A Murder Is Announced

“Oh dear me, nowadays unless one has an old Nannie in the family, who will go into the kitchen and do everything, one is simply sunk.”

Here, Mrs. Swettenham laments another effect of World War II: the difficulty in hiring reliable domestic staff. Affluent households like the Swettenhams, accustomed to relying on servants, had to make do with what help they could get or even do the housework themselves. These minor domestic details illustrate how the war and its aftermath eroded England’s rigid class divisions.

“She wore country tweeds—and with them, rather incongruously, a choker necklace of large false pearls.”

The first physical description of Miss Blacklock provides a significant clue to her role as an imposter. The ostentatious pearl choker she customarily wears is at odds with her understated costume of “country tweeds.” The pearls cover Charlotte’s surgical scar, concealing her true identity and thus symbolizing concealment and deception; the symbolism is magnified in how the pearls are presumably “false.”

“Poor old muddle-headed Dora, so loyal, so anxious to help, so pleased and proud to think she was of assistance—and, alas, so completely unreliable.”

This description of Dora sums up Miss Blacklock’s reasons for wanting her childhood friend as her companion. Conversely, it also explains why Miss Blacklock eventually decides to murder her. Dora is reliable in the sense that she is fiercely loyal and wants to protect Charlotte from being exposed as an imposter, but her forgetfulness means she is likely to unintentionally expose Charlotte’s secret.

“The Rose-patterned chintzes—the two bowls of bronze chrysanthemums, the small vase of violets and the silver cigarette-box on a table by the wall, the tray of drinks on the centre table.”

Miss Blacklock surveys the drawing-room before the inevitable arrival of her curious neighbors. The drawing-room is the classic setting for a Golden Age country house mystery. Readers do not yet know that Miss Blacklock has arranged the room like a stage set to commit the perfect murder, but the room’s layout and the objects’ positions (i.e., the violets and the cigarette box) become vital to solving the mystery.

“A large sprawling picturesque village. Butcher, baker, grocer, quite a good antique shop—two tea shops. Self-consciously a beauty spot. Caters for the motoring tourist.”

This description of the fictional village of Chipping Cleghorn suggests a rural haven immune to the pressures of the outside world. It is precisely the kind of tranquil backdrop that typifies Golden Age mysteries before a murder occurs. Order can only be restored to this Eden once the murderer is caught.

“Remember that an elderly unmarried woman who knits and gardens is streets ahead of any detective sergeant. She can tell you what might have happened and what ought to have happened and even what actually did happen! And she can tell you why it happened!”

Sir Henry warns Inspector Craddock not to underestimate the detection skills of older “spinsters” like Miss Marple. His praise of Miss Marple’s abilities precedes her first appearance in the novel, creating anticipation. Despite Sir Henry’s advice, Craddock initially misjudges Miss Marple’s character, but he soon comes to share Sir Henry’s opinion.

“It’s all right, Dora dear—don’t get excited. It’s so bad for you. Everything’s quite all right. We’ve had a nasty experience, but it’s over now.”

After the holdup, Miss Blacklock tries to calm and console Dora, and this compassionate behavior illustrates Miss Blacklock’s contradictory character. Although she herself arranged the shooting, Miss Blacklock genuinely wishes to protect her friend from distress that might worsen her health, yet she later demonstrates that she is prepared to kill her.

“Please don’t be too prejudiced against the poor thing because she’s a liar […] her atrocity stories have grown and grown until every kind of unpleasant story that has ever appeared in print has happened to her or her relations personally, she did have a bad shock initially and did see one, at least, of her relations killed. I think a lot of these displaced persons feel, perhaps justly, that their claim to our notice and sympathy lies in their atrocity value and so they exaggerate and invent.”

Miss Blacklock displays cunning while discussing Mitzi with Inspector Craddock. She claims sympathy for her cook’s traumatic experience as a refugee while simultaneously establishing Mitzi as a “liar.” Portraying Mitzi as unreliable is in Miss Blacklock’s interest, as she cannot be sure if her cook witnessed anything incriminating. Her comments also highlight the xenophobia prevalent in the small community.

