What do you think?
Rate this book
The Murder at the Vicarage
Part of the Mavenhill Classics series, this annotated edition of The Murder at the Vicarage pairs a landmark mystery with clear, chapter-by-chapter summaries that illuminate the plot, characters and themes as the story unfolds.
In the quiet village of St Mary Mead, nothing much ever happens, or so it seems. But beneath polite conversations and orderly routines lie old grudges, private ambitions and carefully concealed truths. When a man widely disliked for his arrogance and cruelty is found shot dead in the vicarage study, the shock ripples through the community.
The crime appears straightforward at first. Nearly everyone had a motive, and many had opportunity. Yet as the investigation progresses, assumptions begin to unravel. Gossip proves unreliable, testimony shifts and appearances mislead. The truth, it becomes clear, will not be found through haste or authority, but through observation, memory and an understanding of human nature.
First published in 1930, The Murder at the Vicarage introduced a new kind of detective story, one that replaces spectacle with subtlety and action with insight. Its enduring appeal lies in the way it transforms everyday village life into a landscape of suspicion, where the smallest detail can carry decisive weight.
Designed for both first-time readers and longtime admirers of classic crime fiction, this Mavenhill Classics edition preserves the novel’s wit, tension and structural elegance while providing thoughtful guidance that deepens understanding without disrupting the narrative. In a community where everyone knows one another, the most dangerous secrets are often the ones hiding in plain sight.
In the quiet village of St Mary Mead, nothing much ever happens, or so it seems. But beneath polite conversations and orderly routines lie old grudges, private ambitions and carefully concealed truths. When a man widely disliked for his arrogance and cruelty is found shot dead in the vicarage study, the shock ripples through the community.
The crime appears straightforward at first. Nearly everyone had a motive, and many had opportunity. Yet as the investigation progresses, assumptions begin to unravel. Gossip proves unreliable, testimony shifts and appearances mislead. The truth, it becomes clear, will not be found through haste or authority, but through observation, memory and an understanding of human nature.
First published in 1930, The Murder at the Vicarage introduced a new kind of detective story, one that replaces spectacle with subtlety and action with insight. Its enduring appeal lies in the way it transforms everyday village life into a landscape of suspicion, where the smallest detail can carry decisive weight.
Designed for both first-time readers and longtime admirers of classic crime fiction, this Mavenhill Classics edition preserves the novel’s wit, tension and structural elegance while providing thoughtful guidance that deepens understanding without disrupting the narrative. In a community where everyone knows one another, the most dangerous secrets are often the ones hiding in plain sight.
135 pages, Kindle Edition
Published January 3, 2026
93 people are currently reading
84 people want to read
About the author
Agatha Christie
5,743 books76k followersAgatha Christie also wrote romance novels under the pseudonym Mary Westmacott, and was occasionally published under the name Agatha Christie Mallowan.
Dame Agatha Mary Clarissa Christie, Lady Mallowan, DBE (née Miller) was an English writer known for her 66 detective novels and 14 short story collections, particularly those revolving around fictional detectives Hercule Poirot and Miss Marple. She also wrote the world's longest-running play, the murder mystery The Mousetrap, which has been performed in the West End of London since 1952. A writer during the "Golden Age of Detective Fiction", Christie has been called the "Queen of Crime". She also wrote six novels under the pseudonym Mary Westmacott. In 1971, she was made a Dame (DBE) by Queen Elizabeth II for her contributions to literature. Guinness World Records lists Christie as the best-selling fiction writer of all time, her novels having sold more than two billion copies.
This best-selling author of all time wrote 66 crime novels and story collections, fourteen plays, and six novels under a pseudonym in romance. Her books sold more than a billion copies in the English language and a billion in translation. According to Index Translationum, people translated her works into 103 languages at least, the most for an individual author. Of the most enduring figures in crime literature, she created Hercule Poirot and Miss Jane Marple. She atuhored The Mousetrap, the longest-running play in the history of modern theater.
