Description

A murder is announced - Agatha Christie

A notice appears in the paper of a small English village, Chipping Cleghorn: "A murder is announced and will take place on Friday, October 29th, at Little Paddocks, at 6:30 p.m. Friends accept this, the only intimation." This comes as a surprise to Letitia Blacklock, owner of Little Paddocks, as she has no idea what the notice means; she didn't place it, and none of her companions knows more than she. Miss Blacklock decides to take it in stride and prepares to have guests that evening. The villagers are intrigued by the notice, and several of them appear with awkward reasons but definite interest. As the clock strikes 6:30, the lights go out and a door swings open, revealing a man with a blinding torch.

The man demands they "Stick 'em up!" Most of the guests do so, believing it to be part of a game. The game ends when shots are fired into the room. The door slams shut, and panic takes hold. It's discovered that fuses are blown, the gunman has been shot, and Miss Blacklock's ear is bleeding, apparently from a bullet grazing her earlobe. Curiously, the gunman is recognised by Dora Bunner (known as "Bunny", an old friend of Letitia who lives at Little Paddocks as her companion) as Rudi Scherz, receptionist at a local hotel, who had asked Letitia for money just a few short days ago.

The police are called. All clues suggest that the case is merely a strange suicide or accidental death, but Inspector Craddock is uneasy about both possibilities. As luck would have it, Miss Marple is a guest at the very same spa hotel where Scherz was employed. Craddock is advised to involve her in the case, and the two commence working together. It emerges that Scherz has a criminal background, but petty theft and forgery rather than any more serious crime. His girlfriend, a waitress at the spa, however, reveals that he had been paid to appear as the holdup man; he believed it was all "a silly English joke", and was clearly not planning on being shot. With this new knowledge, Craddock returns to Chipping Cleghorn. Miss Marple, godmother of the local vicar's wife and stays with her.

Establishing a motive for Scherz's attack on Miss Blacklock presents a problem: Letitia has no known enemies. She worked for a successful financier (Randall Goedler) and has done quite well for herself but is not herself wealthy. She does not lead a lavish life and, aside from her house, has only enough to live on. However, she may shortly come into a great deal of money; Randall Goedler's estate passed to his wife, Belle, when he died. Belle is frail and near death. When Belle dies, Miss Blacklock inherits everything. If, however, she predeceases Belle, the estate goes to the mysterious "Pip" and "Emma", children of Randall's estranged sister, Sonia. No one knows where these two are, much less what they look like.

Inspector Craddock discovers oil on the hinges of a door into the parlour, thought to be unused, and Bunny mentions that until recently there had been a table placed against the door. Craddock travels to Scotland to meet Belle; she mentions that Letitia had a beloved sister, Charlotte, who developed a goitre. Their father, an old-fashioned doctor, tried unsuccessfully to treat Charlotte, but she only withdrew further into herself as her goitre got worse. Their father died shortly before World War II, and Letitia gave up her job with Goedler and took her sister to Switzerland for surgery to repair the defect. The two sisters waited out the war in Switzerland, but before it was over, Charlotte died very suddenly. Letitia returned to England shortly thereafter.

Miss Marple takes tea with Bunny during a shopping trip with Letitia, and Bunny reveals several details about the case: she talks about the recently oiled door she found with the Inspector; she's sure that Patrick Simmons, a young cousin of Letitia, who, with his sister Julia, is also staying at Little Paddocks, is not as he appears; and, most tellingly, she's absolutely positive there was a different lamp in the room on the night of the murder – the one with the shepherdess, not the one with the shepherd that is there now. This tête-à-tête ends when Letitia arrives, and she and Bunny resume their shopping.

Letitia arranges a birthday party for Bunny, complete with almost everyone who was at the house when Scherz was killed; and she asks Mitzi (a paranoid young refugee who helps keep house and cooks for her) to make her special cake, which Patrick has nicknamed "Delicious Death". This was while post-war austerity rationing was in effect – butter and eggs were hard to come by even in a rural community, and the chocolate and raisins used in the cake were very difficult to get. A box of chocolates is also a present. Bunny loves chocolate but it gives her a headache and she can't find the aspirin she bought. She takes some of Letitia's aspirin instead, lies down for a nap – and dies.

