#BookReview: MARPLE: TWELVE NEW STORIES by 12 best-selling authors @HarperFiction

Publication: 15th September 2022 – HarperCollins

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.

This collection of twelve 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 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.

AMAZON

WATERSTONES

I am a huge fan of Agatha Christie and read some of her novels multiple times. However, while I’ve read most of the Hercule Poirot novels, Miss Marple is still quite unknown to me. So far, I’ve read only one of the novels featuring the woman turned detective whose shrewd intelligence and inquisitive eyes lead her to solve cases that the police can’t, but after reading these intriguing and entertaining twelve short stories, I think I need to start focusing my attention on the legendary Jane Marple.

Each story is unique while also remaining faithful to the original stories and each features a different case in which Miss Jane Marple somehow gets involved. There is of course murder, but there is also blackmail, theft, mistaken identities, revenge, jealousies, inheritances at stake, missing jewels, and, in one case, a missing groom. And while the police thinks the case is quite straightforward and the culprit is arrested, Jane Marple analyses the complexity of each situation and the characters in play and reveals the often shocking truth.

“It wasn’t the first and it wouldn’t be the last time she was dismissed as a silly old woman with one foot in the grave.”

People often underestimate Miss Jane Marple because of her age and her sex. She wears tweed, tea and cherry are her drinks of choice, she is often found knitting or attending to her garden or taking part in gossip. She is barely noticed, not at all threatening, but nothing goes past her and she quietly solves cases. From her small village of St Mary Mead to New York, from Hong Kong to the Amalfi coast, whether it is during a wedding ceremony or a Christmas dinner, on a cruise or dining at the high table of an Oxford college, there is never a dull moment for Miss Jane Marple. 

Marple: Twelve New Stories is an incredible and original collection of short stories written by twelve fantastic and renowned authors (including some of my favourite): Lucy Foley, Val McDermid, Alyssa Cole, Natalie Haynes, Ruth Ware, Naomi Alderman, Jean Kwok, Dreads Say Mitchell, Elly Griffiths, Karen M. McManus, Kate Mosse, and Leigh Bardugo.

A huge thank you to HarperCollins and NetGalley for providing me with a proof of this gripping collection.