Marple: Twelve New Mysteries
Fiction
William Morrow
September 13, 2022
Hardcover
384
Free from publisher
A brand-new collection of short stories featuring the Queen of Mystery’s legendary detective Jane Marple, penned by twelve remarkable bestselling and acclaimed authors.
This collection of a dozen original short stories, all featuring Jane Marple, will introduce the character to a whole new generation. Each author reimagines Agatha Christie’s Marple through their own unique perspective while staying true to the hallmarks of a traditional mystery.
Naomi Alderman
Leigh Bardugo
Alyssa Cole
Lucy Foley
Elly Griffiths
Natalie Haynes
Jean Kwok
Val McDermid
Karen M. McManus
Dreda Say Mitchell
Kate Mosse
Ruth Ware
Miss Marple was first introduced to readers in a story Agatha Christie wrote for The Royal Magazine in 1927 and made her first appearance in a full-length novel in 1930’s The Murder at the Vicarage. It has been 45 years since Agatha Christie’s last Marple novel, Sleeping Murder, was published posthumously in 1976, and this collection of ingenious new stories by twelve Christie devotees will be a timely reminder why Jane Marple remains the most famous fictional female detective of all time.
My review:
Two things you should know about me prior to reading this book are that I've NEVER (gasp) read an Agatha Christie novel, and that I've never met a short story collection (with rare exception) that I've liked. I decided to try this book because it had many stories from authors I've read from before, and I thought it was a good chance to get my first dose of Agatha Christie's beloved Miss Marple. This book was really fun, and I flew through its pages, sectioning off 2 to 3 stories a day. I absolutely fell in love with Jane Marple! I do love a book with an older character, and she fit the bill perfectly. This was a perfect stepping off place to Christie's longer mysteries, in that there were not a ton of characters to keep track of due to the shortness of each story. I have a feeling it gets much harder when reading the full length novels. Between all of the collective stories, you definitely got a glimpse into the places and people Miss Marple interacts with, and the crossover from one author to the next, while not chronological in time, gave a more thorough understanding of our main character and her idiosyncrasies and habits.
A very well curated selection of mysteries by some present day authors, this book has me hooked on going back and reading some of the original works and having more fun with the excellent character of Miss Marple. A great job done by these authors, I hope Agatha (and Miss Marple) would agree.