Miss Marple visits Miss Blacklock, who mourns Bunny. Miss Marple asks to see photo albums which might contain pictures of Sonia Goedler, Pip and Emma's mother, but all photos of Sonia were taken out of the albums recently, although they were in place before the death of Rudi Scherz. Through deduction and re-enactment, Misses Hinchcliffe and Murgatroyd (two spinster farming companions present at the time of the Scherz shooting) figure out that Miss Murgatroyd could see who was in the room as she was standing behind the door when it swung open; she couldn't have seen Rudi as he was on the other side of the opened door, but she could see whose faces were illuminated by the torch beam. The two women conclude that the person who wasn't in the room (and therefore not seen by Miss Murgatroyd) could have sneaked out of the room when the lights went out and come around behind Scherz and shot him and at Miss Blacklock.

Just as Miss Murgatroyd remembers the one person not in the room, the stationmaster calls to notify them that a dog has just arrived. As Miss Hinchcliffe drives away, Murgatroyd runs into the driveway, shouting "She wasn't there!", but is later found murdered and never gets to reveal what she means. Miss Hinchcliffe meets Miss Marple. They discover Murgatroyd's body, and a distraught Hinchcliffe informs Miss Marple of Murgatroyd's cryptic statement.

The vicar's cat, Tiglath Pileser, knocks over a glass of water onto a frayed electrical cord, which causes the fuses to blow, and the final clue falls into place for Miss Marple. Inspector Craddock gathers everyone at Little Paddocks and launches the final inquest, which is interrupted by Mitzi, crying out that she saw Letitia commit the murder. The inspector continues with his questioning, and quickly insinuates that Edmund Swettenham who, with his widowed mother, was also present at the shooting, is in fact Pip. However, Phillipa comes forward and confesses she is Pip. Craddock accuses Edmund of wanting to marry a rich wife in Phillipa by murdering Letitia. Edmund denies this and as a terrified scream is heard from the kitchen.

Everyone heads to the kitchen to find Miss Blacklock attempting to drown Mitzi in the sink. Miss Blacklock is arrested by a local constable who has been hiding in the kitchen with Miss Marple, who imitates Dora Bunner's voice to make Miss Blacklock break down. Miss Marple explains it quite simply: it wasn't Charlotte who died in Switzerland, but Letitia. Charlotte, aware that Letitia was in line to inherit a fortune, posed as Letitia and returned to England; few people knew Charlotte, as she had been a recluse before leaving England, and a slight change in Letitia's appearance could be explained away to casual acquaintances by her time abroad during the war. She only needed to avoid people who knew Letitia well, such as Belle Goedler, and to always cover her throat with strings of pearls or beads to hide the scars from her goitre surgery. Scherz could have ruined everything, however. He worked at the Swiss hospital where Charlotte had been treated and could identify her as such, which is why Letitia/Charlotte hired him to come to Chipping Cleghorn and "hold up" a room full of guests.

Bunny became the next target because she knew too much. Bunny had an eye for detail, but was prone to slip-ups: on several occasions, she referred to Miss Blacklock as "Lotty" (short for "Charlotte") instead of "Letty" (short for "Letitia"), and her conversation with Miss Marple in the cafe proved fatal. Amy Murgatroyd, the final victim, was also killed for guessing too much and coming to the realisation that Letitia/Charlotte was the one person whose face was not illuminated by Rudi Scherz's torch. The tall, strongly built Hinchcliffe, when she learns who murdered her companion, has to be physically restrained from doing harm to Letitia/Charlotte.

Mitzi and Edmund had been persuaded by Miss Marple to play parts in tripping Charlotte Blacklock up; Miss Marple's plans were almost brought down when Phillipa admitted to being Pip, but Inspector Craddock managed to keep up by the act and claim Edmund was after Phillipa's money. Ultimately, Phillipa/Pip and Julia/Emma inherit the Goedler fortune; Edmund and Phillipa get married and return to Chipping Cleghorn to live.