Marple: Twelve New Stories
by Agatha Christie; 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
ISBN 9780008467319
Love. I’ll just start there. I loved Miss Marple as soon as I was introduced to her. I don’t remember what book it was, but I could not get enough of the character. I have always wished that Agatha Christie had written more Marple stories. I enjoy Poirot, but do wish that instead of the huge number of novels and short stories featuring him, there were more with her. Still, I read all the Miss Marples and kept wishing. Now comes this wonderful book, in which 12 contemporary writers have created short stories featuring Jane Marple. The love continues.
I loved this book. I was unsure how I would feel about it at first, thinking I might be disappointed, but not reading it wasn’t really an option and it became clear almost immediately that I needn’t have worried. It was a joy to read about Jane’s new adventures, some of which took place around the time as the original stories and some that were set in the future. In one story, Miss Marple is involved with the young adult granddaughter of her nephew, Raymond West! That would put her well into her 100s, but that’s OK.
The stories were well-written and stylistically varied. As with any collection, I had favourites—the ending of the last story was fabulous! Some stories placed Jane in entirely new places with new people, while some unfolded in more familiar settings with familiar people. It was fun to hang out for a while with Sir Henry Clithering and the Bantrys again. Some stories made reference to some of Miss Marple’s original cases, but it is not necessary to have read the originals to enjoy this book.
I felt that all of the authors stayed true to the essence of the character. That’s not to say that these stories were indistinguishable from the stories Christie wrote—there were subtle differences. But that’s to be expected and did not in any way detract from my great enjoyment of the book. I cannot recommend it highly enough.
I received a free e-galley in exchange for this unbiased and fair review. I thank NetGalley and the publishers, HarperCollins UK.
6 comments:
Love Miss Marple…the books and the movies..l
When I think of Miss Marple, I picture Joan Hickson and when I read dialogue, I hear her voice in my head. 🙂 Best Miss Marple ever!
I've loved the Christie books I've read and really don't know why I haven't read more other than I'm not a big fan of a long list of books in a series. I may read through the list of her
pseudonym, Mary Westmacott.
I've been meaning to do that too,Vicki! I should go to the library and request one before I forget again! 🙂I think I read at least one or two of them when I was a teen, but that was several decades and thousands of books ago! 😉😆
McEwan…Geraldine…I liked her…not sure how it is spelled though
She was pretty good. It's not that I disliked her or Julia McKenzie, who came after her, but they just weren't quite as Miss Marple-y as Joan Hickson for me :-)
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