logo

51 pages 1 hour read

Agatha Christie

Murder at the Vicarage

Fiction | Novel | Adult | Published in 1930

A modern alternative to SparkNotes and CliffsNotes, SuperSummary offers high-quality Study Guides with detailed chapter summaries and analysis of major themes, characters, and more.

Chapters 17-24Chapter Summaries & Analyses

Chapter 17 Summary

The next morning, Slack tells Clement he traced the call that falsely asked for help with a dying parishioner. It came from the empty lodge at Old Hall, and fingerprints on the phone there were wiped clean. It wasn’t Mrs. or Miss Protheroe, as witnesses saw them elsewhere. The crank call to Mrs. Price Ridley came from Mr. Redding’s abode at a time when he was gone. Slack thinks the call and the pistol were both attempts to throw suspicion on Redding. Griselda interrupts the two men and says Miss Marple wants to see Clement. Miss Marple is busy as she prepares for her nephew’s visit, but she pauses to tell Clement that she saw Miss Cram go into the woods with a suitcase at midnight and leave without it.

Chapter 18 Summary

The whole village is excited on the day of the inquest because this is the first murder there in 15 years. After all the characters testify, the verdict is murder by a person or persons unknown. Clement escapes the throng of people through the archeologist’s upstairs room at the local pub to avoid journalists. Dr. Stone and Miss Cram chat with him about what an opinionated boor Protheroe was until Miss Cram reminds them Dr. Stone has a train to catch. Clement helps him get to the train. As they run, Dr. Stone says how terrible Redding is, that he suspects Redding is a dangerous man around girls and women. He almost misses the train and bumps into a man getting off who Clement recognizes as Miss Marple’s nephew, the writer Raymond West. Clement sees Redding on the road and greets him.

Chapter 19 Summary

Redding invites Clement into his house, and they discuss the entire village’s knowledge of what he is up to due to the network of gossip. Redding says he took Miss Marple’s advice and used his charm to persuade initially reluctant servant girls at Old Hall to tell him what they heard of the exchange between Protheroe and Mrs. Lestrange. One said she heard Protheroe shouting that it was an outrage she was there after so many years, that “you shall not see her—I forbid it,” and that he doesn’t believe it (185). Mrs. Lestrange responded, “By this time tomorrow night, you may be dead” (185). Clement is disappointed in himself because his mind won’t accept Mrs. Lestrange as a suspect and he knows it is because she is attractive.

Chapter 20 Summary

When he gets to the Vicarage, Clement finds Mary resigned her position because Lettice Protheroe, who was searching for her hat in the study, criticized Mary’s dusting. Griselda is upset. Despite his opinion that Mary is a terrible maid and cook, Clement persuades Mary to stay since he and Griselda are the ones whose opinions matter. Despite her snobbish behavior, Dennis rhapsodizes over Lettice to the annoyance of Griselda. Clement goes to the study and finds a blue object on the floor and recognizes it. Griselda comes in and informs him Miss Marple invited them over to help entertain her nephew.

Chapter 21 Summary

Miss Marple’s nephew, Raymond West, does not impress Clement, despite his reputation as a brilliant writer. Raymond and Griselda, however, get along well and they all discuss the murder. Raymond names Clement the most interesting suspect. Miss Marple brings up Miss Cram, which leads to Dr. Stone. Raymond reveals that he knows the archeologist Dr. Stone and that the man who ran into him at the station wasn’t him. They call Inspector Slack.

Chapter 22 Summary

Dennis, lovesick over Lettice, reveals she left the tennis party at an earlier time than she said to the police. Clement gets a note from Anne Protheroe asking him and Griselda to come over. Anne takes Clement aside and shows him what the newspapers printed about her. She also shows him a painting in the attic she heard someone destroy the night before. She tells Clement she will live there another six months to prevent any gossip before marrying Redding. Miss Cram will stay with them until she figures out what is happening with Dr. Stone. Clement asks if the blue object, an earring that he found, is hers, and she says yes. She asks where he found it, but he implores her to maintain her curiosity a little longer and inquires where Lettice might be. He finds her alone and asks why she dropped her stepmother’s earring in the study. She cries and admits to trying to frame her. She thanks Clement for being kind and discreet and admits to him that she’s sorry about Dennis.

