A Murder is Announced
Agatha Christie’s most ingenious murder mystery, reissued with a striking cover designed to appeal to the latest generation of Agatha Christie fans and book lovers.The villagers of Chipping Cleghorn, including Jane Marple, are agog with curiosity over an advertisement in the local gazette which reads: ‘A murder is announced and will take place on Friday October 29th, at Little Paddocks at 6.30 p.m.’A childish practical joke? Or a hoax intended to scare poor Letitia Blacklock? Unable to resist the mysterious invitation, a crowd begins to gather at Little Paddocks at the appointed time when, without warning, the lights go out…
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Published by HarperCollinsPublishers Ltd
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London SE1 9GF
First published in Great Britain by Collins, The Crime Club 1950
A Murder is Announced⢠is a trade mark of Agatha Christie Limited
and Agatha Christie® Marple® and the Agatha Christie Signature are
registered trade marks of Agatha Christie Limited in the UK and elsewhere.
Copyright © 1950 Agatha Christie Limited. All rights reserved.
Cover by Nick Castle © HarperCollins/Agatha Christie Ltd 2016
Agatha Christie asserts the moral right to be identified as the author of this work.
A catalogue copy of this book is available from the British Library.
This novel is entirely a work of fiction. The names, characters and incidents portrayed in it are the work of the authorâs imagination. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, events or localities is entirely coincidental.
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Source ISBN: 9780008196554
Ebook Edition © December 2016 ISBN: 9780007422524
Version: 2018-07-05
Table of Contents
Chapter 1: A Murder is Announced
Chapter 2: Breakfast at Little Paddocks
Chapter 4: The Royal Spa Hotel
Chapter 5: Miss Blacklock and Miss Bunner
Chapter 6: Julia, Mitzi and Patrick
Chapter 7: Among Those Present
Chapter 11: Miss Marple Comes to Tea
Chapter 12: Morning Activities in Chipping Cleghorn
Chapter 13: Morning Activities in Chipping Cleghorn (Continued)
Chapter 14: Excursion into The Past
Chapter 16: Inspector Craddock Returns
Chapter 19: Reconstruction of the Crime
Chapter 20: Miss Marple is Missing
Between 7.30 and 8.30 every morning except Sundays, Johnnie Butt made the round of the village of Chipping Cleghorn on his bicycle, whistling vociferously through his teeth, and alighting at each house or cottage to shove through the letterbox such morning papers as had been ordered by the occupants of the house in question from Mr Totman, stationer, of the High Street. Thus, at Colonel and Mrs Easterbrookâs he delivered The Times and the Daily Graphic; at Mrs Swettenhamâs he left The Times and the Daily Worker; at Miss Hinchcliffe and Miss Murgatroydâs he left the Daily Telegraph and the News Chronicle; at Miss Blacklockâs he left the Telegraph, The Times and the Daily Mail.
At all these houses, and indeed at practically every house in Chipping Cleghorn, he delivered every Friday a copy of the North Benham News and Chipping Cleghorn Gazette, known locally simply as âthe Gazetteâ.
Thus, on Friday mornings, after a hurried glance at the headlines in the daily paper
(International situation critical! U.N.O. meets today! Bloodhounds seek blonde typistâs killer! Three collieries idle. Twenty-three die of food poisoning in Seaside Hotel, etc.)
most of the inhabitants of Chipping Cleghorn eagerly opened the Gazette and plunged into the local news. After a cursory glance at Correspondence (in which the passionate hates and feuds of rural life found full play) nine out of ten subscribers then turned to the PERSONAL column. Here were grouped together higgledy-piggledy articles for Sale or Wanted, frenzied appeals for Domestic Help, innumerable insertions regarding dogs, announcements concerning poultry and garden equipment; and various other items of an interesting nature to those living in the small community of Chipping Cleghorn.
This particular Friday, October 29thâwas no exception to the ruleâ
Mrs Swettenham, pushing back the pretty little grey curls from her forehead, opened The Times, looked with a lacklustre eye at the left-hand centre page, decided that, as usual, if there was any exciting news The Times had succeeded in camouflaging it in an impeccable manner; took a look at the Births, Marriages and Deaths, particularly the latter; then, her duty done, she put aside The Times and eagerly seized the Chipping Cleghorn Gazette.
When her son Edmund entered the room a moment later, she was already deep in the Personal Column.
âGood morning, dear,â said Mrs Swettenham. âThe Smedleys are selling their Daimler. 1935âthatâs rather a long time ago, isnât it?â
