Agatha Christie's The Murder at the Vicarage: A Study Resource

Do you enjoy the work of Agatha Christie, but want to dig deeper into understanding her stories and characters?

Or perhaps you are thinking of tackling one of Christie's novels in your classroom or book group?

Then this is the resource for you! The Murder at the Vicarage: A Study Resource unpacks Agatha Christie's first Miss Marple novel. It is often regarded as a quintessential example of the Golden Age Detective story. After all, it is set in a village and the local unpopular squire is found dead in the vicar's study. However, there is so much more to discover beyond these tropes and this study resource aims to open up the discussion.

Your purchase provides you with printable resources and an online, interactive presentation, which will include:

• Activities exploring key terminology and tropes associated with Golden Age Detective fiction
• A guided opportunity to have a go at close reading a text

• Support to enable you to analyse Miss Marple's first novel-length case in light of key critical texts, from authors such as W. H. Auden

• Miss Marple and depictions of gender in crime fiction
• Social context including class and servants, the church, and chief constables
• Interactive exercises which include fun quizzes, matching exercises and a word search

• Links to other resources, including podcast episodes

This resource is designed to help you share what you already know with others through collaborative learning and to support users in expressing their ideas and opinions about a book in light of new information.

If you are using this product within a group setting, this resource has advice on how to engage with certain activities to make them more hands on.

To ensure value for money this resource has been packed with lots of content, but it has been set up so users can pick and choose what activities they look at first. More importantly, you don't have to use it all in one go!

IMPORTANT INFORMATION: It is strongly advised that you read The Murder at the Vicarage before using these materials, as spoilers are included.

Meet the Creator

I blog at: https://crossexaminingcrime.wordpress.com/ and I am a member of the Crime Writers’ Association. My latest publication with the British Library is How to Survive a Classic Crime Novel (2023). This work was shortlisted for the H. R. F. Keating award for Best 2023 Biographical or Critical Book Related to Crime Fiction. I compiled the puzzles in The Pocket Detective (2018) and The Pocket Detective 2 (2019) and I also contributed to the publication: The 100 Greatest Literary Detectives (2018), ed. by Eric Sandberg, writing on Juanita Sheridan’s Lily Wu.

I have been a speaker at the Bodies from the Library Conference, the International Agatha Christie Festival and the Dorothy L. Sayers Convention. In the past I was a regular contributor to Crime and Detective Stories Magazine (CADs), and I have also appeared in Mystery Scene Magazine.

Online, I have been interviewed on the UK Crime Book Club YouTube channel and have made appearances on the following podcasts: All About Agatha, In GAD We Trust, Shedunnit and Northern Voices.