Associated Names:
Agata Christie
Agata Kristi
Агата Кристи (Russian)
Агата Крісті (Ukrainian)
Αγκάθα Κρίστι (Greek)
アガサ クリスティ (Japanese)
阿嘉莎·克莉絲蒂 (Chinese)
Dame Agatha Mary Clarissa Christie, Lady Mallowan, DBE (née Miller) was an English writer known for her 66 detective novels and 14 short story collections, particularly those revolving around fictional detectives Hercule Poirot and Miss Marple. She also wrote the world's longest-running play, the murder mystery The Mousetrap, which has been performed in the West End of London since 1952. A writer during the "Golden Age of Detective Fiction", Christie has been called the "Queen of Crime". She also wrote six novels under the pseudonym Mary Westmacott. In 1971, she was made a Dame (DBE) by Queen Elizabeth II for her contributions to literature. Guinness World Records lists Christie as the best-selling fiction writer of all time, her novels having sold more than two billion copies.
This best-selling author of all time wrote 66 crime novels and story collections, fourteen plays, and six novels under a pseudonym in romance. Her books sold more than a billion copies in the English language and a billion in translation. According to Index Translationum, people translated her works into 103 languages at least, the most for an individual author. Of the most enduring figures in crime literature, she created Hercule Poirot and Miss Jane Marple. She atuhored The Mousetrap, the longest-running play in the history of modern theater.
Associated Names:
Agata Christie
Agata Kristi
Агата Кристи (Russian)
Агата Крісті (Ukrainian)
Αγκάθα Κρίστι (Greek)
アガサ クリスティ (Japanese)
阿嘉莎·克莉絲蒂 (Chinese)
Ratings & Reviews
Friends & Following
Create a free account to discover what your friends think of this book!
Community Reviews
Displaying 1 - 20 of 20 reviews
May 28, 2019
I learned many news English words with this adapted book from Agatha Christie that I read and listened to the audio many times in 2017. It's easier than the original one.
November 18, 2024
Maybe 3.5. A fun mystery but not as great on a reread as a lot of Poriots are.
March 18, 2023
I love CHRISTIE’s Miss Marple.
January 14, 2019
I am reading this for a Miss Marple readalong with a friend on Instagram. I have never made an effort to read all of the stories chronologically and I usually like to do this for mysteries. I haven't read Agatha for years - probably since high school or earlier. So it was nice to dip back into her and see what Miss Marple is up to - and really, to see how she develops as a character.
I was pleasantly surprised to find that the Vicar, from whom we get the POV, is possessed of a dry wit that is classically English. I mean, the first quarter of the book is really funny! Of course, then that dead body turns up in his study, so it is tempered somewhat. But I still loved the Vicar. And I was pleased to find that he was a somewhat reliable narrator.
This case was full of red herrings! I almost fell for one. I thought I had it down. But no! I was wrong. I loved how the twists and turns took me from liking someone to suspecting them, and back again. And there is no village quite like St. Mary Mead for busybodies.
I am excited to read the rest of the Miss Marple books. We have drawn our list from the Agatha Christie website, so they are in order of her life, no in the order in which they were written. It might be a bit uneven in the writing that way, but I think it will work out okay. We are calling our year-long readalong #AYearwithMissMarple, so look for the hashtag and join us!
I was pleasantly surprised to find that the Vicar, from whom we get the POV, is possessed of a dry wit that is classically English. I mean, the first quarter of the book is really funny! Of course, then that dead body turns up in his study, so it is tempered somewhat. But I still loved the Vicar. And I was pleased to find that he was a somewhat reliable narrator.
This case was full of red herrings! I almost fell for one. I thought I had it down. But no! I was wrong. I loved how the twists and turns took me from liking someone to suspecting them, and back again. And there is no village quite like St. Mary Mead for busybodies.
I am excited to read the rest of the Miss Marple books. We have drawn our list from the Agatha Christie website, so they are in order of her life, no in the order in which they were written. It might be a bit uneven in the writing that way, but I think it will work out okay. We are calling our year-long readalong #AYearwithMissMarple, so look for the hashtag and join us!
January 12, 2020
Seriously dated this book, her first I believe, was originally published in 1930. Good introduction to the ‘real’ Miss Marple but for me the most significant ideas were how a servant simply could not have an idea, or that a woman could be a murderer, is just completely incomprehensible to middle class chaps who had come home from the Great War a decade or so before the setting of this, very class conscious tale, written with a very clear middle class, 1930’s audience in mind. We have become so used in the films and tv shows to take on the persona of the times, without the mores. Re-read the books and just prepare to be mildly shocked, especially if you are a modern ‘woke’ woman.
