The Murder at the Vicarage

In St. Mary Mead, the vicar, Leonard Clement, tells the story. Colonel Protheroe, the most disliked man in the village, is found shot dead in the vicar's own study. Two people quickly confess: the painter Lawrence Redding and Anne, the colonel's young wife. Miss Marple, the neighbor who sees everything from her garden, puts it together. The two were lovers and did it together: the second shot heard in the woods was a picric acid trick to blur the time of the murder. Miss Marple's trap gets Redding to give himself away, and the couple is arrested. In the end, the mysterious Mrs. Lestrange turns out to be the mother of Lettice, the colonel's daughter.

1. ChangeAn invented romance

   The ITV version (2004) gives Miss Marple a past that isn't in the books: as a young woman, she sees off a married lover leaving for the war.

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2. ChangeFrom 1930 to 1951

   The book came out in 1930 and is set then. ITV moved the story to 1951, complete with an on-screen calendar, and swapped some minor characters for a French professor and his granddaughter.

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3. ChangeThe BBC moved the decade too

   The BBC series with Joan Hickson set every case in the 1950s. This one, aired on Christmas 1986, takes place in 1954.

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4. Behind the scenesDedicated to her daughter

   Christie dedicated the book to her only child, Rosalind, who was 11 when it came out. Years later, she said she no longer liked it as much.

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