Murder at the Vicarage - Agatha Christie

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Author: Agatha Christie

Series: Miss Marple, #2
Genre: Crime Mystery
Rating: 3 stars.

First full-length novel of Miss Marple done. And it’s a mixed bag of opinions!

Just so you know, this is the first full-length novel in which Miss Marple makes her appearance. However, her character was introduced to the world not through this novel but through a short story named "The Tuesday Night Club", which is a part of "The Thirteen Problems" anthology. Now that I have read both, I feel you can begin with either of them, as both don't do a great job of *introducing* Miss Marple other than through indirect references. The information is obviously more detailed here as it is longer. 

Story Synopsis:
There is a ‘murder at the vicarage’. Everyone is trying to figure out who did it. *shrug!*


On the positive side:
😍 I did get to know a lot about Miss Marple the character. I think I will like her, as long as she gets a greater role in the remaining books.

😍 The narrator is a man, so but obviously, he knows nothing and all the women around him are up-to-date on village gossip. I found that hilarious!

😍 It contains some humorous remarks and lovely quotes.


On the ‘I-don’t-know-what-to-think-about-this’ side:
😑 The content is quite judgemental about women and their various negative tendencies. If this were by a male writer, I would have been ready with brickbats and cudgels. But coming from a woman writer, I am trying to figure out if she was being pedantic or sarcastic.

😑 The story starts nicely with a murder (on second thought, maybe ‘nicely’ isn’t the right word!) but the resolution goes in an unexpected direction. I liked the resolution but some of the red herrings were too farfetched.


On the negative side:
😕 The first person narration by the vicar does nothing for the story. He is boring!

😕 There’s hardly any detective work by Miss Marple for most of the story, which is more of a narration of events by the parson. She gets the highlight mainly towards the end of the book.

😕 How do so many people know the exact time something happened?!?!

😕 Typical info-dumping at the end, as in every mystery. (Sorry, mystery lovers, I have yet to become a fan of this modus operandi.)

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