshed in fleecy wool. Wool round her shoulders in the form of a lacy cape and wool that she was knitting and which turned out to be a baby’s shawl.

There are a couple of sub-plots to keep the reader involved, and eventually 3 murders in the quiet little village of Chipping Cleghorn, and of course, a whole raft of red herrings.

Inspector Craddock the policeman from Scotland Yard is far better treated by Christie than Inspector Slack was in earlier novels. He also has a better appreciation of Miss Marple:

Well, perhaps you’re right, Miss Blacklock, but my own diagnosis would be a severe attack of Nosey Parkeritis …’ ‘She’s a very harmless old creature,’ said Miss Blacklock. ‘Dangerous as a rattlesnake if you only knew,’ the Inspector thought grimly. But he had no intention of taking anyone into his confidence unnecessarily. Now that he knew definitely there was a killer at large, he felt that the less said the better. He didn’t want the next person bumped off to be Jane Marple.

Interesting features of this novel:

Agatha Christie's observations of the changed structure of village life, and her comments on social and economic changes that have taken place;
Miss Marple snares the murderer, whose identity she has already realised, but needs to prove. Her "honey trap", set up with the local policeman, puts one of the other characters in great danger. Note here Miss Marple's talent at mimicry;
Miss Marple moves in a circle of vicarages. The Vicarage at Chipping Cleghorn is not the first one she has stayed at in these novels.
ex-Commissioner of Scotland Yard Sir Henry Clithering first appeared in the late 1920s and is still around, and being consulted.
Note the "mannish" women and the women doing men's jobs.
Note also Jane Marple's own comments on her sleuthing abilities.
There is a romantic element
If Jane Marple was "old" in the late 1920s, how old is she now? It is 25 years later. She has to be in her 80s. ( )

The twist was a bit of a stretch here. It was a decent story but had far too little Ms. Marple for my taste. ( )

Read a long time ago, & just listened to BBC Radio adaptation. One of the greatest Christie set-ups - a murder is announced in the local newspaper, and the villagers invite themselves to the house where the promised drama is to play out.

So many could-be murderers, & Miss Marple gets herself invited locally to do some discreet detective work. ( )

In the local paper, a murder is announced. The village, believing this to be an odd, but fun, invitation to a party, decend upon the house. Then, promply at 6:30, as announced, a murder is attempted. Why did the young man attempt a silly, melodramatic robery and who was he actually trying to kill? It's up to Miss Marple to set things right. ( )

A fun small-town mystery where Christie shows off her skill for misdirection. ( )

Another great Miss Marple story. ( )

What a great look at the Miss Marple series. This one has an interesting cast of characters, Miss Marple showing everyone up, and references to characters that many in the series should know by now, such as Sir Henry Clithering. Due to Miss Marple's connection to Sir Henry and just being around the area, she gets pulled in to investigate when a supposed murder party goes wrong and then two more people die afterwards.

The book begins when residents of Chipping Cleghorn read about an announcement for murder in their local newspaper. It gives the time (6:30) and place (Little Paddocks) on October 29. The owner of Little Paddocks (Letitia Blacklock) knows nothing of this until relatives of her that are staying on at her home bring it up. With Ms. Blacklock realizing that the announcement means the whole village (or there about) are going to descend on her home, she decides to make preparations.

I have to say that due to the characters that Agatha Christie has in this one you have no idea who could be behind things until the end. Once that happens, you will do what I did the first time I read this book, you will go back to certain places in the book and you will realize how Christie pointed out several things to you that you may have not realized the first time through. I will say that I hate that the e-book version shows the most frequently highlighted passages. That can give you a clue as a new reader but it also can spoil things for you. Turn that off if you can and just read the book fresh.

Miss Marple was on top of her game for this one (IMHO) and I loved how she was welcomed by the local police and used her great powers of deduction to figure this one out. It was great to read about how Sir Henry called her one of the best detectives he ever met.

I also really enjoyed the character of Bunch (she reminds me of a scattier version of Dolly Bantry. Also the character of Inspector Craddock was great. He could have been a naysayer to Miss Marple. But he quickly takes her on board as a colleague of sorts and I would love to see this one re-done with the younger Inspector learning the ropes fro Miss Marple. Heck, I can see a kick butt spin-off as a BBC adaption.

The setting of Little Paddocks as well as the whole village feels a bit like a village that time forgot. This was written in the 1950s, but I think the book is supposed to take place after World War II, but for some weird reason, it reads as if it was during the war due to people making a note of bartering, only being allowed to have so much coal, etc. I didn't know that England was still under rules such as that in the 1950s. I am sure one of you will let me know about that in the comments.

What I get a kick out of in this one is that Christie explores the same themes in this one (no telling) in several of her other works. I just think she did a much better job of them in this story. ( )

A Murder Is Announced (1950) (Miss Marple #5) by Agatha Christie. A murder is announced in the local paper of a small english village. Locals think this is some type of game and descend upon the location cited in the paper. Letitia Blacklock, who owns the home for the murder, knows nothing about it but plays along. On the night in question a dozen or so people gather in the little house. At the appointed time, the lights go out, the door is thrown open, a blazing flashlight is shined into the room, two shots ring out and a body falls, dead to the floor.
Fortunately for poor Inspector Craddock, Miss Marple is staying with the local vicar and his wife. The inspector has gathered clues including oiled hinges on a different door and a table that had been moved sometime not too long before the fateful “party.” There is also a connection to Scotland, and later, Switzerland.
There is an inheritance that while lengthy and complicated in nature, may just be the cause for the shooting. There are a few mystery children that come into a good deal of money if certain people die in the correct order, so Craddock has to look into all of that. Meanwhile Miss Marple does her “Nice Old Lady” thing, making gentle investigations into the stories offered by all who were at the murder. To keep things lively, there is a Birthday party for Bunny, one of the people who was present that night. The bash is held in the same house. Later Bunny starts having a headache and toddles about the building seeking aspirin. She takes two from a bottle in the owners bedroom and swiftly is carried away, her spirit never to return.
Two elderly ladies who had been to the original party try to figure out who did what that night and who wasn’t present at the shooting. One goes off to see the vet about a pet and the other stays home to be strangled.
The mystery has a complicated but thoughtful explanation. Family is involved. Money is involved. Innocence is lost but the crime is solved. This is a fascinating novel. The premise of arranging not only a murder but playing it out in front of a sizable gathering is brilliant. This is one of the best of the Miss Marple stories and I enjoyed rereading it during my days as a shutting.
Stay Strong, Stay Healthy, and Stay away from that door. ( )