January 15, 2026
Recommended: sure
For a small town whodunnit, for many tangled clues and red herrings and a fascinating conclusion
Thoughts:
It seems to be the standard that Christie has her novels narrated by a non-detective narrator, and this falls into that category. I assume it's so we the reader can get an explanation of everything from the knowledgeable person(s), in case we (along with the narrator) didn't catch the significance of certain pieces.
Mrs Marple is just an observant and nosy old woman, not a formal officer or detective like I'm accustomed to from Poirot novels. I am curious about how else she gets involved in things in her line of the series, since she in this first one featuring her, she lives in a small town in this one and I can't imagine there will constantly be murders happening here. She did have a line where she mentioned a few other mysteries she's solved, big and small, so maybe some of those will come up? Hmm.
This also had some visuals of location layouts and charts which I really appreciated because I would be on a page listening to the house being described and trying to visualize it, then turn the page and have a drawing of it instead to reference back to. Super helpful! And it even helped me catch one small clue before it was mentioned in the story, which was extremely gratifying (even though it ended up not much mattering to the resolution). And right along the point where I was thinking to myself, "Wow I should really write out a timeline of everything that's happened because there has been so much discourse around timing" that the narrator did just that. Ah-ha! Perfect.
I was curious about the narrator, the Vicar. I didn't realize his name was Clement until far too long into the story, and it made me totally miss a vital piece in the case for a while. xD Oh well. But still, he seems to be almost faking it with his religion, as though he thinks he is not actually pious enough to be in his position. But maybe that's just par for the course for the truly good people in those positions? Right, not that they have no doubt, but that they have doubt and faith despite the doubt. Maybe I'm overthinking it. Anyway, Clement was odd.
Reading this as a buddy read was fun, as Agatha Christie novels are PERFECT for in-the-moment discussion after each chapter. There's always some new clue or revelation, or person acting strangely, or secret revealed. It totally changes what you think, or muddies up what you thought you were sure about, and it is so fun!! Thanks as always to Nicole for our now-traditional December buddy read. :)
And of course, the resolution. AHHHH, CHRISTIE, YOU GOT ME AGAIN! This result to me was as shocking as when I read The Murder of Roger Ackroyd (my first ever Christie novel), but also the complete opposite. I had such a fun time reading this and then had to laugh at the end at how wrong I was the entire time.
~See more reviews and book talk at MyBookJoy.com!~
For a small town whodunnit, for many tangled clues and red herrings and a fascinating conclusion
Thoughts:
It seems to be the standard that Christie has her novels narrated by a non-detective narrator, and this falls into that category. I assume it's so we the reader can get an explanation of everything from the knowledgeable person(s), in case we (along with the narrator) didn't catch the significance of certain pieces.
Mrs Marple is just an observant and nosy old woman, not a formal officer or detective like I'm accustomed to from Poirot novels. I am curious about how else she gets involved in things in her line of the series, since she in this first one featuring her, she lives in a small town in this one and I can't imagine there will constantly be murders happening here. She did have a line where she mentioned a few other mysteries she's solved, big and small, so maybe some of those will come up? Hmm.
This also had some visuals of location layouts and charts which I really appreciated because I would be on a page listening to the house being described and trying to visualize it, then turn the page and have a drawing of it instead to reference back to. Super helpful! And it even helped me catch one small clue before it was mentioned in the story, which was extremely gratifying (even though it ended up not much mattering to the resolution). And right along the point where I was thinking to myself, "Wow I should really write out a timeline of everything that's happened because there has been so much discourse around timing" that the narrator did just that. Ah-ha! Perfect.
I was curious about the narrator, the Vicar. I didn't realize his name was Clement until far too long into the story, and it made me totally miss a vital piece in the case for a while. xD Oh well. But still, he seems to be almost faking it with his religion, as though he thinks he is not actually pious enough to be in his position. But maybe that's just par for the course for the truly good people in those positions? Right, not that they have no doubt, but that they have doubt and faith despite the doubt. Maybe I'm overthinking it. Anyway, Clement was odd.
