To Rosalind...

It is difficult to know quite where to begin this story, but I have fixed my choice on a certain Wednesday at luncheon at the Vicarage. The conversation, though in the main irrelevant to the matter in...

Griselda is a very irritating woman. On leaving the luncheon table, I had felt myself to be in a good mood for preparing a really forceful address for the Church of England Men’s Society. Now I felt r...

“Nasty old cat,” said Griselda, as soon as the door was closed. She made a face in the direction of the departing visitors and then looked at me and laughed. “Len, do you really suspect me of having a...

I had entirely forgotten that we had asked Lawrence Redding to dinner that night. When Griselda burst in and scolded me, pointing out that it lacked two minutes to dinner time, I was quite taken aback...

It was nearer seven than half-past six when I approached the Vicarage gate on my return. Before I reached it, it swung open and Lawrence Redding came out. He stopped dead on seeing me, and I was immed...

We puzzled over the business of the clock for some time, but we could make nothing of it. Griselda said I ought to make another effort to tell Inspector Slack about it, but on that point I was feeling...

Colonel Melchett is a dapper little man with a habit of snorting suddenly and unexpectedly. He has red hair and rather keen bright blue eyes. “Good morning, vicar,” he said. “Nasty business, eh? Poor ...

We were rather silent on our way down to the police station. Haydock drew behind a little and murmured to me: “You know I don’t like the look of this. I don’t like it. There’s something here we don’t ...

After leaving a message at the police station, the Chief Constable announced his intention of paying a visit to Miss Marple. “You’d better come with me, vicar,” he said. “I don’t want to give a member...

His remarks on the subject of Miss Marple as we left the house were far from complimentary. “I really believe that wizened-up old maid thinks she knows everything there is to know. And hardly been out...

I saw at a glance that Colonel Melchett and Inspector Slack had not been seeing eye to eye about the case. Melchett looked flushed and annoyed and the inspector looked sulky. “I’m sorry to say,” said ...

I was summoned to the study when Lawrence Redding arrived. He looked haggard, and, I thought, suspicious. Colonel Melchett greeted him with something approaching cordiality. “We want to ask you a few ...

I hardly thought it likely that Mrs. Price Ridley had anything so dramatic in view, but I did wonder what had taken her to the police station. Had she really got evidence of importance, or that she th...

On my way home, I ran into Miss Hartnell and she detained me at least ten minutes, declaiming in her deep bass voice against the improvidence and ungratefulness of the lower classes. The crux of the m...

Hawes’s appearance distressed me very much. His hands were shaking and his face kept twitching nervously. In my opinion he should have been in bed, and I told him so. He insisted that he was perfectly...

As I went out I ran into Haydock on the doorstep. He glanced sharply after Slack, who was just passing through the gate, and demanded: “Has he been questioning her?” “Yes.” “He’s been civil, I hope?” ...

Inspector Slack came round to see me the following morning. He is, I think, thawing towards me. In time, he may forget the incident of the clock. “Well, sir,” he greeted me. “I’ve traced that telephon...

The inquest was held that afternoon (Saturday) at two o’clock at the Blue Boar. The local excitement was, I need hardly say, tremendous. There had been no murder in St. Mary Mead for at least fifteen ...

“Very glad to have met you,” said Lawrence. “Come to my place.” We turned in at the little rustic gate, went up the path, and he drew a key from his pocket and inserted it in the lock. “You keep the d...

When I got back to the Vicarage I found that we were in the middle of a domestic crisis. Griselda met me in the hall and with tears in her eyes dragged me into the drawing-room. “She’s going.” “Who’s ...

I cannot say that I have at any time had 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 lett...

Inspector Slack’s orders, once I had got him on the telephone, were brief and emphatic. Nothing was to “get about.” In particular, Miss Cram was not to be alarmed. In the meantime, a search was to be ...

On the way back, I proposed to Griselda that we should make a detour and go round by the barrow. I was anxious to see if the police were at work and if so, what they found. Griselda, however, had thin...

I returned to the Vicarage to find Hawes waiting for me in my study. He was pacing up and down nervously, and when I entered the room he started as though he had been shot. “You must excuse me,” he sa...

I found it hard to shake off the impression left by the anonymous letter. Pitch soils. However, I gathered up the other three letters, glanced at my watch, and started out. I wondered very much what t...

I was in a strange mood when I mounted the pulpit that night. The church was unusually full. I cannot believe that it was the prospect of Hawes preaching which had attracted so many. Hawes’s sermons a...

Griselda and Dennis had not yet returned. I realized that the most natural thing would have been for me to go up to the house with Miss Marple and fetch them home. Both she and I had been so entirely ...

I hurried down the village street. It was eleven o’clock, and at eleven o’clock on a Sunday night the whole village of St. Mary Mead might be dead. I saw, however, a light in a first floor window as I...

I don’t know how long I sat there⁠—only a few minutes in reality, I suppose. Yet it seemed as though an eternity had passed when I heard the door open and, turning my head, looked up to see Melchett e...

We stared at her. I really think that for a moment or two we really believed she was out of her mind. The accusation seemed so utterly preposterous. Colonel Melchett was the first to speak. He spoke k...

Colonel Melchett and I both stared at her. “A trap? What kind of a trap?” Miss Marple was a little diffident, but it was clear that she had a plan fully outlined. “Supposing Mr. Redding were to be run...

There is little more to be told. Miss Marple’s plan succeeded. Lawrence Redding was not an innocent man, and the hint of a witness of the change of capsule did indeed cause him to do “something foolis...