The Murder at the Vicarage

"Inspector Slack: "I thought it was looking too good to be true. Soon as I saw that nice-looking, grey-haired cobra sliding about, I should've known better." Sergeant Lake: "Huh?" Inspector Slack: "The Marple woman sticks to this sort of business like chewing gum to the cat.""

Detective novel by Agatha Christie. This is the first novel (but not the first book) to feature Miss Marple, the harmless old lady who lives at the idyllic village of St Mary Mead and just happens to constantly bump into murders. She is notable for her ability to draw parallels between murder mysteries and ordinary village incidents. She is Christie's second most famous but personal favorite detective.

In the above-mentioned St Mary Mead, there is a general climate of harmony and good-will and everyone gets along. Everyone, that is, except Colonel Protheroe, the most disliked man in the village. His daughter wishes he would do a good thing and die, and even the vicar observes that killing him would be a service to the townsfolk. Then, Protheroe is found murdered in the vicar's study. His unfaithful wife and her artist lover both confess to the murder, to the great confusion of Inspector Slack. It's up to Miss Marple to make sense of this story and find out who really did it...

The book is narrated in first person by the vicar, Leonard Clement.

It was adapted by BBC in 1986 with Joan Hickson in the role of Miss Marple and again by ITV in 2004 with Geraldine Mc Ewan as Miss Marple. There is also a 1949 play with Barbara Mullen and a graphic novel released by Harper Collins in 2008.

Christie dedicated the book to her daughter and only child, Rosalind Hinks.

Heavy unconcealed spoilers ahead.


 * Adaptation Distillation: The 2004 version.
 * Asshole Victim: Colonel Protheroe.
 * Aw, Look -- They Really Do Love Each Other: At the start of the novel, Len's so irritated with Griselda, he contemplates writing to the archbishop that the Church should bring back celibacy into the clergy. At the end of the novel...
 * Black Widow: Anne Protheroe.
 * Characterization Marches On: Miss Marple is at times a rather bossy, nosy, unpleasant woman throughout the course of the book. Having realized that she wanted to write more stories with Marple as the detective, Christie toned down on some of these characteristics for later mysteries.
 * The Ditz: Lettice Protheroe comes off as this, especially at the beginning.
 * False Confession: Subverted.
 * Gossipy Hens: Several of them. Miss Marple humorously admits she is one at one point.
 * Happily Married: Leonard and Griselda Clement, oddly enough.
 * Hopeless Suitor: Lettice is in love with Lawrence Redding, who's in love with her stepmother, who's married to Lettice's father.
 * Little Old Lady Investigates
 * Luke, I Am Your Father: Mrs Lestrange is Lettice's mother.
 * May-December Romance: Leonard and Griselda. He's 20 years older than her, she had many other suitors, and he proposed to her within 24 hours of meeting her despite the fact, as she cheerfully puts it, that "I am everything you disaprove of in a woman." That's why it's so "odd" (see above) that they really are Happily Married.
 * Slap Slap Kiss: Replace "Slap slap" (he is a vicar after all) with "frequent feelings of irritation" and you have the Clements' marriage.
 * Sticky Fingers: Curate Hawes.
 * The Vicar: Obviously.
 * Widow Woman: Mrs Lestrange. No, not that one. Also Anne Protheroe.
 * Your Cheating Heart: Mrs Protheroe's affair with Lawrence Redding.