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. BBC Radio 4 dramatised the story in 2003 with June Whitfield and the graphic novel adaptation was first published in France in 2005 under the title L'Affaire Protheroe.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. The novel was adapted for the screen, first with Joan Hickson in 1986 and again in 2004 with Geraldine McEwan in the starring role. I think this is the best you have done - almost'. 'Dear old Tabbies' she wrote to Christie, 'are the only possible right kind of female detective and Miss M is lovely. Dorothy L Sayers was particularly complimentary of this novel.

Not only are we formally introduced to the village of St Mary Mead and the 'Parish cats' otherwise known as Miss Marple and her friends, but several other recurring characters including the vicar and his wife, Leonard and Griselda Clement, who also appeared in The Body in the Library (1942) and 4.50 from Paddington (1957). Not a book club exactly, The Crime Club was a series of mystery titles published and promoted under the name. It was the first of her mysteries to be published as part of her publisher Collins’ new Crime Club series and the first novel to feature Miss Marple. The Murder at the Vicarage is one of Agatha Christie’s most popular books.

Murder in vicarage