Review: Murder at the Vicarage

Murder at the Vicarage by Agatha Christie
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

I've seen at least one of the TV adaptations of this book, and I may well have read it many years ago from my grandmother's large Agatha Christie collection. Given that I couldn't even remember from the adaptation whodunnit, it's not surprising that I don't remember whether or not I've read the book. Like most Christie, the interactions of the characters are more interesting than the details of how the crime was committed (which isn't a criticism; I'd rather that way round than the other).

An unpopular man has been shot at the desk in the study of the vicarage. This makes a change from the usual formula of being shot (or stabbed) in his own library in the manor, but is rough on the vicar, who narrates. The middle-aged vicar has multiple trials to contend with: the gossipy elderly women of the parish; his young and unsuitable wife, who he loves despite himself; his curate, a nervous and not particularly competent young man with High Church leanings; and his teenage nephew Dennis - basically a good lad, but with the lack of discretion and foolish impulses of his age. And now murder.

Inspector Slack is determined to belie his name, to the point of being rude and abrupt and not even letting the vicar explain a key fact (that the clock in the study was always kept fast). The exact timing of the murder is important for who has and who doesn't have an alibi, because plenty of people have motive.

Miss Marple, who has the cottage next to the vicarage and is always out in her garden watching people come and go, not only supplies key information but also figures out how the whole thing was done, and explains it to the Chief Constable and the vicar. (For purposes of being the narrator, the vicar has been allowed to be a lot more involved in the investigation than is realistic, especially considering that he said shortly before the murder that if someone murdered the victim, it would be a good thing.)

It's a solid classic cozy mystery, a good start to the Miss Marple series. The idea of an elderly woman as detective was not completely new at the time - the first Miss Silver book, Grey Mask , had come out a couple of years earlier, and wasn't the first either - but Christie did a great job with the concept of a woman whose life experience was almost completely confined to a small village, but who had such a sharp mind, such a talent for observation, and such an insight into human nature that she saw through the most complicated murder plots.

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