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Miss Marple #1

Murder at the Vicarage

Name: Murder at the Vicarage
Rating: 4.04 (211559 reviews)
Author: Agatha Christie

Agatha Christie October 1, 1930

4.04 211.6k Ratings

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Synopsis

‘Anyone who murdered Colonel Protheroe,’ declared the parson, brandishing a carving knife above a joint of roast beef, ‘would be doing the world at large a favour!’ It was a careless remark for a man of the cloth. And one which was to come back and haunt the clergyman just a few hours later – when the colonel was found shot dead in the clergyman’s study. But as Miss Marple soon discovers, the whole village seems to have had a motive to kill Colonel Protheroe.

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Just after midnight, a snowdrift stops the famous Orient Express in its tracks as it travels through the mountainous Balkans. The luxurious train is surprisingly full for the time of the year but, by the morning, it is one passenger fewer. An American tycoon lies dead in his compartment, stabbed a dozen times, his door locked from the inside.

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A Murder Is Announced

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The novel was promoted on both sides of the Atlantic as Agatha Christie's 50th book and published in 1950 by William Collins.

Librarian's note: this entry is for the novel, "A Murder is Announced." Collections and other Miss Marple stories are located elsewhere on Goodreads. The series includes 12 novels and 20 short stories. Entries for the short stories can be found by searching Goodreads for: "a Miss Marple Short Story."

Why Didn’t They Ask Evans?

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,,Miért nem szóltak Evansnak?" - ezt kérdezi a haldokló, akit Bobby Jones talál a népszerű golfpálya alatt, a völgyben. Bobby először is arra lenne kíváncsi, ki zuhant a szakadékba, és halt meg a szeme láttára, azonosító iratot ugyanis nem találnak a férfinál. Csak egy gyönyörű fiatal nő fényképét... Bobby nyomozni kezd, és hamarosan kiderül, hogy a végzetes baleset nem véletlen történt: ez bizony gyilkosság volt, mégpedig igen rejtélyes gyilkosság. Szerencsére Bobbynak merész segítőtársa is akad Lady Frances Derwent személyében. Frankie, ahogy az ifjú arisztokrata lányt mindenki nevezi, hatalmas lelkesedéssel veti bele magát a rejtélybe. Az sem riasztja vissza, hogy Bobbyt is, őt is megpróbálják eltenni láb alól. A meglepetésekben és kalandokban bővelkedő könyv végére kiderül, kicsoda Evans, miért nem szóltak neki, és hogy egy lelkész negyedik fia és egy arisztokrata lánya csak nyomozóként alkot-e nyerő párost.

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"Wickedness...such wickedness...."
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First, there were ten—a curious assortment of strangers summoned as weekend guests to a little private island off the coast of Devon. Their host, an eccentric millionaire unknown to all of them, is nowhere to be found. All that the guests have in common is a wicked past they're unwilling to reveal—and a secret that will seal their fate. For each has been marked for murder. A famous nursery rhyme is framed and hung in every room of the mansion:

"Ten little boys went out to dine; One choked his little self and then there were nine. Nine little boys sat up very late; One overslept himself and then there were eight. Eight little boys traveling in Devon; One said he'd stay there then there were seven. Seven little boys chopping up sticks; One chopped himself in half and then there were six. Six little boys playing with a hive; A bumblebee stung one and then there were five. Five little boys going in for law; One got in Chancery and then there were four. Four little boys going out to sea; A red herring swallowed one and then there were three. Three little boys walking in the zoo; A big bear hugged one and then there were two. Two little boys sitting in the sun; One got frizzled up and then there was one. One little boy left all alone; He went out and hanged himself and then there were none."

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Endless Night

★ 3.81

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Gipsy’s Acre was a truly beautiful upland site with views out to sea – and in Michael Rogers it stirred a child-like fantasy. There, amongst the dark fir trees, he planned to build a house, find a girl and live happily ever after. Yet, as he left the village, a shadow of menace hung over the land. For this was the place where accidents happened. Perhaps Michael should have heeded the locals’ warnings: ‘There’s no luck for them as meddles with Gipsy’s Acre.’ Michael Rogers is a man who is about to learn the true meaning of the old saying ‘In my end is my beginning.’

The title Endless Night was taken from William Blake’s Auguries of Innocence and describes Christie’s favourite theme in the novel: a “twisted” character, who always chooses evil over good.

Christie finished Endless Night in six weeks, as opposed to the three-four months that most of her other novels took. Despite being in her seventies while writing it, she told an interviewer that being Michael, the twenty-something narrator, “wasn’t difficult. After all, you hear people like him talking all the time.”

The book is dedicated to Christie's relative "Nora Prichard from whom I first heard the legend of Gipsy's Acre." Gipsy's Acre was a field on the Welsh moors.

Murder at the Vicarage

More in Miss Marple Series

The Body in the Library

The Moving Finger

A Murder Is Announced

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