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    The Murder at the Vicarage: B2
    The Murder at the Vicarage: B2
    The Murder at the Vicarage: B2
    Audiobook (abridged)3 hours

    The Murder at the Vicarage: B2

    Written by Agatha Christie

    Narrated by John Hasler

    4/5

    ()

    About this audiobook

    Collins brings the Queen of Crime, Agatha Christie, to English language learners.

    Agatha Christie is the most widely published author of all time and in any language. Now Collins has adapted her famous detective novels for English language learners. These carefully abridged versions are shorter with the language targeted at learners of English.

    When Colonel Protheroe is found murdered in the vicar’s study, it seems that almost everyone in the village of St Mary Mead had a motive to kill him.

    This is the first case for Agatha Christie’s legendary female
    detective, Miss Marple. She needs to use all her powers of
    observation and deduction to solve the mystery.

    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherHarperCollins Publishers
    Release dateOct 13, 2016
    ISBN9780008210472
    The Murder at the Vicarage: B2
    Author

    Agatha Christie

    Agatha Christie is known throughout the world as the Queen of Crime. Her books have sold over a billion copies in English with another billion in over 70 foreign languages. She is the most widely published author of all time and in any language, outsold only by the Bible and Shakespeare. She is the author of 80 crime novels and short story collections, 20 plays, and six novels written under the name of Mary Westmacott.

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    Reviews for The Murder at the Vicarage

    4/5

    98 ratings70 reviews

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    • 5/5
      Agatha Christie's Ms Marple is introduced when a body is found in a vicarage in a small village. It seems one suspect after another is not quite telling the truth but Ms Marple is determined to uncover who's lying & who's telling the truth in spite of the Inspector's resistance to her hints. What's in the flowerpot or lack thereof breaks open the case & a cleverly laid plan collapses like a house of cards.
    • 5/5
      This was the first Agatha Christie book I've read and loved it. I look forward to read more of her books.
    • 3/5

      This was the first novel I read with Miss Marple but as I am getting to know the main protagonist are always other people. This book is told in the first perspective of the Vicar of Saint Mary Mead. He is married with Griselda which was an interesting character and a bit different from other previous books I read of Agatha Christie. Probably too un-wife I came to read in Christie's novels. Knowing that this book is from the 30's it seems that Christie puts forward a different type of woman we didn't believe to exist on that time. Most of all, an un-vicar wife if you like. But nevertheless they love each other.

      Besides the short-story novel this is the first appearance of Miss Marple. A victorian point of view (I think it is said in the second book "Body in The Library") and always thinking the worst of people (and everytime correct) and giving parallels with other situations that she experience in her life.

      Other interesting and what it seems recurring characters are Dr Haydock, Colonel Melchett (who gives a lot of credit to Miss Marple) and the arrogant Inspector Slack. Leonard and Griselda Clement are also present in Body of Library and other tales. I think other habbitants of Saint Mary Mead are present here as well.

      With the dead of a husband both his wife and lover say they are the killers and Miss Marple must find the killer before everyone gets free.

      I think another Christie's book happens the same thing. It will never be my favourite story but I think Miss Marple is an interesting character even if she is almost a minor character.

