A Murder Is Announced

A Miss Marple Mystery

By: Agatha Christie

Narrated by: Emilia Fox

Length: 8 hrs and 56 mins

Publisher's Summary

The villagers of Chipping Cleghorn, including Jane Marple, are agog with curiosity over an advertisement in the local gazette that read: "A murder is announced and will take place on Friday October 29th, at Little Paddocks at 6:30 p.m." Unable to resist the mysterious invitation, a crowd begins to gather at Little Paddocks at the appointed time when, without warning, the lights go out....

©1950 Agatha Christie Limited (P)2012 HarperCollinsPublishers

Good story but narrator gets on my nerves

I liked the story but some of the narrators character voices grated on my nerves. So much so that I think I'll avoid those read by her in the future

Awful Narration

This story as such is not one of Christie's best efforts, but the terrible narration makes it almost unbearable to listen to. I hope they put out another audiobook with a different narrator. I have enjoyed Emilia Fox's other efforts, so I'm not sure why this one went so horribly wrong.

Wonderful Agatha Christie... horrific narration

If you could sum up A Murder Is Announced in three words, what would they be?

Classic entertaining Christie

Would you be willing to try another one of Emilia Fox’s performances?

She is just unbelievably bad. Don't be fooled by her "normal voice" that you hear when she's narrating - her character accents are absolutely painful to listen to. Screeching nails on a chalkboard.

Each Character's Voice More Annoying Than the Next

Penguin Random House identifies Emilia Fox as an acclaimed audio book reader, but it is hard to make that claim with this performance. I have listened to dozens of Agatha Christie and other mysteries on audio, and this ranks as one of the worst. It's always a tricky line to toe as a reader, to present a silly or annoying character without being unbearably annoying to the listener. Somehow the best readers manage this trick, but Emilia Fox, no. The high-pitched shrieky tones of half the characters are simply unbearable. The best readers also manage to slip into male and female voices without it feeling false, yet Emilia's male voices remind me of my own feeble attempts to sound male when imitating people I know, but dropping a few registers but bringing little conviction to the shift in gender. All in all, with this book, I never fell into that happy suspension of disbelief that takes place when the best readers, such as Hugh Fraser, read the best stories, such as Agatha Christie's.

As a kid, I preferred reading the Miss Marple tales to Hercule Poirot stories. But thanks to Hugh Fraser's superb renderings of Poirot and Hastings, and Emilia Fox's irritating rendition of Miss Marple and her band of vicars' wives and the like, I am now on Team Hercule Poirot. I will probably not relive all those great Miss Marple moments on audiobook because this rendition of A MURDER WAS ANNOUNCED was simply unbearable. The publisher would do well to vet the readers and ask if they are helping to keep this series of mysteries alive. Audio books keep these novels alive and even encourage the sale of text versions. Hard to imagine anyone savoring this collection of irritating characters in a cozy yet murderous English village as told by Emilia Fox.

good to listen to

I enjoy the whole thing, I just love English mystery and it was done very well.

Not the narrator’s best

One of my favorite Agatha Christie stories and I have listened to it on CD numerous times. I usually think Emilia Fox does a fine job, but this time, the voice she used for one of the characters spoiled the listening experience for me. The voice was so affected! for a character who is not. What a disappointment.

the narration ruined it!!!

the female voices were especially poorly done; poor to the point of grating. I wanted to enjoy it, but just not possible .

"Don't. Have. Money." Incredible narration.

If you could sum up A Murder Is Announced in three words, what would they be?

Incredibly camouflaged evil.

What did you like best about this story?

All the hidden intricacies of English village life, amusingly written and discovering new depths to my own naiveté'... Astounding narration. I simply could not believe the level of detail and style changes done by this one person's voice.

What does Emilia Fox bring to the story that you wouldn’t experience if you just read the book?

Simply the best narrator I have ever had the privilege to hear. Ms. Fox brought each character to life in such a minutely nuanced performance, that I could hardly believe it was the same person speaking. She was hilarious too, with the foreign accent of the housekeeper as well as giving the essence of her hysterical outbursts and rants without making the listener want to skip forward. I specifically sought a book narrated by this person for my next purchase.

Did you have an extreme reaction to this book? Did it make you laugh or cry?

It made me long for more Miss Marple, although I should be listening to more books relevant to my work! Ugh! :-(

Any additional comments?

Okay. If Mrs. Christie has committed any crimes, they will never be found out by human means, or even artificial intelligence.

This is so far my favorite Christie mystery!

I just can't get enough of this one! I think I've listened to it a dozen times since I got it 3 months ago.

The reader
This is the second audio book I've listened to with this reader and she did very well with this book. Each character had their own voice with only a couple minor characters sounding similar. The tones and inflections matched the characters attitudes at different times. There is even a point when one character is imitating another and the reader didn't just switch voices but actually sounded like the first person imitating the other! One thing though is that in the next book I heard her read, I thought some of these characters were in that book.

The story
The story pulls you along and keeps you guessing till the dramatic reveal at the end. It's surprising while still making sense after all the groundwork laid in the earlier chapters. Some of the clues are clear but most are subtle enough that I'm still catching ones I'd missed the first time. I think there are even some clues that Christie didn't explain at the end and that makes it feel, in this case, even more realistic. There are two minor points I think went unexplained, but they don't change my overall opinion and enjoyment of the story.

Bring back Rosemary Leach!!!

Would you try another book from Agatha Christie and/or Emilia Fox?

No. Not for Miss Marple.

What didn’t you like about Emilia Fox’s performance?

I didn't think any of the female characters were different. And the males weak.

Any additional comments?

Rosemary's version is wonderful. I listen to it at lease once a week. I'm lucky to have gotten it as one of my first audible books.

Definitely recommended

it was the best of Marple stories and best performance of the narrator. I should say that in past six months I have been listening to all audible Marple stories.

Intriguing storyline, but narrator voice....

Another AC stunner, highly recommended. However, there were many moments when I cringed at some of the characters’ voices created by Emilia Fox. If the story were not so compelling, I would have stopped listening early on.