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    The Murder at the Vicarage: B2+
    The Murder at the Vicarage: B2+
    The Murder at the Vicarage: B2+
    Audiobook3 hours

    The Murder at the Vicarage: B2+

    Written by Agatha Christie

    Narrated by Roger May

    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 5, 2017
    ISBN9780008267421
    The Murder at the Vicarage: B2+
    Author

    Agatha Christie

    Agatha Christie is the most widely published author of all time, outsold only by the Bible and Shakespeare. Her books have sold more than a billion copies in English and another billion in a hundred foreign languages. She died in 1976, after a prolific career spanning six decades.

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    Reviews for The Murder at the Vicarage

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    • 2/5


      This book bored me....... I simply did not like the characters, so I didn't care that the mean old man got killed.

      So um:

      Soon after a dinner where everyone present discusses how they would go about murdering the odious civil magistrate; he is in fact found murdered, while waiting to meet with the Vicar @ the vicarage.

      Both of the main suspects, the magistrate's wife and her young lover, confess to the crime..... Yet there are others who have something to hide, the mysterious newcomer, the flighty daughter, the archaeologist & his assistant..... and the town gossips make matters worse.
    • 4/5
      It's been a long time since I've read an Agatha Christie, and somehow I had never got around to this one (she wrote over 80 novels.) What I remembered about Christie was her incredible plots and twists, but I didn't remember her for great style or characterizations. Well, she may not be an Austen or a Faulkner (or a Sayers), but she is incredibly fun to read--smooth, well-paced, a fine observer of human nature and witty. This novel published in 1930 was the first mystery with Jane Marple. Narrated by the vicar, Len Clement of St Mary Mead in "Downshire," he describes the indomitable sleuth this way: 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. Underestimated as an old bitty, a inconsequential spinster who "knows nothing of life," Miss Marple hides under her unassuming manner sharp observations and an even sharper mind. Moreover, by the end of the novel I was quite fond of the vicar and his wife. If you haven't read Agatha Christie, you're missing something special, although I wouldn't number this one as one of her best. Of the novels by her I've read, the ones that are my favorites include Death Comes at the End (set in Ancient Egypt), And Then There Were None, Murder on the Orient Express and The Murder of Roger Ackroyd.
    • 5/5
      Fantastic story with plenty of twists and turns to keep you reading. Agatha Christie is the queen of distraction and mystery.
    • 4/5
      Life in the village of St. Mary Mead is quiet and predictable. Until Colonel Protheroe is found murdered in the study at the vicarage. Suddenly everyone is a suspect and everyone wants to put their hand into the investigation. Miss Marple, however, may be the most surprising detective of all. The elderly spinster has a troubling habit of being always right.I've watched a few of the BBC Marple episodes but this was my first time reading one and I was thoroughly delighted. I always forget how much I enjoy Christie's writing until I'm reading one of her novels. Her tone so beautifully evokes the time period and lends it a glamour that contemporary mysteries lack. As the first of the Miss Marple mysteries, this is an excellent outing. The mystery is well thought out and I have to admit I can never resist a novel that includes maps. There are also subtle moments of humour interspersed throughout that left me laughing in between trying to figure out just who had done it. If you've never read an Agatha Christie, this is definitely a good first one to pick up.
    • 4/5
      Years ago, I read and enjoyed "And Then There Were None," and just this year I finally read "Murder on the Orient Express". But for some reason, I have never read another Christie novel until now. It was sheer coincidence that I picked up the very first Miss Marple mystery. Colonel Protheroe is not well liked by anyone. Many have a motive for killing him including a dashing young painter who may or may not be involved with his daughter, his young wife who is not much older than that daughter, or any of the men he has harshly punished through his role as magistrate. Even the Vicar himself was overheard to say the world would be better without the old man! Inspector Slack is dogged, but totally inadequate for solving the crime. But, Miss Marple is nosy and well versed in human nature. Her acute observations, offered intermittently throughout the story, will get to the truth.Though she surely inspired the hit series, "Murder She Wrote," Miss Marple is actually less hands on than Jessica Fletcher. I was surprised to find that the mystery is actually told from the point of view of the Vicar. Miss Marple only appears occasionally, almost like a sage, to point of investigators in the right direction. The resolution was clever, if not ground-breaking like "Murder on the Orient Express." But, unlike that novel, readers get to know these characters much better and so the ending feels better earned. I enjoyed the mystery and look forward to reading more by Christie.
