Colonel Protheroe, the widely disliked magistrate of St Mary Mead, is found shot in the vicar’s study after several villagers have openly wished him dead. Confessions, altered times and local scandals create more suspects than the police can easily manage.
Miss Marple applies her close knowledge of village behaviour to evidence overlooked by those who dismiss gossip as trivial. The interwar community is presented as a dense social network in which servants, clergy, artists and established families observe one another constantly, making concealment possible only when a culprit understands exactly what neighbours expect to see.
Jacqueline Winspear
20 books
Rhys Bowen
53 books