The police, led by Colonel Melchett and Inspector Slack, are confounded by several details, including a note left by Protheroe that seems to conflict with Haydock's opinion of the time of death, and some witnesses claiming to have heard a shot out in the woods, but no gunshot near or within the house. He summons Dr Haydock, who pronounces that Protheroe was killed by a gunshot to the back of the head. Upon returning home, Clement encounters a distressed Redding at the gate to the vicarage, then discovers Colonel Protheroe dead at the writing desk in his study. Clement is called away to a farm to visit a dying parishioner, but learns that the man has recovered, and that nobody actually asked for him. The next day, Clement is scheduled to meet with Protheroe to go over irregularities in the church accounts. One day Clement encounters Protheroe's wife, Anne, embracing Lawrence Redding, a young visiting artist while promising them that he will not reveal their affair, he advises Redding to leave the village at once. At dinner one evening, Clement offhandedly remarks that anyone who killed Protheroe would be doing the world a favour.

Colonel Lucius Protheroe, Clement's churchwarden, is a wealthy, abrasive man who also serves as the local magistrate, and is widely disliked in the village. He lives with his much younger wife Griselda and their nephew Dennis. The Reverend Leonard Clement, the vicar of St Mary Mead, narrates the story. These earlier stories were collected in book form in The Thirteen Problems in 1932. The character had previously appeared in short stories published in magazines starting in December 1927. What is it precisely that people find so cosy about such stories?' This first look at St Mary Mead led a reviewer in 1990 to ask why these are called cosy mysteries: 'Our first glimpse of St Mary Mead, a hotbed of burglary, impersonation, adultery and ultimately murder. It is the first novel to feature the character of Miss Marple and her village of St Mary Mead. The UK edition retailed at seven shillings and sixpence and the US edition at $2.00.

The Murder at the Vicarage is a work of detective fiction by British writer Agatha Christie, first published in the UK by the Collins Crime Club in October 1930 and in the US by Dodd, Mead and Company later in the same year.

Murder at the vicarage book