    • 4/5
      What's a clergyman to do when murder is committed in his home? Start investigating, that's what, especially when Miss Marple lives next door. Leonard Clement is the vicar in St. Mary Mead, a small English village. He's also the narrator of The Murder at the Vicarage, the first full length novel to feature Agatha's Christie's elderly sleuth Miss Jane Marple. When Colonel Protheroe is murdered in Clement's study, the difficulty is not in finding a suspect, but in sorting through all the people who wanted him dead--including the vicar himself!This cozy whodunnit is sure to please fans of the genre, though it was not my favorite of the three Agatha Christie novels I read this year. None of the characters in The Murder at the Vicarage interested me as much as Lucy Eyelesbarrow in 4:50 from Paddington or Anne Bedingfield from The Man in the Brown Suit. Still, any Agatha Christie is top-notch storytelling, and The Murder at the Vicarage is certainly worth a read, if for no other reason then to see Miss Marple at work in her first novel.Miss Marple appeared first in the 1927 short story "The Tuesday Night Club," and was Christie's attempt to give old maids some prominence in fiction. Interestingly, in both Miss Marple books I read this year, her character is secondary to others. In The Murder at the Vicarage, the vicar who tells the story is the most prominent character, and in 4:50 from Paddington it is Lucy Eyelsbarrow who takes center stage for most of the story. I'm not sure this is true of all the Miss Marple books, but it is something I will be paying attention to in future stories in the series.
    • 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!
    • 4/5
      Knowing Mss. Marple A murder history told in the first person by a Vicar. Lot of characters interacting in a good plot. One cannot grasp the answers till the end. Agatha Christie present Miss Marple to her readers. Such a clever woman!
    • 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
      When the less-than-likable magistrate Colonel Protheroe is found shot to death in the vicar's study, the residents of the tiny village of St. Mary Mead are completely shocked ... and quick to cast blame on a number of people with motives to kill the colonel. This is the first novel by Agatha Christie that I've read it and in some ways, it was exactly what I expected while in others it was not. It is the quaint English "cozy" mystery that I anticipated, but I was surprised to find that Miss Marple was less of a main character than I expected for the kickoff of a series of mystery books based on her solving the case. This book is narrated in first person by the vicar himself, which was interesting in gaining insight on him and his opinions of other people in the village; oddly, he is given a lot of access to police proceedings (nominally, I suppose, because the murder took place in his study) so we see a lot of the procedural aspect - questioning witnesses, checking alibis, examining the body, etc. Miss Marple comes in at the end to save the day by theorizing who the culprit as though she were solving a logic puzzle. I must say that I was actually quite surprised by the turn Christie took and did not at all suspect the culprit. The book reads light and quick, but it does pause for some moments of plumbing psychological depths, such as the conversation between the vicar and the doctor/coroner in which the doctor makes strong arguments in favor of the nature side of the nurture versus nature debate, particularly as concerns criminal activity. The character study was also notable, and I found that I liked the vicar and his family enough to want to read more about them -- and while I didn't necessarily *like* some of the other village characters, I appreciated Christie's accurate renderings. There is also an undercurrent throughout about gender roles and societal expectations, especially in reference to Miss Marple herself, who the male police dismiss as just another nosy 'spinster.' Overall, I was entertained by this novel (despite some small quibbles) enough to move on to other books in the series.I listened to the audiobook and although he eventually grew on me, I wasn't in love the narrator. To my taste, he spoke a little too fast and didn't clearly enunciate enough. Occasionally, especially when reading some of the vicar's internal thoughts, he fell into the habit of dropping his voice quite low, which meant I would have difficulty hearing some bits. But overall his performance was lively and fitting with the material at hand.
    • 3/5
