Miss Marple: The Murder at the Vicarage (1986) on Netflix

Faced with two false confessions and numerous suspects after a despised civil magistrate is found shot in the local vicarage, Detective Inspector Slack reluctantly accepts help from Miss Marple.

When a despised magistrate is found shot to death in the library of the local vicarage, his wife and her lover, a portrait painter living on the church grounds, both confess to the crime. Miss Marple's keen powers of observation clear both of them of the crime, but other suspects abound. Included are the murdered man's daughter, who posed for the artist, a neurotic cleric who's embezzled church funds, the local doctor, an ex-convict who poached on the magistrate's land, and a missionary's enigmatic widow who argued with him the day before he was killed. An exasperated Inspector Slack must reluctantly accept help from the analytical Miss Marple.

—Gabe Taverney (duke1029@aol.com)

Everyone in the village of St. Mary Mead seems to dislike Colonel Protheroe. So when he is found dead in the Vicarage study, Miss Marple is anything but surprised. There is any number of possible murderers. Protheroe's second wife Ann is having an affair with local artist Lawrence Redding and his daughter Lettice rebels at his strict nature. When church funds go missing, he accuses the assistant vicar of theft. Finally, there is new arrival in town who certainly seems to know more than a stranger should; could she have reason to cause his death? Once again, Insp. Slack finds Miss Marple's assistance invaluable, even if he does find her to be something of a busybody.

—garykmcd