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 Agatha Christie’s first mystery to feature the beloved investigator Miss Marpleas a dead body in a clergyman’s study proves to the indomitable sleuth that no place, holy or otherwise, is a sanctuary from homicide. 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).

Her books have sold over a billion copies in the English language and a billion in translation. She wrote 66 crime novels and story collections, fourteen plays, and six novels under a pseudonym in Romance. The UK edition retailed at seven shillings and sixpence and the US edition at 2.00. Born in Torquay in 1890, Agatha Christie began writing during the First World War and wrote over 100 novels, plays and short story collections. Dame Agatha Mary Clarissa Christie is the best-selling author of all time.

Not a book club exactly, The Crime Club was a series of mystery titles published and promoted under the name. 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. 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.

Agatha christie vicarage