Selah at A Bibliophile Style continues to host the Year with Christie readalongs on Instagram! This year, the frequency of the book discussions have dropped to quarterly, which works for me because I forgot about this until two or three weeks before the discussion (which is taking place today).
The Murder at the Vicarage is the first Miss Marple mystery and since I’m more of a Poirot fan, this is actually the first time I’m reading this. The tale of told through the viewpoint of the vicar, who finds one of his more annoying parishioners (Colonel Protheroe) dead in his study. Everyone quickly finds out that Colonel’s Protheroe’s wife is having an affair with someone in the village and the investigation gets more and more confusing until Miss Marple puts in a few words.
Since this is set in St Mary Mead, Miss Marple appears throughout the story, although more as a side character than as someone who’s taking an active part in the investigations. Despite her keen eye for the worst of human nature, Miss Marple is dismissed as an old gossip by the police and isn’t really included in anything.
The investigation may seem rather ineffectual, since no one in the investigating party gets close to the root of the case, but it does work as a way to make the case fair play for the reader. Miss Marple gets her facts because she knows everything that goes around in the village and the reader gets their facts as the investigators talk to various people. Theoretically, we can guess who the murderer is at the same time as Miss Marple, but obviously that did not happen for me.
Overall, this was a fun mystery for me. I can’t quite remember what led to my preference for Poirot over Miss Marple, but I’m really starting to warm up to her and look forward to reading more mysteries featuring Miss Marple.
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The only Miss Marple book I’ve read is the collection of short stories so I really need to get around to some more of her stories as they sounds like fun reads!
I think this would be a good starting point! So far it’s one of the Marple mysteries I like more!
I had preferred Poirot when I was younger but warmed up to Miss Marple as I grow older. Somehow, the evil of the world can be better appreciated when you have experienced one or two ourselves ^^
Liv
I’m slowly warming up to Miss Marple too!
Miss Marple is a POV character only in a minority of the books featuring her (whereas Poirot frequently is one), BUT she is always the catalyst of the solution. I actually like her better than Poirot — he‘s funnier, of course, with his over-the-top mannerisms, but she is more realistic (well, no wonder; she‘s based in part on Christie‘s own grandmother). And I love how people keep underestimating her — that‘s how she gets so much mileage / information out of them.
I didn’t know Miss Marple was based on Christie’s grandmother! I will probably be reading more of her mysteries (since I think I’m mostly done with Poirot) so I look forward to learning more about her!
Christie briefly mentions it in her autobiography. Another inspiration was Caroline Sheppard in „The Murder of Roger Ackroyd“ — Christie said she had so much fun creating her, she decided to try and see whether she couldn‘t repeat the experience and maybe even give the new character more than one story.
I still need to read this one! (Ok I still need to read most of them….)
I’d suggest the Year with Christie readalong on IG if you’re looking for suggestions on what to read (:
I just reread this one as part of my quest to read more Ms. Marple! I like that it’s told from the perspective of the vicar and that he somehow gets to tag along for all the investigations, so readers can gather clues with him. I would find it really odd if a detective brought along a random person who was just being nosy about the crime, but apparently none of the villagers have a problem with this!
There’s no one more trustworthy than the vicar (unless he’s the murderer, I guess :p)
What a twist that would be! 😀