Murder At The
Vicarage
Agatha
Christie
5 stars
The Queen
Of Crime never fails me.
While
reading a crime novel, I always yearn for some points,
1. Numerous
characters.
2.
Abundance of suspects.
3. Plenty
of clues.
4. An
ending with a delicious twist.
And there
are points which I absolutely loathe, one of them being page long descriptions
of objects and events which are not remotely related to the crime.
So, when it
comes to Agatha Christie I am always presented with a novel which has plenty of
characters, numerous suspects and a memorable twist to end the book. And, I
guess this is what makes her the queen of crime, always presenting the reader
with a tight plot leaving him satisfied yet yearning for more.
Murder At
the Vicarage, the first Miss Marple novel starts of in the village of St.
Mary’s Mead where an old Colonel Protheroe , is found shot to death in the
study of the village Vicar, Len Clements. Sometime after the murder a couple of
suspects claim responsibility but are soon released as medical evidence points
out that they couldn’t have committed the crime. And, thus begins the hunt for
the murderer by Inspector Slack and Colonel Melchett as they are assisted in
the task by Miss Jane Marple.
The whole
book is narrated by the Vicar. Miss Marple though a central character, appears
sporadically in the book. It is almost a cameo appearance, but she delivers, at
last, when she solves the crime and brings the culprits to justice.
I had read
this book a long time ago, and was aware of the identity of the murderer. I had
also seen the TV movie adaptation featuring Geraldine McEwan as Miss Marple,
but re-reading it proved to be equally satisfying. Anyone reading it for the
first time will surely have a tough time guessing the identity of the killer
before the last pages had gone by.
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