Murder is Announced

A Murder Is Announced is a work of detective fiction by Agatha Christie, first published in the UK by the Collins Crime Club in June 1950 and in the US by Dodd, Mead and Company in the same month. The UK edition sold for eight shillings and sixpence (8/6) and the US edition at $2.50.The novel features her detective Jane Marple. The murder is announced in advance a local newspaper in a small village; Miss Marple is staying at a spa hotel there for treatment. She works with Inspector Craddock of the county police. The novel was well-received at publication. Remarks included: "The plot is as ingenious as ever, the writing more careful, the dialogue both wise and witty;"; and "Not quite one of her top notchers, but very smooth entertainment"; the murderer was "run to earth in a brilliantly conducted parlour game".; and "This jubilee whodunit is as deft and ingenious a fabrication as Agatha Christie has contrived in many a year." A later review was more mixed: "Superb reworking of the standard Christie setting and procedures, marred only by an excess of homicide at the end."The book was heavily promoted upon publication in 1950 as being Christie's fiftieth book, although this figure could only be arrived at by counting in both UK and US short story collections. A "distantly related" storyline had previously been explored in Christie's Miss Marple short story "The Companion", where the characters also lived in Little Paddocks.