"With this outstanding detective story, Agatha Christie celebrates her jubilee as a writer. For the fiftieth time she leaves us breathless with admiration or her incomparable adroitness and ingenuity. It is this fertile imagination which has won her unstinted and consistent praise throughout her career.
Every Friday morning to practically every house in the village of Chipping Cleghorn a copy of the 'North Benham News and Chipping Cleghorn Gazette' was delivered by Johnnie Butt from Mr. Totman, stationer, of the High Street. On Friday, October 29th, in the "Personal" column, among the Articles for Sale or Wanted and the frenzied appeals for domestic help, was the following singular announcement: 'A murder is announced and will take place on Friday, October 29th, at Little Paddocks at 6.30 p.m. Friends please accept this, the only intimation'. A joke, of course; probably perpetrated by Miss Blacklock's nephew Patrick; but nevertheless nothing would have deterred anyone who had the slightest excuse from calling on the owner of Little Paddocks at the appointed time. One by one, shortly after six, they began to arrive - Colonel and Mrs. Easterbrook, Miss Hinchliffe and Miss Murgatroyd, Mrs. Swettenham and her son Edmund, Mrs. Harmon, the vicar's wife. Conversation was general; the chrysanthemums were admired, the central heating commented on; the only subject that was not mentioned was the newspaper announcement. Then as 6.30 precisely the lights went out....
In this latest crime story Miss Agatha Christie re-introduces Miss Marple, that benign old lady with a mind like a gimlet. Once more a murder is announced for the benefit and enjoyment of countless readers, and we on our part on this happy occasion sound a fanfare." -- Inside cover.