The Moving Finger is detective fiction novel by Agatha Christie, first published in the US by Dodd, Mead and Company in July 1942 and in UK by the Collins Crime Club in June 1943 The U.S. edition retailed at $2.00 and the UK edition at seven shillings and sixpence . It features the elderly detective Miss Marple in a relatively minor, deus ex machina-like role, appearing more than halfway through and in only a handful of scenes. The book takes its name from verse 51 of Edward FitzGerald's translation of the Rubáiyát of Omar Khayyám: The poem, in turn, refers to Belshazzar's... feast as related in the Book of Daniel, where the expression the writing on the wall originated. 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. They are just getting to know the town's strange cast of characters when an anonymous letter arrives, rudely accusing the two of being lovers, not siblings. They quickly discover that these letters have been recently circulating around town, indiscriminate and completely inaccurate.
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