13. The Murder at the Vicarage (1930)

Agatha!  This edition had several typos!  What?!

That said, these are a few of my favorite things from this novel, aside from the plot itself!

At Dennis' age a detective story is one of the best things in life.

(And at my age, too.)

There was a reference to Dr. Crippen - which took me on a rabbit trail as I looked him up on the internet and read all about *his* fascinating crime.  That one would make a great movie!

"Well I don't agree with you," said Griselda.  "You know how little we can afford to pay a servant.  If once we got her smartened up at all, she'd leave.  Naturally.  And get higher wages.  But as long as Mary can't cook and has these awful manners - well, we're safe; nobody else would have her."

Agatha, you make me laugh!  And again:

I cannot say that I have at any time a great admiration for Mr. Raymond West.  He is, I know, supposed to be a brilliant novelist, and has made quite a name as a poet.  His poems have no capital letters in them, which is, I believe, the essence of modernity.  His books are about unpleasant people leading lives of surpassing dullness.

(In my limited knowledge of modern poetry, I suspect an allusion to ee cummings.)

Miss Marple's understanding of herself:

"You see," she began at last, "living alone as I do, in a rather out of the way part of the world, one has to have a hobby.  There is , of course, woolwork, and Guides, and Welfare, and sketching, but my hobby is - and always has been - Human Nature.  So varied - and so very fascinating.  And, of course, in a small village, with nothing to distract one, one has such ample opportunity for becoming what I might call proficient in one's study.  One begins to class people, quite definitely, just as though they were birds or flowers, group so and so, genus this, species that.  Sometimes, of course, one makes mistakes, but less and less as time goes on.  And then, too, one tests oneself... It is so fascinating, you know, to apply one's judgment and find that one is right."

And metafiction (just one example):

"I know that in books it is always the most unlikely person. But I never find that rule applies in real life."

Oh, Dame Agatha...it is so interesting that Miss Marple, who becomes one of your most popular detectives, is just a peripheral character through most of this novel - and yet it is she who puts all the facts together and solves the mystery.  Brilliant.  I love it.