Reading this as a buddy read was fun, as Agatha Christie novels are PERFECT for in-the-moment discussion after each chapter. There's always some new clue or revelation, or person acting strangely, or secret revealed. It totally changes what you think, or muddies up what you thought you were sure about, and it is so fun!! Thanks as always to Nicole for our now-traditional December buddy read. :)
And of course, the resolution. AHHHH, CHRISTIE, YOU GOT ME AGAIN! This result to me was as shocking as when I read The Murder of Roger Ackroyd (my first ever Christie novel), but also the complete opposite. I had such a fun time reading this and then had to laugh at the end at how wrong I was the entire time.
~See more reviews and book talk at MyBookJoy.com!~
February 20, 2023
I wanted to read Murder at the Vicarage because it is Agatha Christie's first Miss Marple book. After reading a bunch of Hercules Poirot mysteries, I enjoyed this one. The descriptions of a rural English country village and a focus on the "pussies" - the little old ladies nosing about everyone else's business was amusing. Christie's humor really struck me this time around. I was also struck by her quite conservative outlook and traditionalist POV, which I think comes through more strongly in this book than in the Hercules books. (Maybe because of her own closeness to the subject matter?) I won't bother going into more plot details, as plenty of info on that already available... Christie never fails to "wow" me, when at the end of the book, she throws off the curtains of the mystery and reveals ALL. :-)
December 28, 2021
Quick and simple read. It's a reduced version of the book, so lots of information are thrown into you to have less stuff to explain, making the reading little overwhelming. That doesn't make the reading less enjoying, since the urge to know the murderer hook you to the history. I might start reading Mrs Christie's books in the future
January 22, 2026
Christie at her best
Miss Marple is great fun as a character. Meanwhile, there are tons of clues and so many of them are red herrings, but when Marple explains her solution it does seems like the only one that works. I'm tempted to read it again and track everything that happens so I can confirm it!
Miss Marple is great fun as a character. Meanwhile, there are tons of clues and so many of them are red herrings, but when Marple explains her solution it does seems like the only one that works. I'm tempted to read it again and track everything that happens so I can confirm it!
February 26, 2021
Listened to a dramatized version by BBC Radio through my podcast app. Miss Marple has always been my favourite Spinster. I'm not sure I'd like her as my neighbour though, with her super awareness of anything "somewhat peculiar".
July 1, 2023
Agatha's books have sold in the billions -- only the Bible and Shakespeare have out-sold her. "The Murder at the Vicarage" is a prime example of her being the Queen of Mystery Writers. I thoroughly enjoyed it.
September 27, 2024
This was my first Agatha Christie- yay! Vivid details and well formulated characters- awesome writing. Miss Marple is a witty and observant main character who "sees" things others do not.
This is the fist in teh series, and I shall be reading the others!
This is the fist in teh series, and I shall be reading the others!
March 25, 2023
I am officially a fan. Agathie Christie is addicting and I am hooked.
January 24, 2026
I always enjoy Ms. Christie! Her books are interesting to me. I especially like ones that develop the plot over many pages. Such is “Murder at the Vicarage” !
February 8, 2021
Very entertaining. Miss Marple solves a case of murder.
January 8, 2019
I started reading a few Christie novels at the end of last year, but they were all Poirot themed. I am joining on Books Like Whoa’s Reading Miss Marple challenge and was very excited to read some of her titles; unfortunately, I did not enjoy this one as much as I hoped.
Filled with misogyny and very little Marple this was a basic mystery. The worst part was I really didn’t care who did it by the end. I know that the misogyny is just a sign of the times the story was written, but I hope that Miss Marple will play a larger role in future tales.
Filled with misogyny and very little Marple this was a basic mystery. The worst part was I really didn’t care who did it by the end. I know that the misogyny is just a sign of the times the story was written, but I hope that Miss Marple will play a larger role in future tales.
January 9, 2020
Just finished my first Agatha Christie book, and now I want more! I flew through it and thinks she uses a good language, and got some witty parts. She also kept me guessing up until the disclosure of the murderer. Bring me my next!
December 14, 2019
How was she this good? Just when you think you've got her, she pulls the rug from under you again. Welcome to the world, Jane Marple.
December 23, 2019
3.75, an unexpected and refreshing plot twist
January 30, 2020
I didn't see that coming at all. Simply riveting. Finished in a single day.
Displaying 1 - 20 of 20 reviews