First, it's worth saying that as someone who knows the Marple books back to front (it would be my specialist subject if I ever went on Mastermind!), I might not be the ideal audience for this book because I am, inevitably, going to pick holes in it. So, for Christie completists, yes there are things to criticise about Marple: Twelve New Stories. But I'm not going to dwell on them but instead focus on what it offers to those who are perhaps new to Marple, or more familiar with her from television adaptations.

First, the tone of the vast majority of the stories is just about spot on, and while some ape the style of the originals most closely, there is much to enjoy in all of them. While a number of the stories take Jane Marple out of her usual English country village setting, those that locate the character in her more familiar milieu - especially Lucy Foley, Val McDermid and Kate Mosse - were, for me, the most successful. I noted with interest the fact that a number of the authors return to similar themes and characters, presumably unprompted: Marple's author nephew, Raymond, for example, features heavily in this collection, as do references to The Development in St Mary Mead, which is mentioned in passing a handful of times across Christie's series but by almost all the authors herein.

An enjoyable read, one sure to raise the hackles of some grumpy long-term fans of the character but likely to delight most. Overall 4 stars, probably 5 if I was less of a Christie fan already!

‘Marple’ offers twelve delicious, bite-sized mysteries for you to delve into - each one written by a contemporary crime writer giving their own voice to Agatha Christie’s famous sleuth, Jane Marple. What a brilliant idea! I just loved this book and was sorely disappointed when I ran out of mysteries. If I had to choose my top two they would be: The Mystery of the Acid Soil by Kate Mosse and The Jade Empress by Jean Kwok. I strongly recommend reading ‘Marple’. It’s gentle, clever and highly entertaining.

I had only read two Agatha Christie novels (And Then There Were None and Murder on the Orient Express) before reading this volume of short stories, so I didn't have a history with Miss Jane Marple, but I love a good detective story, and I'm a huge Sherlock Holmes fan, so I thought this one would be right up my alley. Unfortunately, it was a miss for me. I really enjoyed a few of the stories but didn't care for the others. My favorites:

Miss Marple's Christmas by Ruth Ware
The Jane Empress by Jean Kwok
The Disappearance by Leigh Bardugo

Delicious…
A truly delicious selection of twelve tales featuring that most enigmatic solver of ingenious puzzles, Miss Marple. Each tale from a different author, all acclaimed in their own right, taking the reader around the globe with each short mystery. Approached with some trepidation, as an avid Christie fan, this reader need not have worried as due reverence is shown in every single tale and the the true flavour of this most wonderful of characters is explored in each clever offering.

Firstly, I’ll admit that I’ve not read any Agatha Christie before and have little knowledge of Miss Marple other than snippets from television adaptations. That said, I thoroughly enjoyed these short stories. Each story is written by a top author, each adding their own style to the tales featuring one of our best known fiction detectives. Being short stories it’s the type of book you can dip in and out of, with each story taking around 15-20 minutes to read.

I especially enjoyed the stories by Val McDermid, Ruth Ware and Kate Mosse.

Many thanks to Harper Collins and NetGalley for the review copy.

Okay - confession time. I’ve never read any Miss Marple books before. In fact, I’m fairly certain I haven’t actually read any Agatha Christie before. I own loads - just never read ‘em. Marple, a collection of twelve Miss Marple short stories reimagined by some of the best known female crime authors of the present day, seemed like a very good place to acquaint myself with the character in a literary sense.



If you are a fan of the character, I’d say you will really enjoy this collection. There were just so many of the various nuances of Miss Marple’s character that rang through in every single story - the straight forward deductive reasoning, the very steady and unshod way in which she explains how she came to identify a killer or two, and the sharp and astute mind that we would all associate with Jane Marple. With stories set everywhere from her beloved St Mary Mead, a cruise to the Far-East, the Theatre District of New York City (sort of) and even Cape Cod, readers are treated to a variety of stories that entertain whilst all the while getting the old cogs whirring.



There are perhaps a few surprises in store as well, as Miss Marple navigates some of these complicated mysteries, not least of which comes when a friend ask for help in locating some missing jewels in The Disappearance by Leigh Bardugo, or her niece finds herself witness to a very perplexing murder The Murdering Sort by Karen M McManus. I particularly liked Elly Griffiths’ story, Murder At the Vila Rosa, which really doesn’t go where I was expecting but which kept me thoroughly amused. Miss Marple Takes Manhattan sees her Nephew Raymond West set to have one of his plays make an off (off off) Broadway debut and Val McDErmid even manages to orchestrate a Second Murder at the Vicarage. 



Brilliant stories and a great way to while away a lunch break. For me it was a great intro to Miss Marple and I absolutely will delve into a Christie classic very, very soon.

I was absolutely thrilled to have my wish granted as I am a huge Agatha Christie fan and have loved Marple stories since I was little.

