Tea and Scandal: The Murder at the Vicarage 2.0

"I daresay everyone thinks it is somebody different. That is why it is so important to have proofs. I, for instance, am quiet convinced I know who did it. But I must admit I haven't one shadow of proof." 

Image from here

- The Murder at the Vicarage, p. 213.

The Sum of It:

The Murder at the Vicarage was Agatha's first introduction of the inquisitive, gossip-fueled, always-a-step-ahead amateur sleuth Miss Marple, and since Audrey read this one last year and raved about how fun it was, I had to make it my first re-read of 2018. 

This story is narrated by the charming if a bit grumpy Vicar of St. Mary Mead, a small and veeery quintessential British village, which seems to have approximately 15 inhabitants, though there must be more because at once point the village church is described as crowded. But such a British village, no matter how tiny, is not immune to scandal, and right off the bat there's a discrepancy with the church money, an extramarital affair with a handsome artist in the Vicar's shed, and pretty soon after that, an actual murder in the Vicar's own study! The victim, Col. Protheroe, was ill-liked nearly universally, known for bossing everyone around, shouting constantly, and harsh convictions in his courtroom. Miss Marple, for one, can think of at least 7 people would would have liked to see him dead. 

As the evidence settles, largely aided by Miss Marple and her troupe of elderly lady busybodies who spend nearly all their time documenting the intricacies of town life (when not arranging their Japanese rock gardens or hosting visiting novelist nephews), the police suffer from an abundance of confessions and conflicting evidence. The more confused everyone becomes, the more serene and unflappable Miss Marple remains, biding her time until enough of the facts line up with her initial conclusion to clear everything up for the police and the poor Vicar, who's forced to become a bit of an amateur sleuth himself!

The YOA Treatment:

One of the things we came to realize about Miss Marple stories over the course of The Year of Agatha was that her tales have a uniquely clever tone and engaging pace. Perhaps because Agatha saw a bit of herself in Miss Marple, or a bit of some favorite neighbors, there's always a bit of a twinkle in Miss Marple's eye. No matter how silly or fanciful others think she is, she's actually two steps ahead of them at every turn, but never crows about it. She just bides her time, deducing all the way, until her conclusions are undeniable. Often, people in her circle start out the book annoyed by her nosiness and pronouncements about human nature, but she always wins them over by the end. Her spunk and quiet confidence are refreshing and charming, and The Murder at the Vicarage is a classic example. 

Miss Marple stories are also often quite funny, and The Murder at the Vicarage certainly fits that bill. Between the fussy Vicar, his flighty and mischievous young wife, their foolish and outspoken nephew Dennis, and their wholly incompetent maid, Mary, that one household alone had me chuckling out loud as I read. Miss Marple, gifted in the art of light irony spoken with a twinkle in her eye, is also awfully funny, especially as she interacts with her vainglorious author nephew Raymond or pompous policemen.  Agatha also injects her own sense of humor in the narration, such as this little poke at modern literature, given as a description of Raymond: 

"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." 

The Murder at the Vicarage is the perfect introduction to Miss Marple, and to Agatha on the light side, and was also a perfect way to start of my year of reviewing some of Audrey's favorites from The Year of Agatha! 

- E. 

The Many Years of Agatha #2018

(William Andrew Loomis, Woman in Yellow Shirt Reading, from this charming blog called Reading & Art.)

Hello friends,

We are so excited for a new year and all the new ideas bubbling around in our little heads for Agatha and books and you guys and here we are to finally share them!

First, regarding Agatha: 
We, like you, are clearly having trouble quitting dear Agatha even though we've spent so much time with her already. This year we've decided to do a couple things, and the first is to take an opportunity to recommend to each other some favorites that we each read on our own the first time around, swap books, and chat about those favorites from the other mindtwin's perspective. Emily hates that she missed reading The Murder at the Vicarage and The Moving Finger, and Audrey is tickled to pick up The Man in the Brown Suit and 4:50 from Paddington. You'll find the schedule of the books we'll be revisiting each month where you always do on the blog, and you'll also be seeing evidence of the reading on our social media accounts per usual. We hope those of you who are newer to Agatha's work will drop in and join us when we're working on one you're eager to read, and share your thoughts with us here or on social media! And of course, because we truly love them and can't stop staring at them, we will also continue sharing our favorite vintage copies on Instagram and Facebook.

