Murder at the Vicarage & The Mysterious Affair at Styles

By: Agatha Christie

Narrated by: Richard E. Grant, Hugh Fraser

Length: 14 hrs and 8 mins

Publisher's summary

TWO BESTSELLING MYSTERIES IN ONE GREAT PACKAGE!

THE MURDER AT THE VICARAGE

The Murder at the Vicarage is Agatha Christie’s first mystery to feature the beloved investigator Miss Marple—as a dead body in a clergyman’s study proves to the indomitable sleuth that no place, holy or otherwise, is a sanctuary from homicide.

Miss Marple encounters a compelling murder mystery in the sleepy little village of St. Mary Mead, where under the seemingly peaceful exterior of an English country village lurks intrigue, guilt, deception and death.

Colonel Protheroe, local magistrate and overbearing land-owner is the most detested man in the village. Everyone—even in the vicar—wishes he were dead. And very soon he is—shot in the head in the vicar's own study. Faced with a surfeit of suspects, only the inscrutable Miss Marple can unravel the tangled web of clues that will lead to the unmasking of the killer.

THE MYSTERIOUS AFFAIR AT STYLES

Hercule Poirot solves his first case in the Agatha Christie novel that started it all, now in a fully restored edition that features a “missing chapter” along with commentary from Christie expert John Curran.

Who poisoned the wealthy Emily Inglethorp and how did the murderer penetrate and escape from her locked bedroom? Suspects abound in the quaint village of Styles St. Mary—from the heiress's fawning new husband to her two stepsons, her volatile housekeeper, and a pretty nurse who works in a hospital dispensary.

With impeccable timing, and making his unforgettable debut, the brilliant Belgian detective Hercule Poirot is on the case.

©1930 Agatha Christie Ltd. (P)2002 HarperCollins Publishers

Strange choice for a narrator

Any additional comments?

I am notsure why they chose to have a female reader for this Marple mystery. The narrator in the story is a man, and he is the primary investigator in the mystery. It was very confusing to keep hearing the narrator say "I" and then realize she was referring to a man. Normally that kind of gender swap doesn't bother me when the narrator is good, but in this particular case I would strongly recommend getting a different version of the audiobook.

Confusing narrator choice for Vicarage

Overall interesting introduction to the Miss Marple and Poirot series. I was distracted by the choice of reader for the Miss Marple story. The narrator in the book is the vicar, a man, and it stays in his first person point of view for the entire book. But for some reason they have a woman reading it, probably selected to sound like Miss Marple, but she's not the narrator. So you spend the first few minutes of the book wondering why an elderly English woman is talking about her wife and her sermons (I wouldn't be surprised today, but this is decidedly not a modern setting).

Sorry Ms. Hickson

Ms. Hickson was a wonderful actor and I have enjoyed many of her performances, especially as Ms. Marple. However, as a narrator she, unfortunately, falls short. Thankfully the second book was narrated by Mr. Fraser who is an excellent narrator and I thoroughly enjoyed his reading.

The beginnings of Marple and Poirot!

These first novels of the Miss Marple and Hercule Poirot series are fun introductions to the world of Agatha Christie and the narrators are both great in their own ways. Despite the negative reviews of Joan Hickson's narration, I enjoyed her interpretation, and felt she gave the characters the right inflection and life. She will always be the definitive Miss Marple for me and I loved her reading, though she does sometimes almost slur/eat words. Hugh Fraser does an even better job! He has a lively voice adept at portraying each character distinctly and makes me want to listen to more Agatha Christie audiobooks just to hear him read these classics. I definitely recommend this combination to Agatha Christie fans; two unabridged novels in one purchase is a great treat!

1st book 3 stars. 2nd book 5 stars. Enjoyed 2nd.

I found it hard not to fast forward to the 2nd book. The first, well a lot can be said about how a book is read. I did like the story. The reader gives a lot to the story and when that is lacking it takes away from the story. I very much enjoyed the 2nd book. The story, wonderful. Reader, excellent. Over all, wonderful. If these books were separate my stars would be different.

Great introductions to two iconic mystery series

The Murder at the Vicarage

Narrator - Joan Hickson

Sound quality - Excellent

Narration - I love the A&E Miss Marple series starring Joan Hickson so I was excited to listen to this edition. Unfortunately what I did not take into consideration is that that Ms. Hickson does not necessarily have the best voice for such things. Due to her soft tone I found many areas hard to understand and had to reverse and listen again to pick up what happening. Her inflections and all that were great, but I found that I simply did not enjoy her narration as much as I hoped.

Characters - This was Dame Agatha Christie's introduction to her readers to Miss Marple, and although she is not as well rounded as in other books and is not even the main focus of the story, it was a nice introduction which set the scene for her later development. The other characters were all very well developed and likable or not likable as Ms. Christie intends. As is the case with most of her books the characters are realistic in the meaning that she shows their strengths and weaknesses and makes you feel like they could be people you know in your everyday life. It is part of the reason her novels are so timeless.

