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Dame Agatha Christie is the queen of mystery writers who all modern aspirants strive to emulate. I enjoy reading her cases featuring detective Hercule Poirot because he knows the outcome well before the reader. Christie's cases are multilayered and keep unraveling until a book's conclusion. Enjoying these thought provoking cases, I decided to introduce myself to her other famous sleuth, Miss Jane Marple. There is no better place to start than Murder at the Vicarage, the book that introduced Miss Marple to the world.

Leonard Clement along with his wife Griselda run the vicarage in sleepy village St Mary Mead. A hamlet that barely classifies as a town, all people know everyone else's business, and the vicar is looked to for guidance on all matters, religious or not. The case begins as Colonel Lucius Protheroe meets with Clement to discuss a pressing matter. Yet, before Clement can join Protheroe in his study, he finds the Colonel murdered there.

As in Christie's cases featuring Poirot, the police assigned to this case appear to be inept at best. All of the old women in St Mary Mead believe that they can solve the crime better than the inspectors can. No meddling spinster has much to offer Clement on this cases except for his neighbor, the witty Jane Marple. Miss Marple immediately declares that she has seven suspects, but she is pretty sure she knows whodunit. As in many modern cases featuring private eyes, the police do not appreciate Marple getting in their way, and beg her off the case. Yet, she has eyes and ears everywhere, and early on it is obvious that Miss Marple will solve the case while the police are slugging through basic evidence.

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.

A voracious mystery reader, I did enjoy Miss Marple as a change because she could be any citizen who desires to solve a mystery. As expected she does reach the case's conclusion before the police, who are at a collective wit's end. Dame Christie is still the standard bearer for all modern mystery writers, and while I prefer Hercule Poirot, I have a feeling I will be revisiting Miss Marple as well. 3.75 stars.