“She seemed indeed very old. She had snow-white hair and a pink crinkled face and very soft innocent blue eyes, and she was heavily enmeshed in fleecy wool.”

Miss Marple’s speech illustrates her tendency to deflect praise: a quality that contributes to her unassuming manner. Her modesty contrasts with the egotistical grandstanding of Christie’s other famous detective, Hercule Poirot. Miss Marple’s “knowledge of human nature” (particularly its dark side) is extensive, gained through a lifetime’s experience.

“Sir Henry is always too kind. He thinks too much of any little observations I may have made in the past. Really, I have no gifts—no gifts at all—except perhaps a certain knowledge of human nature. People, I find, are apt to be far too trustful. I’m afraid that I have a tendency always to believe the worst. Not a nice trait. But so often justified by subsequent events.”

Miss Marple’s speech illustrates her tendency to deflect praise: a quality that contributes to her unassuming manner. Her modesty contrasts with the egotistical grandstanding of Christie’s other famous detective, Hercule Poirot. Miss Marple’s “knowledge of human nature” (particularly its dark side) is extensive, gained through a lifetime’s experience.

“It’s very interesting […] All the different things that people say—and think. The things they see—or think that they see. And all so complex, nearly all so trivial and if one thing isn’t trivial, it’s so hard to spot which one—like a needle in a haystack.”

By distinguishing between what people “see” and what they “think they see” Miss Marple emphasizes the unreliability of sight. Her description of trying to solve the case is equally applicable to the experience of reading a mystery novel: Readers must weigh the characters’ different accounts, and they must try to distinguish genuine clues from red herrings.

“But it’s not like that anymore. Every village and small country place is full of people who’ve just come and settled there without any ties to bring them. The big houses have been sold, and the cottages have been converted and changed. And people just come—and all you know about them is what they say of themselves.”

As Miss Marple remarks on how small rural communities have changed since the war, she compares Chipping Cleghorn to her village of St. Mary Mead. Traditionally, in such communities, everyone’s background is known, as the same family has resided there for generations. However, increased globalization has led to an influx of newcomers, and some longstanding community members are anxious over the idea of infiltration. Thematically, the quotation illustrates the effects of the war and the changing nature of small-town communities.

“If you’d been up against it, and then, rather like a shivering stray cat, you’d found a home and cream and a warm stroking hand and you were called Pretty Pussy and somebody thought the world of you…You’d do a lot to keep that.”

Talking to Miss Marple, Mrs. Harmon suggests Mrs. Easterbrook as a possible suspect: If Mrs. Easterbrook married the Colonel under false pretenses, she might have committed murder to prevent her exposure as an imposter. However, as is often the case in Christie’s fiction, the statement could be applied to another character. Dora can be more aptly described as “a shivering stray cat” who has found a welcoming new home. Although she does not kill anyone to secure her position, she is an accomplice in concealing Miss Blacklock’s true identity.

“She—she was the only link with the past, you see. The only one who—who remembered. Now that she’s gone I’m quite alone.”

Miss Blacklock tells Miss Marple of the devastating impact of Dora’s death, highlighting the theme Youth and Age: The Generational Divide. Miss Blacklock suggests that when the last childhood friend dies, an essential part of one’s identity is lost. The remark has a more profound significance for Miss Blacklock, as Dora was the only person she shared her true identity with. By murdering Dora, Miss Blacklock condemns herself to never being truly known or understood.

“I want you to read it because I think that that generation is more easily understood by you than by me. I don’t know really quite how these people’s minds worked.”

Inspector Craddock asks Miss Marple to read Letitia Blacklock’s old letters to Charlotte. While Craddock’s age is not specified, he is positioned somewhere between the old and young characters. His claim that he cannot understand how people of Miss Marple’s age think emphasizes the generation divide: one of Christie’s recurring themes.

“You’re the only person who could see. You were standing behind the door. You couldn’t look at the flashlight—because the door was between you and it. You were facing the other way, the same way as the flashlight was pointing. The rest of us were just dazzled. But you weren’t dazzled.”

