Why a Booktrail?
Mid 1900s: A murder is announced in Chipping Cleghorn – with the time, date and location clearly marked. Is this for real or some sick joke?
A Murder is Announced (Miss Marple)
What you need to know before your trail
It’s not every day that you read about a murder that hasn’t happened yet – but when the locals of Chilling Cleghorn read about it in their newspaper, they don’t quite know what to make of it. That doesn’t stop them turning up to the place announced as if it were some kind of show they were going to watch. At Little Paddocks, at 6.30pm, on Friday 29th October is when it’s all going to happen. But what is exactly?
The moment comes and the crowd waits with baited breath. Then without warning, the lights go out….
Travel Guide
The town of Chipping Cleghorn is fictional but it all seems very real in this story of a death foretold. Imagine if you were invited to witness a murder and you went along with the rest of the village to see what this all meant. What does it all mean?
Even the owner of Little Paddocks, Letitia Blacklock doesn’t know, but intrigued she sets up and prepares to have guests around at the time and place in the notice.
As if in their very own Cluedo scenario, the lights go out and a masked man comes in the door with a torch. He shouts ‘Stick’em up’ but this is no game as shots then ring around the room. When the lights go up, the gunman has been shot and somebody recognises him…but then the mystery gets deeper still.
What a bizarre and intriguing way to die? Could it possibly be suicide? But then why would someone announce their death in this way? The police and Inspector Craddock start to delve into the gunman’s past. He used to work in a spa where a certain Miss Marple is staying.
As Miss Marple comes to stay at the centre of events in Chipping Cleghorn, the events and people of this small village are revealed to be a tangle of knots. There is even later a cake named Delicious Death later on which would be the ideal addition to any crime fest. Links to Switzerland add to the mystery…
Chipping Cleghorn is a village in turmoil and one greatly affected by the war and war time rationing. The events take place post war and there is a sense that the world has greatly changed and a small village such as Chipping Cleghorn has changed much more than anyone would have imagined. Poverty and rationing have come to stay and people are struggling. No one seems to know anyone else anymore – the war has changed so much in a short space of time.
Miss Marple arrives and gets the gossips taking again over cups of tea and a slice of cake. The perfect way to enjoy this read!
Where Next?
