I decided to stray from my efforts to read Hercule Poirot mysteries chronologically. I think maybe his personality grates on my nerves a bit. So I lit on trying out Miss Marple. I really enjoyed The Murder At the Vicarage. I believe this is the first novel that features Miss Marple. She lives in a tiny village out the in the country. She is astute and notices everything. She loves to study Human Nature and as she is elderly she's had a life time to perfect her skills.
An unpleasant man, Col. Protheroe, is found murdered in the vicarage study. He was waiting for the vicar to return when someone shot him. Since he had many people who disliked him, there are plenty of suspects. The facts slowly unfold as the villagers all strive, along with caustic Inspector Slack and his cohort Captain Melchett, to solve the mystery. These latter two interview various villagers about what their relationship to the murdered man was and where they were between 6 and 7 p.m. on the night of the murder. The villagers though are watching everything and exchanging important gossip.
The story is told in the first person of the middle aged vicar who has, not so long ago, married a young, pretty wife. He's adjusting to her unpredictability and her poor household management. There's the village doctor, the various gossiping old ladies, the poacher who kept poaching on rich Col. Protheroe's property, the young cleric who seems to be undergoing emotional difficulties, Col. Protheroe's pretty new second wife, his careless young teen daughter, the strange beautiful woman who had mysteriously appeared in the village (named, aptly Mrs. Lestrange!) and the handsome visiting portrait painter who all the ladies are ga-ga over. Oh and there's an archaeologist and his secretary who seem to be a little too familiar with each other for propriety's sake.
A fun mystery with a sweet ending.
For more book reviews go to Read 52 Books in 52 Weeks.
No comments:
Post a Comment