After reviewing the first three Marple novels I decided to do the fourth as well..... The author: Agatha Christie was born in Torquay in 1890. Her first novel, The Mysterious Affair At Styles, which introduced the now famous Hercule Poirot was published in 1920. Her other well known creation, Miss Marple, first appeared in a short story in 1927 before appearing in her first full length novel, "The Murder At The Vicarage" in 1930. During her lifetime Christie wrote a number of novels, short stories, poetry & plays. Her play "The Mousetrap" holds the world record for the longest run in history as it has been ...  Read the complete review

Agatha Christie will always be for me the definitive crime writer, her books reflect a period in time that is now long gone typically circa 1920's /30's but they do span into the 50's/60's. Murder is typified in an almost gentlemanly conduct way that is devoid of the over grucifying that modern writers feel they need to provide. Without a doubt Christies training as a pharmacist during the first world war period plays a pivotal part in all of her books and her ability to lift human characters undoubtedly from here real life and to transcribe them into books. A Murder is Announced is set in the typical idyllic english village of Chipping Cleghorn where one day ...  Read the complete review

In "A Murder is Announced" we find ourselves working once more alongside the deceptively mild mannered Miss Jane Marple, a spinster who has had years of living in a small village and thus is fully aware of a miasma of human characteristics. In many ways a female Poirot, in that she has an excellent understanding of human psychology and is able to cross reference behaviours and apply reasoning to solve a wide variety of crimes, she finds herself attempting to discover the identity of a killer behind a rather unusual murder. In the quiet village of Chipping Cleghorn a great deal of the residents are shaken out of their early morning routine when there is an ...  Read the complete review