A murder is announced

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A murder is announced (original title A Murder Is Announced ) is the 40th detective novel by Agatha Christie . It first appeared in the UK in June 1950 at the Collins Crime Club and in the US that same month with Dodd, Mead and Company . The German first edition was published in 1956 by Scherz Verlag (Bern).

It determines Miss Marple in her fourth novel.

The book was widely advertised as the author's fiftieth book when it came out. This is only possible by counting collections of the same short stories that have appeared in the UK and the US under different titles, individually.

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A strange advertisement appears in the weekly newspaper of the ordinary little English village of Chipping Cleghorn: “A murder is hereby announced. It was perpetrated in Little Paddocks at 6:30 p.m. on Friday, October 29th. Friends and acquaintances are cordially invited to take part. There is no second request. ” It is also a big surprise for Letitia Blacklock, the owner of Little Paddocks. But she still prepares to have guests in the evening. Naturally, the inhabitants of the village are fascinated by this announcement and appear in Little Paddocks punctually at half past six, with various excuses. Everyone gathers in the living room. Suddenly the light goes out, the door is thrown open and someone is waving a flashlight. Then shots are fired. The corpse of a man dressed in black lies in the hallway and Mrs. Blacklock has an ear injury. The strangest thing is the shooter himself. He is identified by Dora Bunner as Rudi Schwarz, a hotel employee who asked Letitia for money a few days ago. The police are called. All traces point to death by suicide or an accident. Inspector Craddock is not 100% satisfied with this solution. Fortunately, Miss Marple is also a guest in the hotel where Rudi Schwarz worked. Both decide to work together. Rudi was a petty criminal who supplemented his income with theft and fraud. His girlfriend knew about his appearance on the night of the murder. He should be paid to do the acting. But she doesn't know who the client was.

Miss Marple takes up quarters in Chipping Cleghorn with the wife of the local pastor and sets out to find the motive for the deed. Letitia has no enemies. She had worked for Randall Goedler, a wealthy businessman, all her professional life. She is not rich, but she can make a living by herself. But soon she will have enough money, because Randall Goedler had no children and so his fortune should go to Letitia after the death of his wife. Goedler's wife is seriously ill and will soon die. However, should Letitia die before that, the inheritance will go to the children Pip and Emma of Randall's overseas sister. Nobody knows where the two children live or what they look like.

During a visit to Belle Goedler, Craddock learns that Letitia had a sister, Charlotte. Charlotte had a goiter and because her father refused treatment for many years, she had withdrawn further and further from life. After the father's death, both sisters traveled to Switzerland to have the disease treated by a specialist. Charlotte died there very suddenly and Letitia returned to England.

After a party, Bunny dies of poisoning. She'd eaten chocolate cake and then taken Letitia's aspirin because she couldn't find her own.

After many conversations and many cups of tea, Miss Marple can solve the matter. Letitia is not Letitia, but Charlotte Blacklock. Letitia had died in Switzerland and Charlotte assumed her identity in the hope of a great inheritance. Rudi Schwarz was murdered because he recognized Charlotte and now wanted to blackmail her. Bunny had to die because she knew about it and got more and more confused with the names Letty and Lotty. In the end, Phillipa turns out to be Pip and Julia as Emma, ​​who both inherit Goedler's fortune. Edmund and Phillipa / Pip get married and settle in Chipping Cleghorn.

people

  • Miss Marple
  • Inspector Craddock
  • Letitia Blacklock, owner of Little Paddocks, a woman in her late fifties, early sixties
  • Dora Bunner, her older, flighty childhood friend, commonly known by her nickname "Bunny"
  • Patrick and Julia Simmons, Miss Blacklock's nephew and niece
  • Mitzi, Miss Blacklock's foreign cook, a war refugee
  • Phillipa Haymes, a young widow as a paying guest
  • Colonel Easterbrook, a boisterous old colonel, just returned from India
  • Mrs. Easterbrook, his much younger, glamorous wife
  • Mrs. Swettenham, an elderly lady who idolizes her son
  • Edmund Swettenham, a cynical young man
  • Miss Hinchcliff, a landowner
  • Miss Murgatroyd, her pleasant but silly companion
  • Bunch Harmon, the vicar's wife
  • Rudi Schwarz, a young man from Switzerland who works at the reception at the Royal Spa Hotel in Medenham Wells.
  • Myrna Harris, his girlfriend and waitress in the same hotel

References to other works

Edmund Swettenham announces that he has written a farce called Elephants Do Forget . Agatha Christie later wrote a novel with Hercule Poirot entitled Elephants Can Remember (dt .: elephants do not forget ).