I enjoyed very much seeing different interpretations by authors I have read. Some were absolutely incredible and some less so, but on the whole I will be buying this book to dip in to here and there.

My only downside was I had hoped all the stories would have stuck to the golden era rules for their mysteries, but I suppose I’m too much of a die hard!

4.5/5

This is the book I have been most excited for in 2022 and I was so over the moon net galley approved me to read and review it!

The book comprises of 12 Miss Marple short who dun it stories. As each chapter is a different story you can pick this book up whenever the mood strikes!

Each chapter is written by a different crime novelist. Some of my favourite authors such as Lucy Foley were featured. There were a few authors in there who are new to me. The book was great opportunity for me to read samples from new authors and see if I liked their writing styles.

I loved all of the stories apart from there was one I wasn’t too keen on. My top three of the 12 short stories were The Unraveling by Natalie Haynes, Miss Marple’s Christmas by Ruth Ware and Murder at the Villa Rosa by Elly Griffiths.

Marple is a series of 12 short stories all written by talented crime writing females of the current era. As a massive Agatha Christie fan, I have read the bulk of the original Miss Marple stories and found the character to be true to the original author throughout the 12 stories. Lucy Foley kicks the book off with the first short story and having read all of her books, it follows the same writing style and level of intrigue. If anything I was disappointed that this wasn't a full novella or novel in it's own right as it came to an end far too quickly! From there on in, Jane goes on to revisit several old stories, has a Christmas story and even visits NYC.

Every author has a different take on Jane Marple and although every one of them is well written, I think seeing them all next to other was jarring at times. For example Jane jumps around in her opinion of her nephew from story to story and as I read the entire book in a day, it was very noticeable! Perhaps I should've broken it up with other books to prevent that a little?

As is to be expected with a collection of short stories with different authors but the same main characters, this book is a bit of a jigsaw. There's definitely some that I enjoyed far more than others but to be fair, I enjoy the other works of these authors in different amounts too! It's worth a read for any Christie fan but perhaps don't devour it all in one go as I did.

I received this book from NetGalley as a free ARC in return for an honest review.

As with all short story collections, some read better than others. But on the whole, this is an interesting, entertaining take on one of the most famous detectives in literary history.

I have always enjoyed Agatha Christie books as well as the many films and television series over the years. I have read and enjoyed all of her novels so it is pleasing to read other popular authors pay a huge compliment to her memory by writing a Miss Marple story themselves. This made fascinating reading and was very entertaining throughout, I particularly enjoyed the stories by Ruth Ware, Elly Griffiths and Kate Mosse.

This is a collection of twelve original short stories, all featuring Jane Marple written by top authors in their own right. The stories are written with many of the characteristics we have come to love but also the authors have put their own interpretation across making this an excellent read.

Authors featured in this collection, Naomi Alderman, Leigh Bardugo, Alyssa Cole, Lucy Foley, Elly Griffiths, Natalie Haynes, Jean Kwok, Val McDermid, Karen M. McManus, Dreda Say Mitchell, Kate Mosse and Ruth Ware.

A brave attempt to write Miss Marple stories to a similar level of ability but this is a very good effort. I would enjoy reading a similar book featuring one of Agatha Christie’s other characters Hercule Poirot.

I would like to thank both Netgalley and Harper Collins UK for supplying a copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.

Agatha Christie has been my go to when in times of need ever since I was a teenager. So thank you for granting my wish.

Miss Marple is such an iconic figure and it's good to see her getting the love and attention she deserves. I enjoyed this book so much even though I'm a purist! I bet the authors had such fun creating their own versions. Excellent for train journeys into work as you can finish one before you arrive and spend the day thinking about story. The authors have done an excellent job.

My thanks to NetGalley and the publishers for an ARC.

I absolutely adored this collection of stories. I’m a die hard Agatha Christie fan and often re read them when I’m not sure what to read next. I jut can’t recommend it enough. Going back to old stores or places really gives me the nostalgia feeling. Superb.

I have to say that I always thought Jane Marple to be a far better heroine than Poirot ever was, much more sharp witted and therefore I enjoyed reading more of her adventures albeit they were too short for any real plot development

This book could have been so bad. Agatha Christie is a one-off, her characters created with such love and passion and detail, could we trust other authors to do her justice? I am also not a huge fan of short stories, so the book had a lot of work to do before I’d even opened it.

But I am glad to say that it was excellent, and this may finally have been the short story collection that sways me.

Whilst I’d heard of most of the authors for this book, I hadn’t read writing from many of them before, but even so, you can clearly see that they’ve kept their own distinctive voices, but they’ve given a nod to the great Agatha Christie…you can read her voice in these stories too.

Whilst there were some stories I enjoyed more than others, overall it was fabulous. And whilst I read this in the height of summer, it feels like it would be perfect for snuggling up with in front of a fire on an autumnal evening.