Chapter 23 Summary

On their way home, Clement and Griselda stop by the barrow the supposed Dr. Stone was excavating, and the police say they’ve found nothing, including the suitcase Miss Marple claimed Miss Cram carried into the woods. Clement explores the path again and finds the suitcase as well as some clear crystals near it. He takes it to the closest house, which is Miss Marple’s. She advises them to call the police. Inspector Slack comes and they open the suitcase. Inside is silver from Old Hall, which reveals Dr. Stone is a thief, not an archeologist. Miss Marple suggests Dr. Stone was making copies to replace originals so the owners wouldn’t discover the robbery for years until the next appraisal. The Colonel’s sudden death, however, might hasten an appraisal, which explains why Stone made a run for it.

Chapter 24 Summary

Hawes is waiting for Clement at the vicarage and seems even more nervous and over-excited. Clement thinks Hawes is taking drugs due to the curate’s wild accusations and pacing. Hawes is upset because Redding randomly came to his house to visit. Hawes is paranoid and disturbed and can’t imagine why Redding would go there. He again accuses Archer of the murder. After Hawes leaves, Clement examines the post and finds four letters. Three are from older ladies who insist they have disturbing information and solicit his advice. The fourth anonymously accuses Griselda of seeing Mr. Redding behind the Vicar’s back. Griselda sees this and admits she knew him and had a crush on him before she met Clement.

Chapters 17-24 Analysis

Clement learns from The Error of Arrogance in Authority Figures in the previous sections. He becomes attentive to what Miss Marple says in these chapters. Miss Marple continues to prove she is not the stereotype of the small-town older woman, prone to “hysterics” and gossip, that the police continue to believe. His perceptions change, and he realizes Miss Marple is clever when she picks up on the fact that Redding is charming enough to coax information out of people, and when she notices that Miss Cram entered the woods around midnight to hide the suitcase and emerged empty-handed. These important observations help untangle other details and reveal Redding’s true nature. Even Griselda’s flirtation with Mr. Redding before her acquaintance with the vicar brings his insidious nature too close to home for the vicar’s comfort and casts Griselda as another possible red herring suspect.

There is often a second crime committed in Golden Age detective stories that helps illuminate the first, and Murder at the Vicarage is no exception. It isn’t, however, a standard of the second murder trope, but instead is a complex, long-running pilfer. The theft of Old Hall’s silver is irrelevant to the murder, but the murder investigation reveals this crime that is already in progress. The Old Hall silver caper turns out to be one of the largest red herrings in the novel. As the various investigators eliminate suspects and solve the minor mystery of the theft and identity of Stone, they clear a path to figure out the larger mystery of the murder. More red herrings, such as Hawes’s disturbed rantings a second time and Griselda’s newly discovered past association with Redding, lend intrigue and suspense.

Characters drop other important plot points into conversation in this section that lay suspicion on Redding and highlight his ability to manipulate. The false Dr. Stone’s warning and Miss Marple’s observation of his persuasive manner with women hint at The Evils of Human Nature that hide in plain sight with this character. His actions reveal a selfish motivation. He doesn’t employ his charm if it won’t get him something he needs, as Griselda notices when she tells Clement that Redding didn’t even try to flirt with her. Clement and the majority of the village still are convinced by his charm at this point, thus when he suspiciously turns up at Hawes’s house, they all miss the danger that Hawes is in.

The theme of The Dynamics of Village Life shifts in this section. While the previous section dealt with neighbors getting under each other’s skin, this part reveals the difficulties of having a small pool of love interests. Dennis’s infatuation with a girl who shames servants to cover for planting evidence and who Griselda firmly doesn’t like shows that part of the dynamics of a small town is a paucity of romantic choice. The town gossips all believe that naturally, the young and pretty Lettice caught Mr. Redding’s eye, as she is the sole attractive unmarried young woman. Because of this provincial way of thinking, Lettice becomes another red herring.

blurred text
blurred text
blurred text
blurred text