Murder at the Vicarage

Murder at the Vicarage, a 1930 detective novel by legendary mystery writer Agatha Christie, concerns the murder of Colonel Lucius Protheroe, a man so despised that multiple people confess to the crime after the fact. The novel stars the elderly spinster detective Miss Marple in her first of many appearances in Christie's collection of mysteries.

Parishioners in the small town of St. Mary Mead gather after church to gossip about numerous things, including the possible indiscretions of Protheroe's daughter, Lettice, who, apparently, is shacking up with artist Lawrence Redding, and a missing one-pound note from the collection jar. Miss Marple agrees to have lunch with Protheroe's unhappy wife, Anne. In the evening, Miss Marple joins Anne, Lawrence, the vicar Leonard Clement, the vicar's wife, Griselda, their nephew, Dennis, and the curate Hawes at the vicar's house for dinner. They each describe how they would kill the much-despised Colonel Protheroe; all except Miss Marple, that is. The housemaid, Mary, also hates Protheroe after he takes great pleasure in sending her boyfriend to prison on charges of poaching.

The next day, Protheroe is found murdered with a bullet in the head in the vicarage at 6:40. A smashed clock is stuck on 6:20, leading Miss Marple to believe that is the time of death, though Inspector Slack says the crime could have taken place at any time between 6:20 and 6:40. Lawrence admits to the crime, turning himself into the police. He says he did it for Protheroe's daughter, Anne. In turn, Anne admits to the crime, perhaps to protect Lawrence. Miss Marple offers her help to Inspector Slack who initially dismisses her as a doddering old maid who can't help much. She proves him wrong by showing that the smashed clock was turned 15 minutes past, perhaps to frame Anne who was, supposedly, in the vicarage at that time. Miss Marple also believes that the gunshot heard in the woods at 6:30 was the shot that killed Protheroe, making 6:30 is the time of death, and that Protheroe's body had been moved to the vicarage.



Meanwhile, Inspector Slack catches Dufosse trying to escape the premises late at night. Dufosse confesses to trying to kill Protheroe as revenge for giving up Dufosse's son Henri to the Nazis during the war. However, Dufosse says Protheroe was already dead by the time he arrived at the vicarage to kill him.

Throughout the book, Miss Marple uses her keen insight and knowledge of the personal politics of the various parishioners to solve the murder. In the end, it is, ironically, the two people who initially confessed to the crime, Lawrence and Anne, who did it, meaning that the answer to the puzzle was in plain sight the whole time.