The Murder at the Vicarage by Agatha Christie

The Murder at the Vicarage by Agatha Christie

 

Review of the novel The Murder at the Vicarage by Agatha Christie.

Published by Collins Crime Club, 30th October 1930

Cost: £6.99 1995

ISBN: 0-00-712085-0 (Paperback Edition - 379 pages, starts on page 7)

Christie's dedication in the book reads: "To Rosalind".

(Note: Rosalind was Agatha Christie’s daughter with Archie Christie from her first marriage.)

The Murder at the Vicarage is Miss Jane Marple’s first appearance in a full-length story, however, she was introduced in December 1927 in a short story entitled, The Tuesday Night Club which was published in The Royal Magazine. Five further short stories followed over the next five months. In total thirteen short stories were published in 1932 as a collection entitled The Thirteen Problems in the UK and The Tuesday Night Club in the USA. In these short stories, we learn of Miss Marple’s knowledge of St Mary Mead and its residents and how she uses this insight to solve crimes of murder and mystery.

The Murder at the Vicarage is narrated by the vicar of St Mary Mead, Len Clements, who lives at the vicarage where the murder takes place. The story opens:

It is difficult to know quite where to begin this story, but I have fixed my choice on a certain Wednesday at luncheon at the vicarage. The conversation, though in the main is irrelevant to the matter in hand, yet contained one or two suggestive incidents which influenced later developments.

The problem with the vicar narrating the story is that we see the tale through his eyes, and for me, there are aspects to the mystery that seem to be missing and may have helped the flow of the story and the reader to understand more about the village of St Mary Mead.

The vicar and his young wife, Griselda, have different thoughts about Miss Marple who is due to tea at the vicarage at four-thirty, very early on in the story. The vicar begins the conversation:

          ‘I rather like Miss Marple’, I said. ‘She has, at least, a sense of humour.’

‘She’s the worst cat in the village,’ said Griselda. ‘And she always knows every single thing that happens – and draws the worst inferences from it.’

And so sets the scene of the story. However, to help the reader understand the locations in the village, where much of the action takes place, the reader is provided with three maps, early in the book: a map of St Mary Mead; a map of the vicarage and surrounding properties; and a map of the study at the vicarage, where the murder takes place.

A few pages into the book, Christie describes the scene that will play a significant part in the story; ‘when the vicar lifts his head up from the table in his study, he notices the clock on the writing table pointed to a quarter to five, a sign that it was really half-past four, he makes his way to the drawing-room’ and we are given the first description of Miss Marple:

‘Miss Marple is a white-haired old lady with a gentle, appealing manner – Miss Wetherby is a mixture of vinegar and gush. Of the two Miss Marple is much more dangerous.’

Later when the vicarage is apparently empty, it is the vicar that discovers the body in his study and he describes the situation, but as we might expect from Christie, there is little gore in the description of the deadly scene:

Colonel Protheroe was lying sprawled across my writing table in a horrible unnatural position. There was a pool of some dark fluid on the desk by his head, and it was slowly dripping on to the floor with a horrible drip, drip, drip.

In this story, Christie introduces Inspector Slack as the police officer assigned to the case, and he is described for the reader’s benefit by the vicar:

All I can say of Inspector Slack is that never did a man more determinedly strive to contradict his name. He was a dark man, restless and energetic in manner, with black eyes that snapped ceaselessly. His manner was rude and overbearing in the extreme.

No matter Slack’s manner, he is soon to value the thoughts of Miss Marple.

As the story progresses, Christie describes the village and its characters and entwines more than one plot into the story, revealing just enough to let the reader be led astray, yet providing sufficient clues and red-herrings to keep the reader guessing and wanting more. We discover further details about Miss Marple, as she has been observing a golden crested wren through binoculars from her garden. I wondered why Christie had introduced this particular bird, rather than any other. A little research provided the following information: ‘Pine forests are the best places to see goldcrests, but they range around in flocks of other small birds during the autumn and winter. They’re widespread and common across the whole of the UK; in autumn, large numbers arrive on the east coast from Scandinavia and make their way across dunes to more suitable habitat – rspb’. Is Christie trying to tell us something about the location of St Mary Mead?

Understandably, Christie is keen not only to introduce Miss Marple, her new detective, but the village of St Mary Mead and it villagers. We learn, through the interaction of the villagers, about the murdered Colonel Protheroe, his character, and pompous nature. It is the young lovers and a mysterious archaeologist, that Christie manages well, and I ask myself if she has put a little of herself into the story. The age difference between the vicar and his wife results in faltering conversations when they interact, and the question is, are they really in love or is Griselda just a tease? However, it is the ability of Miss Marple to observe people and their behaviour in the village that adds a further dimension to the story; one such example is when she discusses the activities of one of the villagers:

‘My dear Colonel Melchett, you know what young women are nowadays. Not ashamed to show exactly how the creator made them. She hadn’t so much as a handkerchief in the top of her stocking.’

As Miss Marple interacts with the other characters we discover her ability to recall historical incidents that have taken place in the village and relate them to the current story line, thus enabling her to see the solution to the murder that most others have missed. We learn of Joe Bucknell, Major Hargreaves, Miss Hartnell, Elwell’s daughter; the list continues. But it is Christie that wants the reader to return to the appearance of Miss Marple on more than one occasion. The vicar describes her towards the end of the story:

She had a very fine Shetland shawl thrown over her head and shoulders and was looking rather old and frail.

However, it is Miss Marple that is given the opportunity to set up a plan to trick the murderer to reveal him/herself and solve the murder at the vicarage. The solution is more than a surprise to a number of individuals and Miss Marple is left to explain her solution.

This is a great story and introduction to the much-loved Miss Marple. In this story, Christie has used a very different approach to that of her other detective Poirot, and presented a leading character that her readers have warmed to for almost 90 years.

A must read for all Agatha Christie fans. Rating: 5 stars

Dr James Sheppard

11 July 2016