Miss Hinchcliffe emphasizes a key plot point and a running motif. She realizes that only Miss Murgatroyd could see where everyone stood during the holdup, as her position behind the door prevented her from being dazzled. However, Miss Murgatroyd has to be encouraged to recall events, as she is initially sure she saw nothing. The disparity between what she witnessed and her memory of the event highlights the unreliability of sight.

“The choker of pearls round Miss Blacklock’s neck broke under the clutch of her nervous fingers. The smooth white globules rolled all over the room. Letitia cried out in an anguished tone. ‘My pearls—my pearls—’ The agony in her voice was so acute that they all looked at her in astonishment. She turned, her hand to her throat, and rushed sobbing out of the room.”

Recurring references to Miss Blacklock’s pearl choker reflect her character’s state of mind. At the beginning of the novel, she feels confident that the pearls conceal her identity and remains composed. As the story progresses, she nervously touches the choker, demonstrating her fear of being caught. In this moment of high anxiety, the choker breaks. While Miss Blacklock covers her scar with her hand, the scene exposes the fragility of her true character.

“She realized how to nearly everyone they had appeared as the two Miss Blacklocks—elderly, well-bred English women, dressed much the same, with a strong family resemblance—(and […] one elderly woman is so like another).”

Miss Marple explains how Charlotte decided to impersonate her sister, Letitia. Parallels are drawn between Charlotte Blacklock and Miss Marple, as both exploit their invisibility as elderly spinsters to their advantage.

“She quite understood that nothing must be allowed to get out. It was like an extra pound of butter. You couldn’t talk about it but there was nothing wrong about having it.”

In Miss Marple’s analogy, Dora’s collusion with Charlotte is compared to the villagers’ bartering system. Although both are illegal, Dora saw no harm in either activity. Wholly sympathetic to Charlotte’s actions, she had no idea of the extreme measures Charlotte would take to keep her fraudulently gained inheritance.

“Any little efforts on my part were quite incidental. It was you who weren’t satisfied, Mr. Craddock. It was you who wouldn’t let the case be closed.”

During Miss Marple’s summation, she again shows humility, playing down her vital contribution to solving the crimes. Throughout the investigation, Inspector Craddock and Miss Marple show appreciation for each other’s detection skills. Their cooperative relationship subverts the detective genre trope where professional and amateur sleuths are competitive in their interactions.

“I had the oddest impression that Dora was talking about two people, not one—and so, of course, she was. At one moment she spoke of her friend as not pretty but having so much character but almost at the same moment she described her as a pretty light-hearted girl. She’d talk of Letty as so clever and so successful—and then say what a sad life she’d had, and then there was that quotation about stern affliction bravely borne—which really didn’t seem to fit Letitia’s life at all.”

Miss Marple explains one of Dora’s fatal mistakes: While discussing Miss Blacklock’s youth, Dora confused Charlotte’s traits and Letitia’s. These contradictory characteristics alerted Miss Marple to the fact that Dora was describing two different people.

“She loved Dora—she didn’t want to kill Dora—but she couldn’t see any other way. And, I expect (like Nurse Ellerton that I was telling you about, Bunch) she persuaded herself that it was almost a kindness. Poor Bunny—not long to live anyway and perhaps a painful end.”

Christie demonstrates Miss Marple’s investigative methodology in action as she compares Charlotte Blacklock to Nurse Ellerton from St. Mary Mead. Both women killed people they cared about and were otherwise kind to. Both were also motivated by greed while convincing themselves that they spared their victims an agonizing death.

“People with a grudge against the world are always dangerous. They seem to think life owes them something. I’ve known many an invalid who has suffered far worse and been cut off from life much more than Charlotte Blacklock—and they’ve managed to lead happy contented lives.”

As the novel’s antagonist and a murderer, Charlotte’s character displays considerable complexity. Instead of conforming to the stereotype of the cold-blooded killer, she is morally confused, capable of kindness and ruthlessness. Moreover, her determination to claim her sister’s inheritance is motivated not by greed but by her belief that years of illness wasted her life. However, she became bitter and used that bitterness to justify the murder of innocent people. Miss Marple’s suggestion—that anyone can simply choose to be “happy” or “content” despite illness or financial hardship—may be idealistic, but her point remains: Many people endure immense suffering and never pursue murder.