      The Murder of the Vicarage is the first of the Miss. Marple mysteries although from the way in which she is introduced in this book there is little hint of the fact that for many readers Marple will become inextricably linked with Christie. Marple does not narrate the book, the actions are not seen through her eyes and the narrator is not her sidekick. Her presence hovers at the edge of many scenes and she is the principle actor in few of them. So far most of Christies female narrators have been young while her narrators are middle-aged although this changed slightly with Katherine Grey in The Mystery of the Blue Train. It was in that book we first heard about the village of St. Mary Mead -- although it seems to reasonable but little the St. Mary Mead of this book. All the same with this book we see Christie beginning to explore the possibilities of ordinary village live as a background for murder. As Marple herself points out, many people do not have the opportunity to set off on adventures and so if they want to find things to interest them they must look to the events and people around them.The murder itself in this book is of the highly graphed and planned out type but the solution is actually more psychologically grounded than have been most of Poirot’s. There are a surprising number of three dimensional characters in the book and there is at least as much enjoyment in reading it as a Austen-like exploration of love among the no longer young gentry as for the solution to the crimes.This book will be an especially enjoyable read for anyone who finds the heavily stereotypical characters of Poirot a little hard to take and wants a good natured look at life among the lesser gentry in English villages between the wars
    • 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!
    • 4/5
      Murder at the Vicarage is Agatha Christie's first book to star one of her greatest literary creations, the indomitable Miss Jane Marple. Miss Marple may appear to be your typical "little old lady," but her powers of observation, honed from living almost her whole life in the small village of St. Mary Mead and giving her an acute insight into the human condition, prove to the match of everyone in the village, police included, when it comes to solving the murder of Colonel Protheroe.When you get right down to it, there isn't much to the story. It is a fairly typical Christie mystery, making you think you know the conclusion until she pulls the rug right out from underneath you when she reveals the mastermind behind the murder. The murder in question is that of Colonel Protheroe, a not-much-loved member of the village, who is found murdered in the vicars writing room. There are plenty of people with motives, and plenty bits of misdirection, but it is up to Miss Marple to put the pieces together and discover the identity of the true culprit before it's too late. A fun little read with an endearing character in Miss Marple, the whole story is wrapped up with a nice and tidy ending. Not a bad choice if you're looking for an easy mystery read.
    • 4/5
      I enjoyed it immensely. I'll be reading more of this series. I never guessed who the murder was...
    • 4/5
      Colonel Lucius Protheroe arrives at Vicar Clement's house at the argreed upon time but the vicar has been called out to visit a parishioner and by the time the vicar returns to the vicarage, Colonel Protheroe has been shot in the back of the head in the Vicarage study. At least "seven or eight people" could have committed the murder by Miss Marple's count and Inspector Slack,Colonel Melchett, Doctor Haydock and the vicar all talk to almost everyone in town and try to make sense of the tangle of clues and red herrings. Agatha Christie even gives the reader 3 drawings so all the arm chair detectives can try and solve the case as well, but as always it is Miss Marlpe that sees all the clues correctly and figures out the solution to the mystery. Agatha Christie had written several short stories in which Miss Marple appeared but The Murder at the Vicarage, was her first novel with Miss Marple. The vicar is the narrator and he and his wife, Griselda, are much more clearly developed than Miss Marple is. In fact, Miss Marple is not the central character at all and the person we know from having seen her on TV and read other books about her is not really the person that is in this book. It seems clear that Ms. Christie did not have a clear picture of who Miss Marple was at this point and as a result did not write the second Miss Marlpe for another 12 years. But while Miss Marple was not the centeral character in the book, she is the star of the book, the one who takes her "hobby of observing people" and uses it in an "important" crime and solves the mystery.
    • 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
      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 was a fun whodunit, and admittedly I was confused about the perpetrator right up until the end... I'd never before read a Miss Marple book and was surprised that she was not the narrator, but I think the outside perspective added to the story.
    • 4/5
      Colonel Lucius Protheroe is very likely the most disliked resident of the sleepy little English village of St. Mary Mead, and when he is found dead, shot through the head, in the vicar's study, there is quite a list of possible suspects. Was it the young wife (who was having an affair with a local artist), the daughter (who led an extremely restricted life under her father's iron thumb), the poacher recently sentenced by the Colonel, the mysterious Mrs. Lestrange whose appearance in the village had set tongues to wagging, or perhaps even the vicar himself? Keen eyed Miss Jane Marple lives next door to the vicarage and not much gets past this shrewd old lady. When there are two improbable confessions to the crime, it will be up to her keen observations and logical mind to help Inspector Slack solve this perplexing whodunit.This is the first Miss Marple mystery, written in 1930 and just as intriguing today as it was then, I'm sure. It's told from the perspective of the vicar, which surprised me a bit, and Christie's wit is sharp as a tack throughout. It's no wonder she has so many fans. I found this book to be very good, but not spectacular.
