Murder in the Vicarage – Agatha Christie (Miss Marple)

Title: Murder in the Vicarage

Author: Agatha Christie

Genre: Murder-mystery, detective

Thoughts: Now as this was the first Agatha Christie novel I had read, it was a bit hard getting used to. This is for a few reasons, the most obvious being the type of language used. It’s all very formal, and there are also a lot of characters. Some books have more characters than this, but what makes this hard to read is that they are all introduced in the first chapter. I actually thought about just giving up, but I pushed through, and even though I still stayed confused by some things, the plot got better. Sometimes, when a certain character was speaking, I still had to stop reading, and actually think about who they actually were, and then continue. This deducted from the quality of the plot-line as I wasn’t fully concentrating on the story. But, as I said, you do get used to it, and I did enjoy the mystery of it after a while.

Yes, as the story progresses, the murder happens, (obviously, it is a murder mystery) and lots of different theories are cast about who the murderer is. I enjoyed the mystery of it, and tried to figure out for myself who it was. But I couldn’t. There were way too many characters, too many theories, and many people lying. I did have a guess or two, but I bet you won’t know who did it. It was who I least expected…

I think a way to improve this book, is to maybe introduce less characters in the first chapter and space them out a little. This will help with remembering them and also conveying the messages of the story a little better as well. For example, there are many quotes from the characters in this book, that are quite interesting, and ones that I like.

“Intuition is like reading a word without having to spell it out. A child can’t do that because it has had so little experience. A grown-up person knows the word because they’ve seen it often before.”
― Agatha Christie, Murder at the Vicarage

I like this explanation of intuition. It explains how grown up people, or older people can understand the message easier and quicker than younger people. It uses a simile to help convey this quote. These types of sentences all throughout the book. This was another feature that I like about the book.

Why should you read it: Well, if you like a bit of mystery, or you like to try and figure out the answer to a question before anyone else, then this book is definitely for you. As I haven’t read any other Agatha Christie books, I don’t know if they are similar, but I would presume so, as they seem to be all about murder and mystery. So, if you have read any others of her books, then you should get your hands on this one.

Book in a word: Mysterious

Rating: 6½/10