Title: Murder at the Vicarage.Author: Agatha Christie.
Genre: Classic, Mystery, Historical Fiction, Miss Marple.
Plot: Lenard Clement, vicar to the little village of St. Mary Mead, has his hands full with vicar duties, visiting his parishioners, soothing over hurt feelings and miscommunications about pound notes, writing out his sermons, raising his sixteen year old nephew Dennis, and dealing with the housekeeping of his young wife Griselda. He doesn't need Colonel Protheroe's complaints to add to his burdens, and he certainly doesn't need a murder either. But when the Colonel comes to pay a call on the vicar when he is out, murder is exactly what the vicar ends up with. For the Colonel is found dead in Mr. Clement's own study.
Considering that nobody liked the deaf interfering old Colonel, finding a suspect to link the murder to is a hard task for energetic Inspector Slack and Chief Inspector Melchett. And then people start accusing themselves of the crime, beginning with artist Lawrence Redding who had had a rather uproarious disagreement with the Colonel before his unfortunate death. But how could he have possibly killed the Colonel when the Colonel's own wife is likewise confessing to the crime?
In Miss Marple's debut novel, Agatha Christie spins an intriguing web of misdirection, red-herrings and mysterious phone calls for her famous amateur sleuth to test the waters and unravel.
Likes/Dislikes: I really quite liked this particular Agatha Christie novel. I guessed one character's true identity early on in the story {it was quite obvious to me}, but I hadn't bothered to form any suspicions around who could have killed the Colonel and was wonderfully surprised when Miss Marple revealed the answer. This is the first novel in which Miss Marple is introduced and there are at least fourteen to sixteen sequels featuring the little old lady-sleuth. I personally didn't care for the vicar, the narrator of the story, as he seemed around a dull man. I also don't usually like first-person stories, although some authors pull them off very well. Note: two characters are having an affair in the story and one is married, but there is nothing graphic at all. Just hints and mild suggestions in a very delicate fashion. All in all, a very good mystery.
Rating: PG-14 and up for reading level and content. It's a murder mystery after all. Recommended.
Date Report Written: March 16th, 2013.
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