REVIEW: The Murder at the Vicarage

 The Murder at the Vicarage
Author: Agatha Christie

Agatha Christie has been my favorite author ever since I bought a box set of Hercule Poirot novels at a garage sale when I was 9. I always wanted to read everything she wrote, but back in the day some titles were hard to find...and I grew up in a small town that had no bookshop (can you imagine?? The horror!) Then life got hectic and I never got the chance to pursue that goal, despite collecting many of the books in paperback. Flash forward a couple decades....the internet, access to bookshops, and the invention of lovely things like audiobooks, ebooks, booksellers who ship internationally....and I can FINALLY read every story, every novel and every play that Christie wrote!

2020 with all it's mess has made it slow going, but at least I have started! I just finished listening to the audio book of The Murder at the Vicarage! Loved revisiting this classic murder mystery! This story was first published in 1930 and was the first novel featuring a famous Christie character -- Miss Marple. Miss Marple first appeared in several short stories published in magazines in 1927, which were later published in a short story collection, The 13 Problems. 

The basics: St Mary Mead is a small English village. Picturesque, rural....tranquil, at least on the surface. But underneath....there are scandals, jealousies, secrets. Everyone dislikes Colonel Protheroe. He is loud, obnoxious, over-bearing.....just an ass. But, when someone shoots him in the head.....in the study at the vicarage no less....the entire village is in uproar! The gossips are gossiping. The detectives are detecting. The vicar is attempting to vicar...despite the bloody scene in his study.  Who shot Protheroe? The one person who can ferret it out is Miss Marple -- the local spinster who sees everything. On the outside she appears to be a slightly nosy old lady....but on the inside she is so much more!

The audiobook (HarperAudio), narrated by Richard E. Grant is an enjoyable listen. Grant has a nice voice and does a great job of voice acting. He manages to voice Marple and the other village ladies without sounding like English ladies ala Monty Python. The audio is just a bit over 8 hours long...so a relatively easy listening length.  

The Murder at the Vicarage is a well written, engaging mystery. The characters are small village stereotypes for the most part, but the plot is a good one....and Miss Marple is wonderful. The tale is 90 years old, but has aged well. The years may keep rolling by, but human nature stays the same. What led to murder 90 years old ago, still leads to murder today. So despite the setting being many years ago, this book is still an excellent classic murder mystery. 

The story has been adapted into a play, two television episodes (Miss Marple and Agatha Christie's Marple), and even a graphic novel. Now that I've listened to the audio book, I'm curious about the television adaptations. They always seem to change things about the characters and plots.....most of the time unnecessarily. I have to admit I have never watched a single episode of either British Marple television series. It's time to change that! I'm going to watch both versions of The Murder at the Vicarage before I move on in my Christie quest. 

Before I read the next novel - The Mysterious Mr. Quin - I'm going to backtrack and read the first Marple short stories. The first stories were originally published in 1927 in magazines, and only later gathered into a book (The Thirteen Problems - UK title /The Tuesday Club Murders - US title) in 1932. So if I'm reading in publication order, I really should have read those stories right after The Murder of Roger Ackroyd. :) Whoops! I'm learning so much about Christie, her writings, and how she published her works as I work my way through her ponderous list of publications. And sometimes, I have to back up and read things I missed. I had to do the same thing while reading Hercule Poirot. His first appearances were in stories published in magazines which were later gathered into story collections. 

Fun times! Bibliophile heaven!