Murder at the Vicarage

“That’ll be remembered against you when the old boy is found bathed in blood.”

Clement’s nephew Dennis says this in response to the Vicar’s exclamation that he wishes Colonel Protheroe were dead. It is a moment of metafictional humor and foreshadowing. The reader expects the narrative to reveal a body and this statement increases the anticipation. It is a moment of self-referential awareness where Christie pokes fun at murder mystery conventions and reader expectations that her work created.

“Makes one think of detective stories. You know—‘Who was she, the mysterious woman with the pale, beautiful face? What was her past history? Nobody knew. There was something faintly sinister about her.’”

This quote about Mrs. Lestrange is the second self-referential and metafictional remark in the first few pages of the book. Griselda talks about some of the more common tropes of the genre, which is Christie’s humorous nod to the reader she assumes knows detective mystery devices. With this remark and others, she pokes fun at her work and that of her peers. She maintains a continuous lighthearted inside joke as the plot incorporates meta-jokes such as Mrs. Lestrange’s on-the-nose name, an early clue that the characters mock-emphasize. This leads readers to take her less seriously as a suspect.