I liked how, why the stories were standalone, there were several characters who popped up in more than one, so it almost felt like chapters in a longer, linked story which was a nice touch.

All of the stories are set in the traditional Miss Marple era; I’d love to read a story or two set in present time - it would be interesting to see how she might adapt or change her approach to crimes. It would also be interesting to see how she would be received in modern time.

Like I said, it’s unsurprising that I liked some of the stories more than others but I’m quite surprised to say that I thoroughly enjoyed every single one of them, and I would have been quite glad to read some more. I think Agatha Christie would have been thrilled with them.

As a lifelong fan of Agatha Christie, I was delighted to have my wish for an ARC granted by the publisher!

This is an interesting collection of short stories, all featuring the iconic Miss Marple, written by a wide range of contemporary novelists. I thoroughly enjoyed reading this book, although some stories worked better than others in respect of capturing the essence of the character.

It's always difficult to take up the reins of a famous author in an attempt to expand or continue a beloved character's lifespan - so hats off to these brave souls for doing so!

Although I enjoyed reading all the stories, I particularly liked Val McDermid's story, which revisited the "Murder at the Vicarage" - an excellent homage I thought.

Now itching to re-read some of the original Miss Marple stories... and I hope that perhaps more collections like this one will be forthcoming in the future.

My thanks to NetGalley and the publishers for an ARC. All opinions my own.

Well, where to start . This book is the book of dreams very well known authors taking on the crown of Agatha Christie and specifically the icon who is Jane Marple. It’s very hard to pick a favourite as they are all excellent but I particularly liked Val McDermid and Kate Mosse . From another murder at the vicarage to a trip to New York we reunite with some old favourites from beloved nephew Raymond West to Dolly Bantry this is such a treat to read and I can see it being a Christmas bestseller.

Presumably the hope with this collection of short stories is that it will revitalise some new interest in Agatha Christie & Marple (perhaps for some new editions of her works?) and I was looking forward to trying it. But as is often the case when somebody else tries to capture a classic author's characters, I felt it didn't always work.

Short stories are difficult to get right anyway. Especially crime. You don't get the luxury of a novel's length of plotting, and so things have to be really tight to work well. There were some really good stories in here, which would have nudged my score up. But then others felt pretty dreadful and dragged my score back down! All of them were readable, but some of them were NOT Miss Marple, or at least that's how I felt. And some twisted themselves into making a nonsense of the character, trying to make her 'woke', and some kind of globe-trotter, which made me cross because she is a certain type of character because of the times in which she was created, and to try to reinvent that and bring her into 2022 sensibilities is just plain ridiculous. There's also a morally dubious decision made at the end of one of the stories (no spoilers) that I don't think Miss Marple would have made, so that didn't help matters either.

But some of the stories were excellent. Val McDermid's felt like Marple, and was really well done. Ruth Ware's 'Miss Marple's Christmas' was also excellent. I also enjoyed 'Murder at the Villa Rosa' by Elly Griffiths as although it wasn't really a Marple story, I found I just got caught up in it anyway. The last really good one is 'The Mystery of the Acid Soil' by Kate Mosse which was very well written.

It did make me want to pick up an original again, so I guess that's a successful nudge back to the source! But if you're familiar with the real Marple, take a breath before taking a look at this collection, as some are going to set your teeth on edge!

An interesting collection of stories based around the infamous Miss Marple. Some were stronger than others but all were entertaining!

This is a fun collection of twelve stories by twelve different contemporary female crime writers each doing a take on the iconic Miss Jane Marple. Some try to think themselves back into Miss Marple's own age; others, less successfully, try to 'update' her - a nice idea but one which didn't really come off.
We know that Christie's Jane Marple has travelled to the Caribbean, for example, but she didn't really like the 'foreigness' and only really made sense of it by reducing the people to facsimiles of personages in St Mary's Mead - to therefore project her happily wandering around Manhattan, sailing to Hong Kong and holidaying in Italy rather misses the point. Even on home ground, the idea of Miss Marple dining at the high table of an Oxford college doesn't really fit.

As well as characterisation slippages and attempts to reconstruct Miss Marple who now exclaims over anti-Semitism, and invites a Black communist theatre producer to move to England (as if Marple were not solidly Conservative and conservative), most of the stories are too short to enable the kind of plotting flair that Christie had in spades - there just isn't the sort of sleight of hand that Christie did so brilliantly and too many of the tales fall a little flat.

The standout story is by Val McDermid which recounts a second murder at the vicarage, recalling the first Marple novel. Here it's huge fun to see the younger and nosier Jane Marple as narrated via put-upon vicar, Len Clement, and it's fun to be back in the company of his wife Griselda, nephew Duncan, and the gossipy women of the village.

An entertaining tube or holiday read but not a patch on Christie's original stories and novels, I'm afraid.