Agatha Christie's Murder at the Vicarage was my first Miss Marple. Now that I've had her I can say with knowledge born of experience, she ain't half bad! The character had previously appeared in short stories published in magazines starting in December 1927. These earlier stories were collected in book form in The Thirteen Problems in 1932. There's the vicar, who, as the local sounding board, can indulge his newly discovered amateur sleuthing hobby. He is frequently accosted by several of the old cats, as the local busybodies are lovingly dubbed by the younger generation. And of course, we cannot forget Colonel Protheroe: most respected magistrate, as well as most despised person in town. For many, this will be too on-the-nose or over-simplified when it comes to the layout at approach of Miss Marple's investigation. Though she's responsible for solving it, she's not the main character. The vicar tells us the story of what happened to the deceased, and he interacts with the detectives investigating the crime. Another priest is nearly murdered, but he's not very well liked, so it's okay, right? Some think so... but not all the 'little old biddies' (how the book refers to them) are in agreement. The gossip is out of control in this book, but I adored it for what it was -- a clever plot technique to reveal clues and keep us guessing. Add in the very peculiar marriages between the different priests and their wives, and it's baffling what life was like a century ago. But I'd give nearly anything to be part of it.

Christie often stayed at Abney Hall in Cheshire, which was owned by her brother-in-law, James Watts. She based at least two of her stories on the hall: the short story The Adventure of the Christmas Pudding, and the novel After the Funeral. Abney Hall became Agatha's greatest inspiration for country-house life, with all the servants and grandeur which have been woven into her plots.All appearances point to St. Mary Mead being the usual English small town. It has its share of colorful inhabitants, but for the most part it's a rather peaceful place. Little Trout - porch was used for the entrance to the village chemist's shop. Around time 1:07 Hawes can be seen exiting the door and he encounters Miss Marple. [1] Miss Marple believes the true killers to be Lawrence Redding and Anne Protheroe. In love with Anne, Redding decided they could be together only if he removed her husband. On the pretext of seeking advice from Clement, he left his pistol in a potted plant holder at the vicarage. He then planted the picric acid crystal in the woods near the vicarage, rigging it to explode and create a "second gunshot" that would confuse any witnesses. In the evening, Redding placed the false call to Clement to get him out of the house, while Anne walked past Miss Marple's home without a handbag in close-fitting clothing to show that she was not carrying a gun. She retrieved the pistol (which had been fitted with a silencer), killed her husband, and left the vicarage; Redding then entered, stole the note incriminating Hawes, and planted his own note falsifying the time of death. At the other end of Lansham Road, a small lane called Old Pasture Lane broke away from the main street. Nestled in this lane were three Queen Anne or Georgian houses, which belonged to three spinsters. The first house belonged to the long-nosed, gushing and excitable Miss Caroline Wetherby. The second was Miss Amanda Hartnell, a proud, decent woman with a deep voice. The last cottage was called Danemead Cottage and belonged to Miss Jane Marple, the famous spinster who solved countless cases between 1930 and 1976. The Post Office, and the dressmaker's shop belonging to Mrs Politt, are located in front of the lane.

Having read this less than 4 years I was surprised at how little I remembered of the book. Is it age or just the fact that in the intervening years I have read a large number of detective mystery stories. I'm plumping for the latter option. 😊 This best-selling author of all time wrote 66 crime novels and story collections, fourteen plays, and six novels under a pseudonym in romance. Her books sold more than a billion copies in the English language and a billion in translation. According to Index Translationum, people translated her works into 103 languages at least, the most for an individual author. Of the most enduring figures in crime literature, she created Hercule Poirot and Miss Jane Marple. She atuhored The Mousetrap, the longest-running play in the history of modern theater. The narrator is a man, so but obviously, he knows nothing and all the women around him are up-to-date on village gossip. I found that hilarious! Marple Facsimile edition (Facsimile of 1930 UK first edition), September 12, 2005, Hardcover, ISBN 0-00-720842-1 Agatha Christie is one of my favorite authors and her books are a comfort read for me when I want to distance myself away from my usual fantasy reads. Up to this point, I have been a bigger fan of Poirot and Miss Marple books were okay! This is my third book in the Miss Marple series that I read and is actually the book that introduces her!

After Protheroe is murdered at the Vicarage, the entire village of St. Mary Mead seems to become involved in the investigation. The Murder at the Vicarage is one of Agatha Christie’s most popular books. It was the first of her mysteries to be published as part of her publisher Collins’ new Crime Club series and the first novel to feature Miss Marple. Not a book club exactly, The Crime Club was a series of mystery titles published and promoted under the name. There was one really good thing about this book though. It may have had the absolute best quote I've read in one of Christie's novels. While I like her as an author, I don't particularly find her quotable, but this is certainly an exception: This book sees Miss Marple bring all her knowledge of humanity to bear to solve the crime, obviously with a little help from Colonel Meltchet.

No existe en Inglaterra detective alguno tan sagaz como una solterona de edad indefinida, sin nada que hacer durante todo el día.» Reverend Clement mentioned Canon Shirley References to other works [ ] Cultural references [ ] Film, TV or theatrical adaptations [ ] The Murder at the Vicarage (1949 play) [ ] Main article: Murder at the Vicarage (play) Like Cabot Cove in Maine, USA, St.Mary Mead in Great Britain seems to be the murder capital of that country. You would think so with Miss Marple solving all No puedo evitar sorprenderme ante la astucia de las resoluciones de los crímenes, siendo este mi quinto libro de Christie, ya estoy más que acostumbrado a estas explicaciones desprevenidas. Especialmente en este libro, mi desconcierto fue mayor que en sus previas obras, me resigné en pensar en culpables y simplemente me dejé impresionar. The quaint, sleepy village was home to the renowned detective spinster Miss Marple. However, Christie first described a village of that name prior to Marple's introduction, in the 1928 Hercule Poirot novel The Mystery of the Blue Train. In that novel, St Mary Mead is home to the book's protagonist Katherine Grey. The village was first mentioned in a Miss Marple book in 1930, when it was the setting for the first Marple novel, The Murder at the Vicarage.

In 1970, a West German public broadcasting network, Zweites Deutsches Fernsehen (ZDF), produced a TV adaptation with the title "Mord im Pfaffhaus" starring Inge Langen as a relatively young Miss Marple.

There is no detective in England equal to a spinster lady of uncertain age with plenty of time on her hands. As you can imagine, no other citizen has more to offer in the solving of said crime than our Miss Marple. That woman misses nothing, usually because she's spying on everyone from the comfort of her garden. The centre of the village was the Vicarage, a very grand Victorian structure at the end of the Lane. The Vicarage was home to the Vicar, Leonard Clement, his pretty young wife, Griselda, with their nephew, Dennis, and later with their two sons, Leonard and David.

The story starts nicely with a murder (on second thought, maybe ‘nicely’ isn’t the right word!) but the resolution goes in an unexpected direction. I liked the resolution but some of the red herrings were too farfetched. Miss Marple: spinster living in St Mary Mead, next to the vicar. She is observant and knows human behaviour, is recognised in her village as astute and generally correct. Unlike the sophisticated Poirot, Miss Marple appears as anyone's neighbor. She is a sweet older woman yet feisty and would be interesting to get to know. Whereas Poirot exercises his little gray cells, Miss Marple snoops around, her main objective to provide safety to the village that she lives in. A forerunner to today's cozy mysteries, Miss Marple appears to provide an easy reading contrast to Poirot's cases which have me thinking throughout.