Marple: Twelve New Stories

by Agatha Christie

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.

• ISBN13: 9780008467319
• Publish Date: 15 September 2022 (first published 13 September 2022)
• Publish Status: Out of Print
• Out of Print: 31 May 2024
• Publish Country: GB
• Publisher: HarperCollins Publishers Inc
• Imprint: HarperCollins
• Format: Hardcover
• Pages: 384
• Language: English
• URL: http://harpercollins.co.uk

Reviews

[annieb123]

Originally posted on my blog Nonstop Reader.

Marple: Twelve New Mysteries is an homage anthology collection featuring 12 new stories by top-shelf authors channeling their best Christie vibes and featuring the world's most beloved octogenarian sleuth. Released 13th Sept 2022 by Harper Collins on the William Morrow imprint, it's 384 pages and is available in hardcover, paperback, audio, and ebook formats.

I'm of two minds about modern homage fiction. It seems to be either very very good or spectacularly awful. This anthology, happily, is really quite good. It's not surprising, since the 12 (all female) authors selected for inclusion represent some of the biggest crime and romance writers in the trade. As always with anthologies, some of them resonated better for me personally, but all of them were of a very high quality.

They were mostly in the 4 star range(ish) with a smattering of really standout stories. One reason I prefer collections and anthologies is that short fiction is really challenging. It's spare and the author doesn't have a wealth of wordage to develop characters or the plotting. Well written short fiction is a delight. I also love collections because if one story doesn't really grab me, there's another story just a few pages away. I can only recall a few times where I've read a collection (or anthology) straight through from cover to cover as I did this one. I also feel that the canonical Miss Marple really shone in short fiction format as opposed to full length novel.

Four stars on average. It's a diverting read.

Disclosure: I received an ARC at no cost from the author/publisher for review purposes.