Auden’s essay, ‘The Guilty Vicarage’ (1948). But hopefully it rang a few bells and sounded vaguely familiar, as in fact my title is alluding to W. You may even be wondering what on earth is Kate on about. You may still be puzzling over the title for this post. IF YOU HAVE NOT READ THE BOOK I ADVISE NOT READING BEYOND THIS POINT, AS I DO GO INTO SPOILER DETAILS.

Of course Miss Marple, our elderly spinster amateur sleuth is at the centre of it all, in more ways than one. Other suspects begin to creep out of the woodwork as the police investigation unfolds including a mysterious newcomer to the village who visited Protheroe the night before, as well as am embezzler desperate to keep their crime a secret. But it soon seems like they could not have done it and did in fact confess to protect each other. Initially two obvious suspects emerge, the Colonel’s wife, Anne, and her lover, local artist Lawrence Redding, and they even go as far as confessing to the crime. There is indeed a murder at the vicarage in St Mary Mead of Colonel Protheroe the unpopular local squire who lives at the Old Hall.

I think the plot of this book is quite familiar to readers, with the title summing it up in a matter of words.

Later this month JJ, Moira and Brad will be discussing this novel at JJ’s blog The Invisible Event, so I thought I best to get it re-read beforehand.

A murder at the vicarage