Murder at the Vicarage

Murder at the Vicarage by Agatha Christie
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

This was the final book I finished reading in 2018. It was the first book Christie wrote featuring Miss Marple and it was a delight.
The narrator of the tale is the Vicar of the St. Mary Mead village church and is a wonderful character, good and upstanding as a leader of his community but just wicked enough to be both human and appealing. His young wife is a bit of a mess but he adores her and his insights into the people around him help us untangle the puzzle that is the heart of this mystery. Naturally the victim is someone that no one liked and whose death benefits nearly everyone and a flurry of clues, some important some merely distracting, confuse the police, the vicar, and the reader. Miss Marple of course sees it all clearly well before anyone else does.

"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." (p. 37)

This title is from my Classics Club list.