History Literature / TheMovingFinger

* RevealingMistake: One which is actually pointed out by the narrator at the time, although he doesn't say ''why'' it's a mistake until later. [[spoiler:The envelopes of the letters are addressed using a typewriter. Mr. Symmington addressed them using his typewriter, before donating it to the Women's Institute. However, Jerry and Joanna Burton moved to the village after he'd done this, and so the letters addressed to Joanna are sent in envelopes originally meant for Emily ''Barton'', with the "a" crossed out and replaced with a "u".]]

* CrouchingMoronHiddenBadass: Dr Griffith is bumbling and awkward when faced with Joanna's bold, flirtatious, big-city personality, and his idea of courting is showing her pictures of diseased internal organs. He impresses the hell out of her when, as she has faked interest in medicine, he requests her assistance in a difficult birth. Thankfully, both mother and baby survive.

* DistractedByTheSexy: Jerry is so shocked by his first look at Elsie Holland, the Symmington's governess, that he drops the groceries he has just bought.

* CampGay: Mr Pye, who is alluded to be gay, is also described as "abnormally feminine," can recognize a makeup brand when seeing it on Joanna's face, and is included by the police as a suspect even though they insist, on experience, that the culprit must be female. [[spoiler: Though it isn't.]]
* CrouchingMoronHiddenBadass: Dr Griffith is bumbling and awkward when faced with Joanna's bold, flirtatious, big-city personality, and his idea of courting is showing her pictures of diseased internal organs. He impresses the hell out of her when, as she has faked interest in medicine, he takes her along on a difficult case.

* NeverSuicide: Mrs. Symmington commits suicide after receiving a poison pen letter accusing her of adultery. Actually, she was murdered.

* TransparentCloset: Mr. Pye, an "extremely ladylike" man who is a lifelong bachelor and a GossipyHen. When the authorities decide that the letter-writer must be a woman, they also think that it ''might'' be Mr. Pye, because, well....Superintendent Nash thinks that Mr. Pye has "an abnormally female streak in his character."

* QuizzicalHeadTilt: Inspector Graves of the police "put his sad head a little on one side" when he asks Jerry if he knows of anyone that hasn't received a poison pen letter.

* TransparentCloset: Mr. Pye, an "extremely ladylike" man who is a lifelong bachelor and a GossipyHen. When the authorities decide that the letter-writer must be a woman, they also think that it ''might'' be Mr. Pye, because, well...

%% * BrotherSisterTeam: Jerry and Joanna Burton.

%% * EveryoneIsASuspect: From Jerry's point of view.

Jerry and Joanna Burton, brother and sister from London society, take a country house in idyllic Lymstock so that Jerry can rest from injuries received in a wartime plane crash. Just as they are getting to know some of the town's rather strange inhabitants, they receive an anonymous letter accusing them of being lovers, instead of siblings. They are told that these anonymous "poison pen" letters have been circulating widely around the town, making various accusations that are unpleasant, but inaccurate. The situation takes an ugly turn when a woman commits suicide after receiving a letter, and the police move in to investigate.

A Literature/MissMarple novel by Creator/AgathaChristie. The title is from the Rubaiyat of Omar Khayyam, as well as a reference to Beshazzar's Feast in the Book of Daniel.

[[quoteright:193:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/The_Moving_Finger_1stEd_1675.jpg]]

Adapted for TV in 1985 by the BBC and [[{{Series/Marple}} 2006 by ITV]].

