The Murder at the Vicarage is Agatha Christie’s first mystery to feature the beloved investigator Miss Marple—as a dead body in a clergyman’s study proves to the indomitable sleuth that no place, holy or otherwise, is a sanctuary from homicide.
Miss Marple encounters a compelling murder mystery in the sleepy little village of St. Mary Mead, where under the seemingly peaceful exterior of an English country village lurks intrigue, guilt, deception and death.
Colonel Protheroe, local magistrate and overbearing land-owner is the most detested man in the village. Everyone--even in the vicar--wishes he were dead. And very soon he is--shot in the head in the vicar's own study. Faced with a surfeit of suspects, only the inscrutable Miss Marple can unravel the tangled web of clues that will lead to the unmasking of the killer. **
From Publishers Weekly
Starred Review. James Saxon delivers a memorable and absolutely masterful performance of Christie's first Miss Marple mystery. When the wildly unpopular Colonel Protheroe is found murdered in the vicar's study, it seems that everyone—his unhappy wife, his daughter, a visiting artist, an embittered poacher, the vicar—has a motive in a mystery that confounds the authorities, consumes the village and can only be untangled by observations and deductions of our heroine: the elderly gossip-cum-sleuth Miss Marple. Saxon's artful and enthusiastic portrayal of a host of characters—male and female, guilty and innocent, young and old—will delight Christie fans, mystery lovers and anyone lucky enough to listen. (June)
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.
Review
"The acknowledged queen of detective fiction." Observer "When she really hits her stride, as she does here, she is hard to surpass." Saturday Review of Literature "Her gift is pure genius." Observer
Review
'Joan Hickson -- you can't beat her, you know. So enjoy this not-so-fluffy old lady doing her Marple thing. Genius.' Time Out "The acknowledged queen of detective fiction." Observer "When she really hits her stride, as she does here, she is hard to surpass." Saturday Review of Literature
From the Inside Flap
Agatha Christie's genius for detective fiction is unparalleled. Her worldwide popularity is phenomenal, her characters engaging, her plots spellbinding. No one knows the human heart--or the dark passions that can stop it--better than Agatha Christie. She is truly the one and only Queen of Crime.
Miss Marple--Agatha Christie's immortal spinster sleuth with the razor-sharp mind and an intuitive understanding of criminal behavior--encounters a compelling murder mystery in the sleepy little village of St. Mary Mead, where under the seemingly peaceful exterior of an English country village lurks intrigue, guilt, deception and death.
Colonel Protheroe, local magistrate and overbearing land-owner is the most detested man in the village. Everyone--even in the vicar--wishes he were dead. And very soon he is--shot in the head in the vicar's own study. Faced with a surfeit of suspects, only the inscrutable Miss Marple can unravel the tangled web of clues that will lead to the unmasking of the killer.
From the Back Cover
The first Miss Marple mystery, one which tests all her powers of observation and deduction.
“Anyone who murdered Colonel Protheroe,”declared the parson, brandishing a carving knife above a joint of roast beef, “would be doing the world at large a favor!”
It was a careless remark for a man of the cloth. And one which was to come back and haunt the clergyman just a few hours later—when the Colonel is found shot dead in the clergyman’s study. But as Miss Marple soon discovers, the whole village seems to have had a motive to kill Colonel Protheroe.
About the Author
Agatha Christie was born in Torquay in 1890 and became, quite simply, the best-selling novelist in history. Her first novel, The Mysterious Affair at Styles, written towards the end of the First World War, introduced us to Hercule Poirot, who was to become the most popular detective in crime fiction since Sherlock Holmes. She is known throughout the world as the Queen of Crime. Her books have sold over a billion copies in the English language and another billion in over 100 foreign languages. She is the author of 80 crime novels and short story collections, 19 plays, and six novels under the name of Mary Westmacott.