The Murder at the Vicarage (Miss Marple #1) in Reading the Detectives

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The Murder at the Vicarage (Miss Marple #1)

Agatha Christie

Start date: February 1, 2025

Finish date: February 28, 2025

Discussion: Group Challenges

Why we're reading this: The first Miss Marple novel
[close] The first Miss Marple novel

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Group Challenges

* May 25: The Murder of Roger Ackroyd by Agatha Christie (1926)
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last updated May 06, 2025 06:35AM

* May 25: The Murder of Roger Ackroyd - SPOILER Thread - (1926)
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What Members Thought

Jan 19, 2017 BrokenTune rated it it was amazing

Shelves: reviewed

鈥楴obody knows a thing about it except you, Padre.鈥� 鈥楳y dear young man, you underestimate the detective instinct of village life. In St Mary Mead everyone knows your most intimate affairs. There is no detective in England equal to a spinster lady of uncertain age with plenty of time on her hands.鈥�

The Murder at the Vicarage was the first Christie I have ever read, and although this was a long time ago, my recent re-read of this book still held the same enchantment as my first encounter with the b 鈥楴obody knows a thing about it except you, Padre.鈥� 鈥楳y dear young man, you underestimate the detective instinct of village life. In St Mary Mead everyone knows your most intimate affairs. There is no detective in England equal to a spinster lady of uncertain age with plenty of time on her hands.鈥�

The Murder at the Vicarage was the first Christie I have ever read, and although this was a long time ago, my recent re-read of this book still held the same enchantment as my first encounter with the book.

There is something fabulous about this book that makes is quite different from Christie's other books, and I still can't put my finger on what it is that makes this one so special (other than a slight twinge of nostalgia of discovering Christie for the first time).

The book famously is the first of the Miss Marple mysteries but I really enjoyed all of the characters in this story, especially our narrator - the Vicar - and his wife:

鈥業t is a pity that I am such a shocking housekeeper,鈥� said my wife, with a tinge of genuine regret in her voice. I was inclined to agree with her. My wife鈥檚 name is Griselda鈥� a highly suitable name for a parson鈥檚 wife. But there the suitability ends. She is not in the least meek.

They were such a lovely couple and Griselda seemed the kind of young woman with gumption that make Christie both fun and modern in her time. However, as some of you may recall, one of my main peeves with Christie is that she seems to have a problem with modern attitudes, and whilst I enjoyed Griselda's character, I could not help but notice during this re-read how often she is being patronised.

What are you doing this afternoon, Griselda?鈥�
鈥楳y duty,鈥� said Griselda. 鈥楳y duty as the Vicaress. Tea and scandal at four-thirty.鈥�
鈥榃ho is coming?鈥�
Griselda ticked them off on her fingers with a glow of virtue on her face. 鈥楳rs Price Ridley, Miss Wetherby, Miss Hartnell, and that terrible Miss Marple.鈥�
鈥業 rather like Miss Marple,鈥� I said. 鈥楽he has, at least, a sense of humour.鈥�
鈥楽he鈥檚 the worst cat in the village,鈥� said Griselda. 鈥楢nd she always knows every single thing that happens鈥� and draws the worst inferences from it.鈥�
Griselda, as I have said, is much younger than I am. At my time of life, one knows that the worst is usually true.

It's not just her husband who attributes her youth with naivety, but also the other villagers, especially one old biddy, which makes me question my perception of Christie's attitude towards young(er) characters. I mean, in her later novels, her high-Edwardian morals become problematic because they are so disconnected from the time she wrote in, but I (apparently wrongly) assumed that her earlier books did not have this problem.

鈥楧on鈥檛 you think,鈥� said my wife, 鈥榯hat Miss Cram may just like having an interesting job? And that she considers Dr Stone just as an employer?鈥� There was a silence. Evidently none of the four ladies agreed. Miss Marple broke the silence by patting Griselda on the arm. 鈥楳y dear,鈥� she said, 鈥榶ou are very young. The young have such innocent minds.

As most of you know by now from my other Marple reviews, I don't like her as a character. That does not change my love of the book as whole, however, which is such a perfect construct of suspense, tight plot, and that little bit of satire of the English village.

Miss Marple always sees everything. Gardening is as good as a smoke screen, and the habit of observing birds through powerful glasses can always be turned to account. ...more

25 likes · Like · see review

Jun 12, 2014 Leslie rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

Shelves: guardian-1000, mysteries, audiobooks

January 2017 review: Just as good this time around :)

June 2014 review:
Richard E. Grant did a fine job narrating this Christie classic, the first Miss Marple book. His Irish accent for the artist was especially good (at least to this American's ears).

I had read this (more than once) in paperback, but although parts of it were familiar, I didn't recall the solution, so this audiobook version really held my attention! One thing I particularly liked was the way the vicar (who is the first person nar ...more

17 likes · Like · see review

Jan 28, 2019 Marina rated it really liked it · review of another edition

4,5 stars.

Yay! Finally, jumped onto the Marple bandwagon.

Great read. Very enjoyable and all the colourful characters were so fun! I was afraid that I wasn't able to keep up with all the characters but they all had their own standout personalities and roles, so it didn't become a problem.

Unlike Poirot, I love that Marple isn't a professional detective and just a nosy woman in the small town(village?). She just knows everything and everyone.

The reveal itself didn't really surprise me but the w ...more

1 like · Like · see review