* IWantMyBelovedToBeFashionable: After Megan remarks that [[IAmNotPretty she doesn't care about her appearance because could never be good looking anyway]], Jerry spontaneously brings her to London for a makeover. Afterwards, he realizes that he did it because he's in love with her.
* {{Jerkass}}: Aimee Griffith isn't a very likable person. She goes on about how the letter writer must have hit onto something about Megan's mother [[{{Hypocrite}} while scoffing at how a letter]] ''[[{{Hypocrite}} she]]'' [[{{Hypocrite}} received certainly couldn't be taken seriously]]. She harshly mocks the idea of anyone (even great thinkers) being idle and throws around claims of misogyny when she's questioned. She makes a snide, racist comment about the Chinese in response to a drawing Jerry made of a Chinese man. After the deaths and the police investigation, she cheerfully comments about how nice the excitement is. She bullies Megan into moving back to her stepfathers house (where she's miserable) just in order to prevent an air of scandal attaching itself to her stepfather (like Aimee feels it would if he was left alone in the house with Elsie). She [[spoiler: sends a nasty anonymous letter of her own to Elsie]].

* TheUnfavorite: Megan's mother and step-father have children on their own, and her parents clearly prefer them over her. Jerry is disgusted to realize that Mr. Symmington pays no attention to Megan unless she's right in front of him, and thinks that this might be even worse than Symmington actively disliking her--at least in that case he would ''see'' her.

* BrotherSisterTeam: Jerry and Joanna Burton.

* EveryoneIsASuspect: From Jerry's point of view.

* LittleOldLadyInvestigates: Obviously, as a Literature/MissMarple novel.

* SheCleansUpNicely: Megan can't believe how attractive she can look with a little effort. Jerry recognizes that the much of the transformation is due to her improved self-image.

** [[spoiler:Elsie Holland]] doesn't receive a letter. [[spoiler:Given that she's a obvious target, the lack of such a letter is a clue in itself.]]

* CampGay: Mr Pye, who is alluded to be gay, is also described as "abnormally feminine," can recognize makeup brand when seeing it on Joanna's face, and is included by the police as a suspect even though they insist, on experience, that the culprit must be female. [[spoiler: Though it isn't.]]

* AbsenceOfEvidence: [[spoiler: Mrs Symmington's poison letter was a plant]], and poor Agnes figured this out when, [[spoiler: in the process of watching for her boyfriend, she realised that nobody had come to the house to deliver mail that day.]]

* WoundedGazelleGambit: Invoked. When the characters wonder if Elsie is sending the letters because she's the only woman who hasn't gotten one, Graves explains that it's actually a mark in favor of her innocence, because in poison-pen cases the culprits almost always send themselves something vile to throw off suspicion and soak up the sympathy.

* NoodleIncident: in the latter half the of the book, Mrs Dane Calthrop tells Jerry that she's bringing in an expert on murder: enter Miss Marple. But while Reverend and Mrs Calthrop also appear in ''The Pale Horse'', Miss Marple doesn't. ''So how does Mrs Calthrop know Miss Marple and what she can do?'' This is especially peculiar, because in all her other novels and short stories, it's very clearly stated how Miss Marple was introduced to all her cases outside St Mary Mead; it's usually by one of her army of godchildren, (who all call her Aunt Jane) someone she knows from a previous case, or her nephew Raymond takes action to put her in the right place or knows someone involved.

%%* ImportantCharacterImportantEvidence

* AssholeVictim: Jerry has a rather striking MoralMyopia moment when he considers that the current state of affairs required the deaths of [[spoiler:Mrs. Symmington and Agnes]], and gets over it by thinking that the former was a prudish, neurotic hypochondriac and the latter wasn't really liked by her boyfriend. [[spoiler: On the other hand, the first was an emotionally abusive parent to Jerry's fiancee, Megan, and the latter was someone he'd never actually met]] This ''was'' in response to Miss Barton (a life-long village resident who knew both murder victims well) remarking that "everything really has worked out for the best"!

* LoveMakesYouEvil: This story has both a male and a female example: [[spoiler:Mr Symmington, and, to a much lesser extent, Aimee Griffith. The former murders his wife in order to be able to marry Elsie Holland, while Miss Griffith is driven by her love of Mr Symmington to type a foul letter to Elsie in order to drive her away.]]

* NeverOneMurder: The murderer is caught on his third attempt - fortunately in time. [[spoiler: Poor Agnes.]]

