The Murder at the Vicarage

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The Murder at the Vicarage (published in 1930) is a detective fiction novel by Agatha Christie, the first novel to feature the character of Miss Marple.

Spoiler warning: Plot and/or ending details follow.

In St. Mary Mead, no one is more despised than Colonel Protheroe. Even the local vicar has said that killing him would be doing a service to the townsfolk. So when Protheroe is found murdered in the same vicar's study and two different people confess to the crime, it's time for the elderly spinster Jane Marple to exercise her abilities, which until now have been focused on domestic mysteries.

The vicar and his wife, Leonard and Griselda Clement, who make their first appearance in this novel, continue to show up in Miss Marple stories: notably, in The Body in the Library (1942) and 4.50 from Paddington, or What Mrs. McGillicuddy Saw! (1957)

[edit] Film versions

Adapted in 1949 as a play, the BBC series adapted the book into a film in 1988, with Joan Hickson as Miss Marple and Paul Eddington as the vicar. It was again presented on television by Granada Television in 2004 with Geraldine McEwan as the sleuth.

Agatha Christie
Detectives: Hercule Poirot \| Miss Marple \| Tommy and Tuppence \| Ariadne Oliver \| Arthur Hastings \| Superintendent Battle \| Chief Inspector Japp \| Parker Pyne
Novels: The Mysterious Affair at Styles \| The Secret Adversary \| Murder on the Links \| The Man in the Brown Suit \| The Secret of Chimneys \| The Murder of Roger Ackroyd \| The Big Four \| The Mystery of the Blue Train \| The Seven Dials Mystery \| The Murder at the Vicarage \| The Sittaford Mystery \| Peril at End House \| Lord Edgware Dies \| Murder on the Orient Express \| Three Act Tragedy \| Why Didn't They Ask Evans? \| Death in the Clouds \| The A.B.C. Murders \| Murder in Mesopotamia \| Cards on the Table \| Death on the Nile \| Dumb Witness \| Appointment with Death \| And Then There Were None \| Murder is Easy \| Hercule Poirot's Christmas \| Sad Cypress \| Evil Under the Sun \| N or M? \| One, Two, Buckle My Shoe \| The Body in the Library \| Five Little Pigs \| The Moving Finger \| Towards Zero \| Sparkling Cyanide \| Death Comes as the End \| The Hollow \| Taken at the Flood \| Crooked House \| A Murder is Announced \| They Came to Baghdad \| Mrs McGinty's Dead \| They Do It with Mirrors \| A Pocket Full of Rye \| After the Funeral \| Hickory Dickory Dock \| Destination Unknown \| Dead Man's Folly \| 4.50 From Paddington \| Ordeal by Innocence \| Cat Among the Pigeons \| The Pale Horse \| The Mirror Crack'd from Side to Side \| The Clocks \| A Caribbean Mystery \| At Bertram's Hotel \| Third Girl \| Endless Night \| By The Pricking of My Thumbs \| Hallowe'en Party \| Passenger to Frankfurt \| Nemesis \| Elephants Can Remember \| Postern of Fate \| Curtain \| Sleeping Murder
as Mary Westmacott: Giant's Bread \| Unfinished Portrait \| Absent in the Spring \| The Rose and the Yew Tree \| A Daughter's a Daughter \| The Burden
Short story collections: Poirot Investigates \| Partners in Crime \| The Mysterious Mr. Quin \| The Hound of Death \| The Thirteen Problems \| Parker Pyne Investigates \| The Listerdale Mystery \| Murder in the Mews \| The Regatta Mystery \| The Labours of Hercules \| Poirot's Early Cases \| The Harlequin Tea Set
Plays: Akhnaton \| The Mousetrap \| Witness for the Prosecution \| Verdict \| Rule of Three \| Fiddlers Three