Second, regarding other authors:
We, like you, really like books and have enormous to-be-read stacks that seem to grow almost on their own! We know it can be a bit jarring for an account you come to for one thing (Agatha Christie, for example) to flip the script periodically and try to move in different directions, so we've decided to add a second venture to the Mindtwins Media Empire (to quote Jon Lovett #FriendsofthePod, we're working on becoming media moguls), which we've decided to call #drumrollplease... The Book & Cover! 

The Book & Cover will be a second blog and set of social media accounts where we will each review and recommend books by current authors and share more gorgeous cover art along the way (because we are obsessed)! Each of us will be reading, reviewing, and recommending a book each month, either a new release or a book newly released in paperback (listen, we're all on a bit of a book budget and sometimes we just gotta wait for that PB!). You know us; We're not here to be snobby about what's cool to read, to pretend we know more than professional authors about how a good book is composed, or to ruin your experience of reading a book with silly spoilers. We get asked all the time what we're reading now, and what we can recommend folks pick up when they're in their local book shops, so we're excited to share that type of info with our pals here, on #bookstagram, and elsewhere, about new books we're truly pumped about, and to hear your #thoughtzandfeelingz about them as well.

IN CONCLUSION, IN WITH THE SAME, IN WITH THE NEW, we like to say, and we'll be here doing more of what we love for as long as you'll have us (and books). What a world we're living in right now, and what an opportunity our writer friends offer us to imagine new things, visualize magical places, feel a different person's feelings, and escape our everyday. To quote one of us from Twitter in response to a favorite author's (#CharlesFinch) lament about whether it's right to create art right now, we say that without our writers and artists, everything stops. We stop, in our exploring, and considering of perspectives and moving forward day after day. What our author friends do is vital, and we're here to shout it. As Emily Mandel wrote in Station Eleven, "survival is insufficient!" So we're here to celebrate writers, old and new, on as many platforms as we need to, and we hope you'll keep joining us and adding your voices to the revelry.

Cheers, loves, we are ever,

-E. & A.

First Quarter Faves | Top picks since we began our mission in January!

(image from our instagram!)

We started this project right after New Years 2016, and we cannot believe that we've already read almost 30 #GASP of Dame Agatha's iconic mysteries! So today we wanted to go ahead and report on our quarterly favorites (though there's no telling how many more favorites we might develop as the year goes on). For those of you who are just getting started with your foray into Agatha-dom, this could be a good starting list!

EMILY'S TOP THREE FAVES #SOFAR
These are in no particular order, b-t-dubs...
1)  The Man in the Brown Suit
GIANT SURPRISE right? I mean, I loved this one. So caper-y and adorable (and caper-y like cute adventures not like the salty food accessory [though no one here is demeaning capers they are wonderful, especially when combined with lox, cream cheese, and red onions I DIGRESS]).

From the book: "I would put all my eggs in one basket. 'First class,' I said. I was now definitely committed to the adventure." - The Man in the Brown Suit, p. 46

From the YOA review: "There's something fresh and sprightly about these early stories where the main character (in this case, narrator) is a plucky young girl whose curiosity and yen for romance and adventure gets the better of any sense of practicality. Agatha does such a nice job of creating these clever girls who remind me of no one so much as Clara Oswald from Doctor Who: the smartest, most charming, and cutest girl in the room but no one can help but like her anyway #soufflegirl."

2) The Secret Adversary
Again, another major surprise, but I LOOooOOOooVE Tommy & Tuppence, and especially this, their first appearance in print. They're charming and clever and fun, and keep you on the edge of your seat!

From the book: "You must stifle this longing for vulgar sensation, Tuppence. Remember that if Mr. Brown is all he is reported to be, it's a wonder that he has not ere now done us to death. That's a good sentence, quite a literary flavor about it." "You're really more conceited than I am--with less excuse!" - Tommy & Tuppence banter exhibit 4 million from The Secret Adversary, p. 57

From the YOA review: "In her autobiography, Agatha mentions how one of her grandmothers was always complaining of some vague ailment or another, which Agatha eventually divined was really just an act to demonstrate the feminine frailty deemed attractive in the 19th century. Agatha recognized this as an antique mentality; 20th century girls were made of heartier stuff. In Tuppence she created a leading lady who not only embraced the bobbed hair and ankle-baring fashions of her day but also the why-not-me spirit of the post-war girl."

