The Murder at the Vicarage, by Agatha Christie
With The Murder at the Vicarage, Agatha Christie would present mystery lovers with a most remarkable and unusual detective. When the book was first published in 1930, readers were introduced to Miss Jane Marple, an elderly spinster and, we must admit, a bit of a busybody. Residing in the small village of St. Mary Mead, Miss Marple certainly did not seem like a typical sleuth with her white hair and love of gardening. She also had a passion for bird watching and insisted that the binoculars, which she was frequently found peering through, were simply for watching feathered friends...not for spying on her neighbors.
What Miss Marple does know, however, is that life in a village is never dull. She is quick to point out that one can learn everything there is to know about human nature from observing the supposedly simple life in her small community. Evil thoughts and evil doers abound in a village as surely as they do in the center of London.
In this novel, a murder occurs in a most unlikely location, the study of the local Vicar. Colonel Potheroe, a detested and highly despicable man, was found shot in the head and lies dead in the Vicar's study. Who could have broken the peace of the village Vicarage with murder? The funny thing is, no one even heard a shot and no one saw any suspect go near the Vicarage at the time of the murder. Of course, as in most Christie mysteries, this tale has red herrings around every bend. False confessions and a crowd of more-than-likely suspects abound.
While the erstwhile Inspector Slack seems befuddled by the lack of clues and the venom that nearly everyone in the village, including Potheroe's own family, had for the victim, Miss Marple uses her common sense and understanding of human nature to ferret out the killer. Part of the appeal of the Miss Marple series is, of course, the allure of village life in rural England. Miss Marple is the epitome of everyone's fussy, old maid aunt. Reading The Murder at the Vicarage should make you wonder if the twinkle in a senior citizen's eye just might be hiding more than you could possibly imagine.
Read our biography of Agatha Christie.