Plot - The plot is a very well constructed "whodunit" and as always we are provided with a lot of subjects to choose from who all have their own reason for wanting the demise of the murdered man. Listening as the vicar makes rounds hearing all the inside happenings from the members of his flock as they all tell each others secrets and actions was a fun way of exposing all the possibilities and reasons and background. I think every single person is made to look guilty at one point or another in the story which is always fun as you try to determine who really committed the crime. I did find the ending a bit of a let down and bit too far fetched on how it all worked out, but not more so than other mysteries I have read of similar settings.

The Mysterious Affair at Styles

Narrator - Hugh Fraser

Narration - As disappointed as I was with Joan Hickson as a narrator for the Miss Marple series, I was as equally pleased with Hugh Fraser (the actor who portrays Captain Hastings in the A&E Series) as a narrator for the Poirot stories. His voice is very smooth and he nails the inflections in tones to really bring the story to life. It was especially fitting for this book as it is told from Captain Hastings point of view. I like him almost as well as I like Simon Prebble as a narrator.

Characters - This was Christie's first introduction to Poirot and he does not appear until a few chapters in as the story focuses on Captain Hastings return from the war and how he fits into Poirot's life. It introduces the three major recurring characters in all the Poirot novels - Poirot, Hastings, and the infamous Inspector Japp (although his character is not as well introduced as the others). Being the first book the characters are a bit more exaggerated and less "real" then they become in later novels as she spends time accentuating their foibles that make them unique. The supporting cast of characters were a bit weak in this novel possibly because the reader has so many to keep up with, but over all they are not unlikeable or unbelievable, just a bit underdeveloped.

Plot - The plot in this book is well constructed and complex as the one from the Murder at the Vicarage, but again I felt the ending was a bit rough. Just not enough to make the reader buy into it and you almost don't care by the time you get there. I cant' really comment too much more without adding spoilers which I don't want to do. I believe fans of Agatha Christie will note that the ending reveals a plot which she develops better in one of her other novels but I won't say which one, but I will say it is a novel that was executed much better in building up to the unveiling than this one.

All in all I would rate the first story as a 3 star and the second as a 4 star so I am going with the 3 star due primarily to problems with the endings and Hickson's lack of success in my opinion as a narrator.

miss marple talks to miss marple about miss marple

This is one of my favorite Christie stories, but it was very hard to "get into" this one, primarily because the main narrator/ character in the story is a man. Most of the people speaking are men. But the voice of EVERYONE in this story is miss marple? While it isn't a big deal in 4:50 from Paddington, most likely because the main character/narrator is a woman, it was really hard to follow this one, as often in the story it was Miss Marple speaking to Miss Marple about Miss Marple? There is not even an effort to disguise or change her voice. When you buy this one, be aware that its just Miss Marple reading you a story.

Good story, poor narration

I really love Agatha Christie's stories, they are always so good and some of the best mysteries. However, the narration was very difficult to understand when listening to The Murder at the Vicarage. Christie's stories are already fairly challenging to follow along when just listening, but the accent and mooshed together words made it much more difficult. I really wanted to enjoy this with my Husband, but it has turned him off to audible books :(.

Joan Hickson disappointing

Hugh Fraser is excellent as a narrator. As Joan Hickson plays a great Miss Marple, she does not change voices for the different characters as a good narrator does. She was very disappointing.

Aggravating...then Homerun!

It was painful to listen to the first story as narrated; had to stop after chapter 12..... BUT thank goodness for Hugh! He knocked it out of the park. "Styles" isn't one of my favorite Christie`s novels but it was a joy listening to as narrated by Mr. Fraser. He is flawless and I would listen to this one again.

just average

just not as good as i thought they would be a little bit underwhelmed, I expected more I'm afraid

Enjoyed the first one more than the second.

I enjoyed listening to the introductory stories for Miss Marple and Monsieur Poirot together, it is very interesting to see how the author chose to present each iconic character. In terms of the plot, I found The Murder at the Vicarage enjoyable and entertaining, but I must confess I was heartily bored by The Mysterious Affair at Styles. With the exception of Poirot himself, all other characters are flat and unrelatable, even poor Hastings! And the mystery itself was so convoluted it failed to draw me in. I mean, with Agatha Christie you know you are not supposed to figure out who the culprit is, but you are usually allowed to follow a thread of clues while you wait for the final reveal. Yet it was so difficult to get that feeling of going along with the investigation in this story that I kept losing interest, which is annoying with such a short one. At any rate, it is interesting to note how the Poirot arc got better in time.

A well-meaning note on the readers: as much as I wanted to like Joan Hickson's reading, her early 20th century Queen's English is so spot-on it is hard to understand, at least for a non-native English speaker. She is a great actress, and her penchant for finishing sentences like she was about to fall asleep worked perfectly for her on-screen portrayal of Miss Marple, but in the audio-only format she sounds garbled far too often. Hugh Fraser is impeccable as always.