The Murder at the Vicarage

The vicar of St Mary Meade, Reverend Leonard Clement, is dealing with the usual challenges of village life including petty theft, adultery and fraud when Colonel Protheroe, churchwarden, justice of the peace and bombastic idiot, is found shot dead in Clement’s study.

Lawrence Redding, an artist who is painting the Colonel’s wife and daughter as well as having an affair with his wife, has a motive but no opportunity. Perhaps the curate has finally had enough of being bullied by Protheroe and snapped. Other potential suspects include a glamorous and mysterious newcomer to the village and an archaeologist investigating the local earthworks. Christie weaves all these threads, and more, together with a tangle of clues, timetables and mysterious phone calls, into a tapestry of village life. It takes someone with a decisive mind and a deep knowledge of human nature to unravel them all and come to the correct conclusion. It takes Miss Jane Marple, spinster of the parish and the world’s greatest detective (fight me!).

This is the first full novel in which Miss Marple appears. Other characters who will play a part in subsequent novels, such as Inspector Slack, Colonel Melchett and nephew Raymond West turn up for the first time as well. Marple also explains the foundation of her detective method. Her long experience has led her to place people into categories and from them, she can deduce how situations may have occurred.

It is always a pleasure to be there at the start of a successful series. The actual murder, once explained, is fairly simple but Christie keeps the interest and suspense going with a couple of interweaving sub-plots and vignettes of village life seen through the kindly, but not always patient, eyes of Reverend Clement and his irreverent wife. The Miss Marple novels are almost the very definition of cosy crime fiction. Miss Marple might talk about evil and wickedness, but the murders never really feel that evil or dangerous.

To answer the question of whether the Miss Marple books are worth reading if you’ve seen the TV adaptations – yes, absolutely! And if you’ve never encountered Miss Marple before, sit back, relax and let the world’s greatest crime writer effortlessly sweep you into a bygone age where nosey spinsters solve crimes while knitting baby clothes.