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It feels very exciting to allow this formidable selection of authors the opportunity to come up with new adventures and mysteries for Miss Marple. It is time for readers to rediscover Marple and I personally cannot wait to read the resulting stories. When & Where Can You Get Marple: Twelve New Mysteries I think some authors managed to evoke Miss Marple and others I felt like they were just trying to do their own spin on the character and it just made me miss Agatha Christie.
A Deadly Wedding Day by Dreda Say Mitchell - Marple enlists the help of Miss Bella to get to the bottom of a murder at a wedding reception. This one was, easily one of my favourites. It's a well thought out and executed mystery, and the addition of Miss Bella brings out Miss Marple's best observational skills. 4/5 Introducing her to a whole new generation of readers, each author reimagines Agatha Christie's Marple through their lens. Marple: Twelve New Stories is a collection that I salivated over the second I knew it was coming. New short stories featuring Britain's favorite female detective? Sign me up!Why Miss Marple, thank you so much for returning to us with some delightful new tales! Of course, I'd love to sit down with a cup of tea and scone and listen to them with you. (This collection was an absolute delight.) A brand new collection of short stories featuring the Queen of Crime’s legendary detective Jane Marple, penned by twelve remarkable bestselling and acclaimed authors.
Evil In Small Places By Lucy Foley - Marple takes a detour to visit an old school friend and becomes embroiled in the mysterious murder of a former French singer. Because of course she does. A great closed circle mystery that has a very distinct beginning, middle and end. Is it entirely original? No. Is the killer really obvious? Yes. However this still retains that nostalgic feel of a good Christie story, and Marple is as sharp as ever. 3/5. A Deadly Wedding Day" by Drea Say Mitchell (2 stars)-This didn't feel like a Miss Marple story, but more like a Miss Bella story. The solution was so convoluted I just couldn't get into it really. The Murdering Sort" by Karen M. McNanus (1 star)-The story itself was okay, but what kept throwing me is the main character we follow, is a great great niece of Miss Marple and that her granddad is Miss Marple's, nephew, Raymond. The math wasn't mathing people. It just kept messing me up. Also this takes place in the 1970s and I just gave up how this was even making sense after a while. Because of the age discrepancy, I just couldn't get into the story. Also the reason behind the murder was stupid.
From this point on there's a more experimental approach as various writers put Marple in some unique locations - starting with Manhattan, then a random village, a college and Hong Kong. While some of the stories may have been “fine”, all this collection of stories did was prove that Miss Marple could only be written by Agatha Christie. The 2nd story is The Second Murder at the Vicarage by Val McDermid, narrated by Adrian Scarborough. 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. Also enjoyed The Murdering Sort/ Karen M. Mcmanus, Murder at the Villa Rosa/Elly Griffiths, and Mystery of the Acid Soil/Kate Mosse.
Short stories are great throw aways, and especially fun old-time mysteries with that twist spin by those mystery authors we have come to love. The Unravelling by Natalie Haynes - A new farm hand lies dead, and a woman stands accused. But why does she have no motive? I love Natalie Haynes writing, but at first I found this incredibly dull. However as everything starts to pull together, and a sprinkle of mythology is placed into Marple's reasoning, I ended up pleasantly surprised. 3/5. This charming collection by HarperCollins is set to publish on September 15, 2022 and should satisfy fans of “Miss Jane Marple” old and new!! Fortunately, Miss Marple is on hand to unravel the mystery based on her deep knowledge of the inhabitants of St Mary Mead, similar to how she came to solve the murder of Colonel Protheroe in that same vicarage some years previously. Miss Marple is also fortuitously present to solve the murder of an unpopular choir mistress in Lucy Foley’s Evil in Small Places. She is staying in the village of Meon Maltravers while visiting her former schoolfriend Prudence during the Halloween period, but the spooky atmosphere of the place doesn’t impede her investigative prowess when the two of them stumble upon the victim. The 12th story is The Disappearance by Leigh Bardugo, narrated by Miriam Margolyes. I loved the descriptions of the people and the surprise ending. I felt quite bereft when I finished listening and had to leave Miss Marple behind. Favorite quotes:
In 1927, the world was introduced to St. Mary Mead's most famous spinster, Miss Jane Marple, in a short story published in The Royal Magazine. It would be another three years before she appeared in a full-length novel, The Murder at the Vicarage. I absolutely loved this collection. Each chapter (apart from the the introductions) are the individual stories and are introduced at the beginning of each Chapter. Impressing me with a different approach was “Murder at the Villa Rosa” by Elly Griffiths which was told from the POV of Signor Jeffries, who meets Miss Marple in picturesque Italy. She was more of a secondary character but as always, she makes herself very useful with her “knowledge of human nature “.
Review of last story--FYI, Miss Marple wouldn't be okay with murder, no matter who did it. I think the last story totally mixed up Marple with Poirot.I enjoyed the writing of each author, and I appreciated their creativity and their effort to pay an homage to one of my top favourite authors. If you are in the market for a collection of short stories in the mystery genre, you really can't do better than Marple.
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