Mrs Symmington, the local solicitor’s wife, is found dead after receiving a letter stating that her husband, was not the father of her second son. Despite the letters containing false accusations, many recipients are upset by them and fear something worse may happen. The Burtons quickly learn that such poison pen letters have been received by many in the town. Shortly after moving in and meeting their neighbours, they receive an anonymous letter which makes the false accusation that the pair are lovers, not siblings. Jerry and Joanna Burton, a brother and sister from London, take up residence in a house owned by Miss Barton near the quiet town of Lymstock for the last phase of Jerry’s recovery from injuries suffered in a plane crash. The police detective determines that the envelopes were all “typed by someone using one finger” to avoid a recognisable ‘touch’. The anonymous letters point blame from one town resident to another. The title shows in the story figuratively and literally. The poem, in turn, refers to Belshazzar’s feast as related in the Book of Daniel, where the expression the writing on the wall originated. Shall lure it back to cancel half a Line, The book takes its name from quatrain 51 of Edward FitzGerald’s translation of the Rubáiyát of Omar Khayyám: The Moving Finger writes and, having writ, She enters the story in the final quarter of the book, in a handful of scenes, after the police have failed to solve the crime. This novel features the elderly detective Miss Marple in a relatively minor role, “a little old lady sleuth who doesn’t seem to do much”.

A prominent resident is found dead with one such letter found next to her. They are not the only ones in the village to receive such letters. The Burtons, brother and sister, arrive in the small town (or village) of Lymstock in Devon, and soon receive an anonymous letter accusing them of being lovers, not siblings. The US edition retailed at $2.00 and the UK edition at seven shillings and sixpence. The Moving Finger is a detective novel by British writer Agatha Christie, first published in the USA by Dodd, Mead and Company in July 1942 and in the UK by the Collins Crime Club in June 1943.

The moving finger book