Murder at the Vicarage by Agatha Christie - 08/05 thru 08/18

[Gem , Moderator & Admin]

Hello fellow Crime, Mystery, and Thriller readers! This discussion is about Murder at the Vicarage and your hostess is Gem.
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Murder at the Vicarage marks the debut of Agatha Christie’s unflappable and much beloved female detective, Miss Jane Marple. With her gift for sniffing out the malevolent side of human nature, Miss Marple is led on her first case to a crime scene at the local vicarage. Colonel Protheroe, the magistrate whom everyone in town hates, has been shot through the head. No one heard the shot. There are no leads. Yet, everyone surrounding the vicarage seems to have a reason to want the Colonel dead. It is a race against the clock as Miss Marple sets out on the twisted trail of the mysterious killer without so much as a bit of help from the local police.

[Steffi]

I thought it was one of the less satisfactory Christie books. One, Miss Marple only apoears marginally. Two, I thought the narrator, the parson, was slightly annoying. And why was he allowed to follow the police around? Only because the murder had been accomplished in his study?? I thought it was not very credible.
Well, the whole thing was a bit lenghty, in fact.

[Gem , Moderator & Admin]

I don't recall ever reading this book, and I haven't started yet... I'll be back to make my observations in a few days.

[Britney]

This was my first Christie & didn't care for it. This book kind of turned me away from reading another one by Agatha. I thought it was boring & confusing. Got confused on who was talking & missing when characters entered into the story.

[Gem , Moderator & Admin]

> Miss Marple only apoears marginally

This is something I've noticed too, interesting.

[Susan]

I'm actually enjoying this a good bit so far, I like the touches of humor. I'm actually finding it easier to keep the people straight than I did with Murder on the Orient. Will see how it comes out.... I've noticed that with the parson too, I think it's just a device to let "us" be present for the police interviews. Definitely a little clumsy but (shrug)...

[Gem , Moderator & Admin]

I'm about 1/2 through. I expected Miss Marple to be the narrator. I'm a little disappointed she's not.

[Susan]

I just finished this, & it gets better as it goes along ☺ I did like it, but I'll be curious if anyone else is surprised by how it came out - I was, but I'm not hard to fool (with books anyway) ☺

[Ellen]

I just finished this and I'll probably give it three stars. I was also confused by the cast of characters and the book lost me a bit as a result.

I was completely surprised by the ending. I was sure I had guessed right but I was totally off.

[Susan]

Ellen wrote: "I just finished this and I'll probably give it three stars. I was also confused by the cast of characters and the book lost me a bit as a result.

I was completely surprised by the ending. I was su..."

I agree, Ellen, I was suspecting everyone but who it turned out to be!

[Gem , Moderator & Admin]

I finished this book yesterday. I found it convoluted. However, I don't know if that is owing to the fact that I've got a pretty bad head cold and wasn't as focused as I normally am when I'm reading. I'll have to give this book another go before I truly decide whether or not I've enjoyed it.

[Ninna]

I finished this a few weeks ago but didn't get a chance to post anything. This was my first Miss Marple read and, like many here, expected her to be more prominent in the book. I did like the pastor/narrator more and more as it went on but still think I would have preferred if Marple was the narrator. I did enjoy the book, however, and was surprised by the ending so I will still read more Marple mysteries in the future.

[Louise]

I love this one. The vicar is a wonderful narrator, his comments so amusing. I especially like his summing up of Miss Wetherby and 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 the more dangerous.". I love Griselda too.

[Louise]

⊱✿Gem✿⊰ wrote: "I'm about 1/2 through. I expected Miss Marple to be the narrator. I'm a little disappointed she's not."

Miss Marple doesn't narrate any of her books. Agatha Christie very seldom made the detective the narrator in any of her books. None of the Poirot books are narrated by Poirot either.

[Jenny]

Louise is correct Agatha Christie does not allow her main characters to provide a narrative. However, Agatha Christie does allow Poirot to explain his findings at the end of each book.

What do other people think is the motive for Agatha Christie to use this type of format in her books. Is it to keep the readers guessing?

[Gem , Moderator & Admin]

Jenny wrote: "Louise is correct Agatha Christie does not allow her main characters to provide a narrative. However, Agatha Christie does allow Poirot to explain his findings at the end of each book.

What do oth..."

I didn't realize this until we did this series of readings. I had not remembered that in spite of reading so many of her books as a teenager.

[Carolyn]

I really enjoyed this book. I have to say, as you go on in the Marple series she becomes more prominent in the books and much more the detective.

[Louise]

Jenny wrote: "Louise is correct Agatha Christie does not allow her main characters to provide a narrative. However, Agatha Christie does allow Poirot to explain his findings at the end of each book.

What do oth..."

i don't know, but I don't think detective narrators are that common. i haven't read many. The Lovejoy series by Jonathan Gash springs to mind.

[Louise]

Carolyn wrote: "I really enjoyed this book. I have to say, as you go on in the Marple series she becomes more prominent in the books and much more the detective."

i think she's least prominent in The Moving Finger, where she doesn't appear until about the last quarter of the book. And she's mostly in the background in 4.50 from Paddington, where Lucy mostly acts for her.

[Bruce]

I think it’s deliberate not to have the detective as the main character. By having a secondary character as the narrator, the reader is following their footsteps, and they’re in the dark as well.

Philip Marlowe narrated his own mysteries, but everyone in the Marlowe stories that he followed was crooked in some way, even if they weren’t the main antagonist. He also didn’t usually solve the case until the end, because he was sludging through all the corruption.

Out of Christie’s narrators, and Dr Watson in the Sherlock stories for that matter, I thought Rev Clement was a more solid narrator, caring as a vicar, husband, and father, but not too filled with romanticism, as Holmes would put it. I suppose Dr Shepard in Murder of Roger Ackroyd could be considered solid, but for an entirely different reason, not worth going into.