The Murder at the Vicarage is
Agatha Christie’s first “Miss Marple” mystery; eventually, Miss Marple, an
inquisitive old lady with a sharp eye who lives in the village of St. Mary
Mead, would appear in 12 crime novels and 20 short stories.Col. Lucius Protheroe, the fussbudget town magistrate who’s in his second marriage, is found murdered in the Vicarage – the home of Parson Leonard Clement (the village vicar) and his young wife by 20 years, Griselda. Nobody, not their nephew Dennis, or their housekeeper, Mary, heard anything.
Evidence at the crime scene just doesn’t
add up, leading the vicar to suspect things aren’t what they seem to be.
However, one of his neighbors, Miss Jane Marple, seems to have everything
figured out. In fact, she’s already narrowed the list of suspects down to
seven.
Here are some of the facts: Col. Protheroe was shot in the head by a Mauser .25, owned by artist Lawrence Redding, who was seen fleeing the scene by the parson. Redding confesses and arrested. But as I mentioned, things don't quite add up. The colonel’s wife, Anne, confesses, saying she used the colonel's pistol, but he never owned one. There was a note with different handwriting. And then there was that clock that was set 15 minutes ahead, and a shot in the woods heard by Miss Marple and others.
What about that defaced oil portrait in the Protheroes' attic? And does the fact that Anne Protheroe and Lawrence Redding were planning to flee town together have anything to do with it?
Here are some of the facts: Col. Protheroe was shot in the head by a Mauser .25, owned by artist Lawrence Redding, who was seen fleeing the scene by the parson. Redding confesses and arrested. But as I mentioned, things don't quite add up. The colonel’s wife, Anne, confesses, saying she used the colonel's pistol, but he never owned one. There was a note with different handwriting. And then there was that clock that was set 15 minutes ahead, and a shot in the woods heard by Miss Marple and others.
What about that defaced oil portrait in the Protheroes' attic? And does the fact that Anne Protheroe and Lawrence Redding were planning to flee town together have anything to do with it?
There are suspects galore, and in fact,
nearly every one of the multitude of characters mentioned and described in the
book is suspected, analyzed, and taken off the list.
Miss Marple is convinced she knows who did it, but lacks proof. She only makes her move in the third quarter of the book. She'd been thinking, cogitating, analyzing, connecting the facts and deducing the truth up to now, all in the background (off-screen, so to speak). Miss Marple's amazing weaving of the known facts and actions enlighten us with a most credible and deadly accurate description of how the nefarious deed was executed.
Sketches of layouts of vicarage, and the study where Col. Protheroe was found help the reader visualize the murder scene and movements of the investigation.
Miss Marple is convinced she knows who did it, but lacks proof. She only makes her move in the third quarter of the book. She'd been thinking, cogitating, analyzing, connecting the facts and deducing the truth up to now, all in the background (off-screen, so to speak). Miss Marple's amazing weaving of the known facts and actions enlighten us with a most credible and deadly accurate description of how the nefarious deed was executed.
Sketches of layouts of vicarage, and the study where Col. Protheroe was found help the reader visualize the murder scene and movements of the investigation.
Now that
was a good reading!
The Murder at the Vicarage
(1930, 2011)Agatha Christie
William Morrow Paperbacks; Reprint edition ($12.99)
ISBN-13: 978-0062073600
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