A notice appears in Chipping Cleghorn's local newspaper: "A murder is announced and will take place on Friday, 29 October, at Little Paddocks, at 6.30 pm. Friends accept this, the only intimation." This surprises … See more

This novel is set just after World War II. Characters in the novel are still dealing with food rationing and the laws supporting it. This complicates communication with the police, as people in the village use … See more

• Miss Jane Marple, an elderly spinster and amateur detective.
• Inspector Dermot Craddock, lead detective on the case.
• Sir Henry Clithering, retired head of Scotland Yard, consults with Chief Constable. He recommends his old friend Miss Marple to aid the police. He is … See more

Edmund Swettenham announces that he has written "a roaring farce in three acts" titled Elephants Do Forget. Agatha Christie later wrote a novel named Elephants Can Remember featuring Hercule Poirot. "Scherz" was the name of the Swiss publisher ( See more

Julian MacLaren-Ross in The Times Literary Supplement was lavish in his praise of the book, after five years of not reviewing any of Christie's detective novels: "A new novel by Mrs Agatha Christie always deserves to be placed at the head of any list … See more

• 1950, Collins Crime Club (London), June 1950, hardcover, 256 pp
• 1950, Dodd Mead and Company (New York), June 1950, hardcover, 248 pp
• 1951, Pocket Books (New York), paperback, 229 pp See more

US television adaptation
The NBC anthology series Goodyear Playhouse broadcast an adaptation by William Templeton on 30 December 1956, with Gracie Fields as Miss Marple, Roger Moore as Patrick Simmons and Jessica Tandy See more