Film adaptations

Goodyear Television Playhouse

The first film adaptation of the novel comes from the year 1956. It was filmed for the sixth season of the American television series with Gracie Fields as Miss Marple and on December 30, 1956 aired. Roger Moore could be seen as Patrick Simmons.

Miss Marple (1985)

In 1985 the novel was made into a film for the BBC television series Miss Marple . The main roles are played by Joan Hickson as Miss Marple and Ursula Howells as Miss Blacklock.

Agatha Christie's Marple (2005)

In 2005 the novel was filmed for the first season of the television series Agatha Christie's Marple with Geraldine McEwan as Miss Marple, Zoë Wanamaker as Letitia Blacklock and Christian Pedersen as Rudi Schertz.

Major expenses

  • 1950, Collins Crime Club (London), June 1950
  • 1950, Dodd Mead and Company (New York) June 1950
  • 1956, German first edition, Scherzverlag Bern

Audio books

  • 2005 A Murder Is Announced (4 CDs). only unabridged reading. Speaker: Gabriele Blum. Director: Hans Eckardt: Publishing house and studio for audio book productions (Marburg / Lahn)

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Chris Peers, Ralph Spurrier and Jamie Sturgeon. Collins Crime Club - A checklist of First Editions . Dragonby Press (Second Edition) March 1999 (Page 15)
  2. ↑ John Cooper and BA Pyke. Detective Fiction - the collector's guide : Second Edition (Pages 82 and 87) Scholar Press. 1994. ISBN 0-85967-991-8
  3. ↑ American Tribute to Agatha Christie
  4. ↑ a b German first edition in the catalog of the German National Library
  5. ↑ Audiobook (complete) in the catalog of the German National Library
Works by Agatha Christie


Novels with
Hercule Poirot

The Missing Link in the Chain  (1920) • Murder on the Golf Course  (1923) • Alibi  (1926) • The Big Four  (1927) • The Blue Express  (1928) • The House on the Dune  (1932) • Thirteen at Table  ( 1933) • Murder on the Orient Express  (1934) • Nicotine  (1935) • Death in the clouds  (1935) • The murders of Mr ABC  (1936) • Murder in Mesopotamia  (1936) • With open cards  (1936) • Death on the Nile  (1937) • The dog playing the ball  (1937) • Death awaits  (1938) • Hercule Poirot's Christmas  (1938) • Morphine  (1940) • The secret of the buckled shoes  (1940) • Evil under the sun  (1941) • The Unfinished Portrait  (1942) • The Owl House  (1946) • The Death Whirlwind  (1948) • Four Women and a Murder  (1951) • The Wax Bouquet  (1953) • The Kleptomaniac  (1955) • Reunion with Mrs. Oliver  (1956) • The Cat in the Dovecote  (1959) • On a Double Track  (1963) • The Forgetful Murderess  (1966) • The Snow White Party  (1969) • Elephants Don't Forget  (1972) • Curtain  (1975)

Novels with
the Beresfords

A Dangerous Adversary  (1922) • Little Red Riding Hood and the Big Bad Wolf  (1941) • Lots of charming old ladies  (1968) • Age does not protect against ingenuity  (1973)

Novels with
Miss Marple

Murder in the Rectory  (1930) • The Dead in the Library  (1942) • The Shadow Hand  (1943) • A Murder Is Announced  (1950) • Fata Morgana  (1952) • The Secret of the Gold Mine  (1953) • 4:50 p.m. from Paddington  ( 1957) • Murder in the Mirror  (1962) • Caribbean Affair  (1964) • Bertrams Hotel  (1965) • Fate in Person  (1971) • Rough Rest  (1976)

Novels with
fellow investigators

The Man in the Brown Suit  (1924) • The Count's Memoirs  (1925) • The Last Joker  (1929) • The Secret of Sittaford  (1931) • A Step into the Void  (1934) • The Dying in Wychwood  (1939) • And then There was no more  (1939) • Shortly before midnight  (1944) • Avenging ghosts  (1944) • Hydrocyanic acid  (1945) • The crooked house  (1949) • They came to Baghdad  (1951) • The uncanny way  (1954) • Fatal error  ( 1958) • The pale horse  (1961) • Murder made to measure  (1967) • Passenger to Frankfurt  (1970)

Anthologies

Poirot accounts  (1924) • Pandora's Box  (1929) • The Strange Mister Quin  (1930) • The Tuesday Night Club  (1932) • The Dog of Death  (1933) • Something's Lazy  (1934) • Parker Pyne Investigates  ( 1934) • Hercule Poirot Never Sleeps  (1937) • The Labor of Hercules  (1947) • A Diplomatic Incident  (1960) • Poirot's First Cases  (1974) • Miss Marple's Last Cases  (1979) • The Murderous Tea Round  (1991) • As long as it bright is  (1997)