3) IT'S A TIE! HaHA! The Secret of Chimneys and The Mystery of the Seven Dials
I didn't want to pick between these two, because they are both so fun and perplexing and have terrific protagonists, then I realized that since they were both set in the same place, the country estate of Chimneys, maybe it was cool for them to be a tie! So convenient.

From the book (Chimneys): "He was still some distance from the house. Not a sound could be heard anywhere. Some fast yellowing leaves detached themselves from one of the trees overhead and fell with a soft rustling sound that was almost sinister in the stillness. Anthony started; then smiled. 'Nerves,' he murmured to himself. 'Never knew I had such things before.'" - The Secret of Chimneys, p. 226

From the YOA review (Chimneys): "One thing about this story that really kept the intrigue going was the narrator situation. Even though the story wasn't written in the first person, we mostly see things through Anthony's perspective. We filter the red herrings, the scary home invasions, the mysterious gunshots, and the tense situations through his lens. But all the while, Agatha drops hints that there's something Anthony knows that he isn't telling us."

From the book (Seven Dials): "I never faint," said Bundle. "But you might as well get me a cocktail. I shall certainly need it. Then lock the door of the room again -- don't forget -- and take all the door keys back to their proper doors. And, Alfred -- don't be too much of a rabbit. Remember, if anything goes wrong, I'll see you through." - The Seven Dials Mystery, p. 109

From the YOA review (Seven Dials): "Despite people (men) constantly fussing that she shouldn't be involved with solving the mysteries at hand on account of DANGER, Bundle takes it upon herself to get to the bottom of things. When trying to track the baddie, she puts on her riding pants and climbs down a trellis (after being told to stay safely ensconced in her room while the  men handle things). When she can't figure out what the mysterious Seven Dials entails, she insists on hiding in their lair to figure it out straight from the source (despite a fella telling her she musn't risk it; she just asks for a gimlet [both cocktail and tool varieties]."

AUDREY'S TOP THREE FAVES #SOFAR:

1) The Thirteen Problems
This was a surprise favorite for me. I had never read this first introduction to Miss Jane Marple before, and, as someone who is not historically a fan of short stories, I assumed it would not be up my alley. HOWEVER, I totally fell in love with the premise, and delightful Miss-Marple-ness of each story.

From the book: "'I know human nature,' said Miss Marple. 'It's impossible not to know human nature living in a village all these years.'" -The Thirteen Problems, p. 198

From the YOA review: "In Thirteen Problems, Miss Marple is at first seen as a background observer (muttering to herself as she counts her knitting stitches) to a group game of Raymond, Sir Henry, and a few others as they each present a sort of cold case they observed or heard about from their past, with the idea that their brain powers combined can deduce the culprit. However, it's unassuming Miss Marple who schools everyone with the correct solution every time (#madrespect #yaskween)." 

2) The Murder at the Vicarage
I always thought I was a Poirot girl, but I think the last four months might have turned me into more of a Miss Marple fan! When I was reading The Murder at the Vicarage I found myself literally laughing out loud, quoting long passages to my family and friends, and ready to pack up and move to St. Mary Mead.

From the book: "If I were at any time to set out on a career of deceit, it would be of Miss Marple that I should be afraid." - Leonard Clement, The Murder at the Vicarage, p. 194

From the YOA review: "Agatha seemed to take particular pleasure in writing Miss Marple, and her readers found a connection with her new character as well. Vicarage is considered one of Agatha's best works and even her contemporary, Dorothy L. Sayers, wrote to #DameAgatha to give her approval: "Dear old Tabbies [speaking of Miss Marple and her old lady cronies] are the only possible right kind of female detective and Miss M is lovely...I think this is the best you have done - almost.""

3) Sad Cypress
Though sans Hastings, Poirot is a somber delight in this novel. The case is more serious, but still so wonderfully clever. I have a feeling this will stay on my favorites list throughout the year.

From the book: "One does not practice detection with a textbook! One uses one's natural intelligence." -Hercule Poirot, Sad Cypress, p. 166

From the YOA review: "Agatha is said to have thought this book would have been better without Poirot. I highly disagree. I enjoyed this book immensely, and it made complete sense to have Poirot as the investigating mind to prove Elinor Carlisle guilty or not guilty, because this is just the kind of case he would enjoy solving."

Have you read any of our faves? Thinking of picking one up after perusing this post? We think any of these titles would be a great place to start.

-A. & E.