    • 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
      Plot and characters were contrived but I was suprised how enjoyable a read it was. I will be reading more Agatha Christie I think.
    • 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.
    • 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.
    • 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.
    • 4/5
      Read for Profiling Mysteries/BoutofBooks 5.0 (Kindle Freebie circa 2009)Overall Rating 4.00Character Rating 4.25Story Rating 3.75First Thought When Finished: Miss Marple is a HOOT!What I Thought of the Case: I will admit that the case started out a little slow for my liking but I think this has to do with this being a first in series. The first quarter was spent on introducing the characters. Once the case started though it was such a fun ride. Miss Marple is both very smart and a bit of a busy body. I love that Agatha Christie wrote her to be both. The case took a few twists and turns. With Agatha you are always on your toes never quite knowing where the story is going to lead.What I Thought of the Characters: Miss Marple is a hoot! She is a fantastic combo of nosy busy-body coupled with one smart cookie. The rest of the town appears to either love her dearly or dreads her amazing observational skills. I would be scared of her quite frankly but secretly wish I could catch half the things she does!“I really believe that wizened-up old maid thinks she knows everything there is to know. And hardly been out of this village all her life. Preposterous. What can she know of life?” I said mildly that though doubtless Miss Marple knew next to nothing of Life with a capital L, she knew practically everything that went on in St. Mary Mead."My dear young man, you underestimate the detective instinct of village life. In St. Mary Mead everyone knows your most intimate affairs. There is no detective in England equal to a spinster lady of uncertain age with plenty of time on her hands.Final Thought: This was my first Agatha Christie book but it won't be my last. I loved the old fashioned case solving that can really only be found in the classics!
    • 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.
    • 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.
    • 4/5
      The Murder at The Vicarage was the first book Agatha Christie wrote featuring small village sleuth Miss Marple. As such she has a somewhat minor, yet critical presence in the novel. The book is written in the first person point of view of the vicar, Len Clement. He is inexorably drawn into the murder because the victim was found slumped over on the vicar’s desk. The victim, Colonel Protherow was almost universally despised resulting in a large pool of suspects. My husband and I listened to the audiobook on a road trip and were kept entertained puzzling out the mystery. I did not suspect the actual villain — I would have been much happier if another had done it! The narrator did a great job creating the voices of the characters and setting the scene. All in all, The Murder at The Vicarage was an enjoyable way to spend some long hours in the car.Recommended.Audience: adults.
    • 4/5
      I can't say that I'm a fan of Agatha Christie. She's got better and worse books. Some of her stories I absolutely love and some of them I find pretty boring. Murder at the Vicarage is one of her very best books. It has everything you love about Agatha Christie.

      This is the first book in Miss Marple series. But if you think that she is the main character here or at least a narrator, you will be wrong. She is just one of many characters, okay maybe more important than they for the story, but still... The story is told from the POV of the rector who is a very interesting hero on his own. He is not an investigator in this case but, since the crime was committed at the vicarage, he is deeply involved in the case.

      The book has everything you adore in Agatha Christie's stories: the great characters (and truly distinctive ones), a very good murder mystery with not so obvious explanation (though very in Christie style - so maybe if you read a lot of her books, the answer would be obvious to you; me, I haven't read ACh in years) and some pretty good humour (I laughed more than I expected and the whole cozy mystery idea is introduced with excellence). As much as I usually dislike the little town mysteries, this one is great and the whole population of the town play an important role in the picture.

      Also, I already read some other books with Miss Marple and, unfortunately, I can't say that I like her a lot. But in this book she is adorable! After reading Murder at the Vicarage, I can totally understand why she was given her own series.

      It was nice to read a book that I believe is one of the best from Agatha Christie.