      Funny that both Poirot and Marple are without partner. Funny that they work in two different ways but get the same results (resolving crimes). One is an arrogant and believes in love and people and only trust his brain cells (logic) and other is a victorian personallity that always thing the worst of people and uses her life (ProblamyInductive reasoning y) to solve her crimes.
    • 4/5
      This is the first Agatha Christie I’ve read in full, rather than listen to the BBC audio production. Right from the start, you are reminded that Christie is a master. The best way to describe her story-telling is 'effortless'. You’re instantly pulled into the story, and charmed by her characters, from the vicar’s unusual wife to the Colonel’s spoiled and shallow daughter, to the visiting artist, to the overly observant elderly ladies of the village. This is the first Miss Marple mystery, but she isn’t the narrator. Instead, we are told the story by the village vicar, Len Clement. Miss Marple is seen a little as the village busybody, though she is usually right. There’s a lot of red herrings thrown into the story, and I actually fell for a rather subtle one. Again, mastery!
    • 5/5
      master storyteller
    • 4/5
      This book is the introduction to the wise and demure Miss Marple. The most loathed man in the village is murdered in the Vicar’s study. There are multiple suspects (seven according to Miss Marple) and the police are misled by false confessions, seemingly useless input from the village busy-bodies and a few random incidences that may or may not be related to the murder. But of course Miss Marple is able to overcome these obstacles and solve the case. This mystery kept me guessing and there were some great characters. And let’s not forget about the idyllic setting of a quaint English village abounding with gardens. While I found Miss Marple endearing and clever, Poirot still remains my favorite Christie detective.
    • 4/5
      I have long been a Christie fan and Miss Jane Marple fan but recently realized that I had never read the one that began it all. A terrible error that needed to be corrected and now I have. I particularly liked that it wasn't told from Jane's POV so the reader is introduced to her through the lens of the narrator & others when not in her presence. I very much enjoyed it and definitely recommend it.
    • 5/5
      This is, in my opinion the best written and plotted book by Agatha Christie. The dialogue is droll, the characterizations (particularly that of the vicar and his wife) are well constructed, and the plot moves along at a good pace. Unlike many Christie books, this one doesn't reveal too many outlandish surprises at the end. It's a great read!
    • 5/5
      The first of the Miss Marple novels and one of the best
    • 4/5
      My first Miss Marple novel (and actually the first one Agatha Christie wrote using that character). I enjoyed guessing, second-guessing, third-guessing and then just scratching my head at the end. I have many unanswered questions, which I can live with (I'll have to, won't I?), but I'm still glad I read this quaint village mystery, quite the tempest in a tea pot.
    • 4/5
      This is the first Miss Marple book, and it is one of the best. It is the classic murder mystery, set in a rural, peaceful village, that holds dark secrets under its covers.
    • 4/5
      This was my first Agatha Christie. I enjoyed it very much. The twists and turns on who was the murder was not anticipated and those of the kinds of mystery books I love.
    • 5/5
      The first Miss Marple, and one of the best in the series.
    • 3/5
      Plot and characters were contrived but I was suprised how enjoyable a read it was. I will be reading more Agatha Christie I think.
    • 4/5
      The first of the Miss Marple tales, and the first I have read. A murder is committed (of course!) and there are too many suspects with too many motives and few alibis.There's a fair bit of social commentary in this story, which I felt added some depth to the telling. Miss Marple establishes herself as an astute observer of human nature, and unravels the murder.
    • 3/5
      For some reason I spent a lot of this book thinking that the Vicar had done it. But then I remembered that it was another book she wrote with a narrator-villain.
    • 5/5
      Golden oldie! Read it on Boxing Day and enjoyed the Vicar narrator very much. The clues were well sign posted and the ending satisfies. A light read, never becomes dark. Agatha Christie is truly a master of her craft.
    • 3/5
      Eh. I liked the narrator a lot better than Hastings, but otherwise it was a little dull.
    • 3/5
      This is Agatha Christie’s first novel featuring Miss Marple - and it’s quite a mess. Christie spends most of the novel trying too hard to plant too many red herrings, the cast of characters is confusing and some of the details just make you not want to care much about it all. Although Miss Marple ends up solving the crime (in a bit of an anti-climax), she is not the main character of the book - and is not yet fully fleshed out as Christie’s favourite character from following novels.
    • 3/5
      Not as strong as Poirot, but still a good read.
    • 4/5
      This is the first book which we read about Agatha Christie's Miss. Marple. Jane Marple has an abiding interest in human nature and an eye for detail that makes her an excellent detective. In this book Col. Protheroe is found shot to death in Reverand Clements Study (sound like the game clue,). There are several possible suspects, the police grow frustrated while our Miss. marple watches and waits. There are enough twist and turns in the clues to makes us find the wrong killer.....But we see the truth as it is explained. A delightful murder mystery.
    • 4/5
      Classic English murder mystery with multiple suspects with likely motives.
    • 4/5
      The 1st in the Miss Marple Series and quite a good one to start. Colonel Protheroe is found killed in the Vicars Study! Who could have done it? The suspect list is long, like the whole village of St. Mary Mead long. He was none too liked, and the local police don't know where to start. Leave it to the local sleuth Miss. Marple to solve it when no one else can. While this is the 1st in the Miss Marple series, she plays a rather background role in her own saga. I believe this was on purpose to show how being observant and in the right places at the right time can help you piece together the whole picture. The humor that Christie gives is subtle but lands in just the right way. The clues are lined up perfectly and if you are as cleaver as Miss. Marple you may figure it out just in time!
    • 5/5
      Fascinating. Suspeseful. Keeps you on the edge of your seat
    • 3/5
      Too many red herrings to be believable. Still, decent mystery and a nice introduction to Marple.
    • 5/5
      This mystery novel introduces the famous Miss Marple character, an elderly busybody, who uses her enthusiasm for gardening and bird watching to keep a close eye on the neighbors. When there's a murder at the local vicarage, and someone confesses to it, Miss Marple is dubious that he's the real killer. But who is, and what motive did they have? Only Miss Marple is shrewd enough to figure it out.
    • 3/5
      I am not big on mystery, but this book was good.
    • 4/5
      I think this is the first novel in which Agatha Christie has Miss Marple, a snoopy smart old spinster, as a character. An unliked man with a wife who does not like him and is in love with an artist, is shot in the vicarage library. The vicar is the "I' character, and is an admirable person. The book moves along fairly sprightily, and while when one has finished the book it does not appear as a great story, I do not regard reading it as a mistake. It is the 9th Christie book I've read and I think I have read her best ones.
    • 3/5
      An enjoyable cozy mystery. I loved following the vicar around town as he, Miss Marple, and the police got to the bottom of the murder mystery. I didn't even try to figure things out in advance; I was having too much fun meeting all the memorable characters.My one complaint: The proceedings were perhaps a bit too staid. The tension created in And Then There Were None by the knowledge that there was a murderer among the group - and that they were all targets - is missing from this story. Here, it was just a matter of figuring out where the clues led. Miss Marple exhibits some very Sherlock Holmes-ian powers of deduction as she leads the bumbling police and the steadfast vicar to the proper conclusions.All in all, a good book populated by some fun characters.
    • 1/5
      Poor reader. Not enough expression. Pace too slow. Unable to suspend disbelief.