In 47 days, Agatha Christie’s first novel starring Miss Marple joins the US public domain. The Murder at the Vicarage, which also introduces her home village of St Mary Mead, is not the spinster detective’s most popular case, partly because she acts more catty than in later books. But Dorothy L. Sayers praised it, saying “Dear old Tabbies are the only possible right kind of female detective, and Miss M is lovely.” (Sayers’ own female detective debuts later in our #PublicDomainDayCountdown .)