Murder at the Vicarage recap

The disliked Colonel Protheroe is found shot in the vicar's study in St Mary Mead. His wife Anne and the artist Lawrence Redding each make suspicious confessions, but neither account fits the timing and physical evidence. Inspector Slack pursues a succession of villagers with motives, while the vicar Leonard Clement and Miss Marple notice contradictions involving a note, misleading sounds, and the movements around the vicarage. Miss Marple concludes that Anne and Lawrence acted together: the competing confessions and false chronology were parts of a plan designed to clear them both. They are arrested. Other mysteries prove separate from the killing, including Mrs Lestrange's concealed connection to Lettice Protheroe, and the Clements end the case looking forward to a child.

In St Mary Mead, the severe and unpopular Colonel Protheroe quarrels with the vicar, Leonard Clement, over a financial irregularity in the church accounts. Leonard later returns to the vicarage and finds Protheroe shot dead in his study. The dead man had arranged to meet him there, but Leonard had been called away by a message that proves false. A note on the desk and conflicting statements about when a shot was heard make the time of death uncertain. Anne Protheroe and the artist Lawrence Redding, whose attachment has already caused gossip, both come under suspicion as the police begin tracing everyone who had reason to resent the colonel.

The inquiry widens beyond the Protheroe household. Lawrence and Anne each offer an account that appears incriminating, yet the medical and physical evidence prevents the police from accepting either story at face value. Inspector Slack concentrates on concrete clues, while Miss Marple compares the witnesses' conduct with patterns she has seen elsewhere in village life. Leonard learns that several people were moving near the vicarage and that apparently precise evidence about the hour of the shooting is unreliable. Lettice Protheroe behaves evasively, and the newly arrived Mrs Lestrange shows a guarded interest in the family, creating a second secret around the victim's home.

The supposed chronology continues to break down. Testimony about the gunshot, the note beside the body, and objects moved around the study suggests deliberate staging rather than a sudden quarrel. Attention also falls on Leonard's curate, Hawes, whose nervous condition and connection to the church accounts make him vulnerable to suspicion. Mrs Lestrange's secrecy is tied to Lettice rather than to a clear motive for the shooting. Miss Marple becomes convinced that the most conspicuous evidence has been arranged to send the police along competing paths, and Leonard helps her compare what each witness could actually have seen or heard with what they merely assumed.

Miss Marple shows that Anne Protheroe and Lawrence Redding planned the murder together. Their apparently impulsive, separate confessions were meant to be disproved, leaving each with the appearance of having been falsely suspected, while the false message, altered timing, and misleading sounds obscured the real sequence. Lawrence also tries to shift the case toward Hawes, who is found dangerously ill but survives. Once Miss Marple brings the contradictions into a single reconstruction, Anne and Lawrence are prevented from escaping and arrested. Mrs Lestrange is revealed not as the killer but as Lettice's dying mother, and they are reconciled. Leonard and Griselda resume their life at the vicarage with the news that Griselda is pregnant.

Miss Marple identifies Anne Protheroe and Lawrence Redding as the conspirators. Their separate confessions were calculated to make both appear innocent once the physical evidence contradicted each account, while manipulated timing and misleading sounds confused the witnesses. Lawrence also attempts to divert suspicion toward Hawes. The accumulated inconsistencies allow Miss Marple to reconstruct the plan, and the pair are arrested before they can leave together. Mrs Lestrange's secrecy proves unrelated to the murder: she is Lettice's dying mother, and mother and daughter are reconciled. Hawes survives the attempt to make him look guilty. With the case resolved, Leonard and Griselda return to village life and learn that they are expecting a child.