Marple: Twelve New Stories: A brand new collection featuring the Queen of Crime’s legendary detective Miss Jane Marple, penned by twelve bestselling and acclaimed authors

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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 book will introduce the character to a whole new generation. Each author included in the new publication will reimagine Christie’s Marple through their own unique perspective while staying true to the hallmarks of a traditional mystery. But, I think what I'm really left wondering here is why in the world even try doing this in the first place? A collection of lovely new Marple stories, some a bit heavy on characters previously used by Christie herself as well. 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. The last story in the collection, by Leigh Bardugo, was by far the best, in my opinion. I also though Karen McManus's story did very well on tone, although Miss Marple is not the one who actually solves the mystery, which was kind of a disappointment.

Miss Marple was first introduced to readers in a story Agatha 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. About the Book 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.DISCLOSURE: Thank you to Harper Collins, Harper Fiction, via Netgalley for providing a digital ARC of Marple: Twelve New Stories for review. All opinions expressed in this review are entirely my own personal opinions. Overall, I was disappointed by the stories and the narrators. Some of the good narrators (Ramon Tikaram) were saddled with poor stories and some narrators spoiled what may have been good stories. Imogen Stubbs sounds like she arrived at the recording studio in a rush and was still trying to catch her breath. Alison Steadman was almost unbearable. She has such a shrill, screechy, histrionic voice. It was very unpleasant to listen to. I understand she's a "name" and so was probably meant to be a draw, but for me she was terrible.

Age is cruel and crueler still to women. A woman becomes a ghost when she stops being worth looking at." 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.

Marple

I r My favourite story was Miss Marples Christmas by Ruth Ware. It had all the elements of the classic tales, with the added bonus of Christmas.

The majority of Miss Marple’s original cases took place in the domestic sphere, in houses and stately homes to which she was invited by her many old friends and relatives. The crimes involved were often examples of the classic ‘country house mystery’ that Agatha Christie excelled at crafting, and a number of the contributors to Marple have followed a similar approach, also to excellent effect. For instance, in The Second Murder at the Vicarage, Val McDermid pays tribute to the first novel to feature Miss Marple and has long-suffering clergyman Reverend Leonard Clement discover the body of his former maid in the kitchen of the vicarage. It takes a brave soul to write in the footsteps of Agatha Christie and they must be even bolder to take on such a beloved figure as Miss Jane Marple. But, as the Polish proverb says, where the devil can’t go he’ll send a woman, and 12 female crime writers have taken up the challenge to each write a short story featuring St Mary Mead’s finest.

Authors & Stories Included in the Collection

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 A Deadly Wedding Day was the first story where I actually felt anything for the characters. It's read by Cathy Tyson, and she has a voice that's just made for audiobooks. I could listen to her forever. My only niggle was that in all the adaptations (audiobook, radio dramatisation and TV adaptations) of A Caribbean Mystery, the island of St Honoré is pronounced as "Hono-ray". Here, it's pronounced "Hono-ree". It's a VERY minor point but it did annoy me. By the time we get Karen McManus, our main protagonist was thrust in a YA story, which seemed so weird. Evil in Small Places" by Lucy Foley (5 stars)-Honestly this was probably one of the better stories in the collection. Foley has obviously read Dame Agatha Christie before. She fundamentally gets the character. Unfortunately some of the other authors do not. This story follows Miss Marple after she goes to visit with an old school friend. After finding the newest choir mistress dead, Miss Marple realizes who did it and why.