Thanks to NetGalley for granting me access to this book, one of the most highly anticipated books of the year for me, a keen Agatha Christie fan!
What a huge challenge for any crime writer – to write a new Miss Marple story! To write a credible story in the style of the great Agatha Christie is an extremely high bar for which to aim.
Luckily for us, twelve fabulous female authors were prepared to take on that challenge, and the result is ‘Marple’. Those brave enough to pick up the baton are Lucy Foley, Van McDermid, Kate Mosse, Elly Griffiths, Alyssa Cole, Natalie Haynes, Ruth Ware, Naomi Alderman, Jean Kwok, Dreda Say Mitchell, Karen McManus and Leigh Bardugo.
What’s really striking is how differently the brief has been interpreted by each of the writers – and it makes for a fascinating collection, albeit one that is slightly curious in places. Miss Marple is – of course – the centre of each of them, but very little else features consistently. St Mary Mead crops up occasionally – but Miss Marple is also sent on various excursions to stumble across crime scenes, including Manhattan, a cruise ship called ‘The Jade Empress’ and the Amalfi Coast. Similarly, Raymond West and Dolly Bantry may be old friends for Christie fans, but there is a whole cast of new characters too.
Being a long-term Marple fan, I particularly loved the stories that were closest to Christie’s own originals – fiendish puzzles and dastardly crimes unpicked by a very observant elderly woman with a tendency to make bizarre comments. To outsiders, she seems to have only a tenuous grip on reality – but to those in the know, her slight battiness conceals a razor-sharp mind.
Indeed, there were several of the stories where I forgot that I was reading a Christie-a-like because the writers got the character or the setting or the tone absolutely right. My favourites were Lucy Foley’s story about murder in a small village (not St Mary Mead for once – where the body count is probably on a par with Midsomer!), Elly Griffith’s tale of mystery in an Italian villa and Val McDermid’s take on a second murder in the vicarage. That said, all the writers have a jolly good go at an original Marple story and I genuinely found something I loved in each of them.
If you love Miss Marple already, it’s an absolute no-brainer that you need to add this to your collection. It would definitely be more enjoyable if you’re already familiar with the character and her ways, although I do think this stands up as a decent collection of crime stories in its own right too. ‘Marple’ is an absolute joy and should be at the top of many wish lists this Christmas.
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Header photo by Hello I’m Nik on Unsplash