* RippedFromTheHeadlines: In story. [[spoiler: Mr Symmington got the idea of poison pen letters from a couple of other publicized cases, as a way to make his wife's murder look like suicide.]]
* SheCleansUpNicely: Megan can't believe how attractive she can look with a little effort. Jerry recognizes that the much of the transformation is due to her improved self image.

* CampGay: Mr Pye, who is alluded to be gay, is also described as "abnormally feminine," can recognize makeup brand when seeing it on Joanna's face, and is included by the police as a suspect even though they insist, on experience, that the culprit must be female.

* DidNotThinkThisThrough: Combined with a near-terminal case of SkewedPriorities. [[spoiler: Aimee Griffith decides to use the murderer's poison-pen campaign as a cover for her ''own'' poison-pen letter to a romantic rival, reasoning that the murderer will be blamed. (Two people are dead, but sure, now is a ''great'' time to work out your petty romantic rivalries.) However, she does not make the next logical conclusion, which is that if anyone finds out she wrote ''this'' letter, they will then have a good reason to think she's the murderer.]]

* HeadInOven: The killer tries to murder [[spoiler:his stepdaughter]] Megan by giving her a sleeping drug and subsequently putting her head in a gas stove, making it appear as if she killed herself (as she was prone to depressive mood swings). It would have worked if it weren't for the fact that miss Marple used Megan as bait to lure the killer out in the open. He gets arrested shortly after he attempts the murder and Megan gets through the ordeal unharmed.

* AssholeVictim: Jerry has a rather striking MoralMyopia moment when he considers that the current state of affairs required the deaths of [[spoiler:Mrs. Symmington and Agnes]], and gets over it by thinking that the former was a prudish hypocondriac and the latter wasn't really liked by her boyfriend.
* BeautifulAllAlong: Jerry's frustration at Megan's poor self image and aggressively down-at-heels appearance combined with her wistful expression as she sees him off to London results in him 'going mad' and taking her to his sister's stylist in town. The results rather stun them both.

* WhatHappenedToTheMouse: [[spoiler:After Megan's mother is murdered and her stepfather is arrested for the crime, no mention is made of who would take care of her two young half-brothers.]]
** [[spoiler:It is mentioned in-story that she's not quite 21 yet, and is not yet married. By the standards of the time and place, she might not have been deemed a suitable guardian, and custody might have gone to an aunt or uncle of the boys.]]

* StatingTheSimpleSolution: Miss Marple asks a very simple question: who cares who's writing the letters, what has actually ''happened''? She says they should focus on the tangible events and work back from there, rather than trying to untangle who wrote what. [[spoiler: The first solid event is Mrs. Symmington's death, and who would want her dead? The husband who wants to marry the beautiful nanny without the stigma of divorce. The letters are a smokescreen.]]

* AbsenceOfEvidence: [[spoiler: Mrs Symmington's poison letter was a plant, and poor Agnes figured this out when, in the process of watching for her boyfriend, she realised that nobody had come to the house to deliver mail that day.]]
* AbusiveParents: Of the emotionally abusive kind. Megan's mother and step-father usually ignore her, and it's observed by Jerry Burton and others that Megan's presence upsets what would have been a traditional nuclear family. It is evident that Megan feels this.

* BeautifulAllAlong: Jerry's frustration at Megan's poor self image and aggressively down-at-heels appearance combined with her wistful expression as she sees him off to London results in him 'going mad' and taking her to his sister's stylist in town. The results rather stun them both.

* EveryoneIsASuspect: From Jerry's point of view.

* MarryTheNanny: Aimee Griffith thinks this will happen with Elsie Holland and Mr. Symmington, because Elsie is essentially running the domestic side of the house in the wake of Mrs. Symmington's death (also, she's gorgeous) and he'll come to rely on her so much he can't help but marry her. [[spoiler:Turns out Mr Symmington has been secretly in love with Elsie the whole time, and that he killed his wife in order to marry her.]]