The Murder at the Vicarage is Agatha Christie’s first ever Miss Marple mystery. From seven potential murderers, Miss Marple must seek out the suspect who has both motive and opportunity.
‘Anyone who murdered Colonel Protheroe,’ declared the parson, brandishing a carving knife above a joint of roast beef, ‘would be doing the world at large a service!’
It was a careless remark for a man of the cloth. And one which was to come back and haunt the clergyman just a few hours later.
When The Murder at the Vicarage was published in October 1930, little did the literary world realise that Agatha Christie, already famous for her early Poirot titles, was introducing a character who would become the best-loved female sleuth of all time. The Murder at the Vicarage was followed by The Body in the Library in 1942 and 16 more Marple books, novels and collections of short stories, would appear at intervals over the next 49 years, with Miss Marple’s Final Cases published in 1979, three years after Agatha Christie’s death.
‘If a genius is someone who leaves the field they work in totally different from how they found it, then we should certainly remember Agatha Christie as a genius.’ Stephen Fry
‘Miss Marple is one of the most subversive, the most original, most distinctive characters in fiction. Often underestimated and overlooked, she always triumphs in the end.’ Kate Mosse
‘No one on either side of the Atlantic does it better.’ New York Times
Murder Most Civilized
When I was at school I tried to start an Agatha Christie Club. Number of members (including the Chairman – myself ): three. Number of meetings: zero. This somewhat unenthusiastic response has not...
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