I was drawn in by names like Alyssa Cole, Ruth Ware, Lucy Foley, and Elly Griffiths and even more by the promise of more Miss Marple stories. Enjoyment will vary based on whether or not you are looking for authors who write like Christie or just more stories with Miss Marple.

Evil in Small Places by Lucy Foley
I think Foley very much tried to write in the vein of Christie and succeeded here and there though her own voice peeped through in places. This is a story very much like previous Marple stories; Jane goes to visit an old school friend and the choirmaster, a woman much disliked in the village, is murdered.

The Second Murder at the Vicarage by Val McDermid
Told from the first person view of St. Mary Mead's vicar, Leonard Clement, we visit a lot of old characters when the maid from the Murder at the Vicarage, Mary, is found dead in the kitchen. I feel like Christie usually gave us more clues than we got in this story but it is fun to read all of the Easter Eggs.

Miss Marple Takes Manhattan by Alyssa Cole
Dear nephew Raymond West has a play opening in New York that is based on one of his novels. Of course, he wants to bring Jane with him. She sneaks out of the hotel to go shopping and accidentally meets one of the actors in the play, though she doesn't know it at the time. Later, at an off-Broadway theater, the woman's co-lead is found behind the curtain having apparently been accidentally electrocuted and it is up to Jane to solve the mystery.
Cole uses a deft hand to add in a wider pantheon of characters than we normally get to see in a Christie novel.

Miss Marple's Christmas by Ruth Ware
Raymond West and his wife, Joan, again share the stage with Jane in a story set at Christmas. Of course, it will be pleasant to have the "children" with her again but it's not like the Christmases of her youth.

The Open Mind by Naomi Alderman
This story was a little more complicated with Miss Marple in the seventies watching an older man take drugs with a very young woman while his colleagues watch and comment that he is preying on another young girl. It's not a surprise that he dies.

The Jade Empress by Jean Kwok
On a cruise to visit her nephew in Hong Kong, Miss Marple meets an interesting Chinese expat, Mr. Pang, who is taking his daughter to meet the half-brother she never knew about. There are a series of mysterious happenings that point to Mr. Pang's being threatened and then he is murdered.

A Deadly Wedding Day by Dreda Say Mitchell
It is the wedding day of the son of a baronet and a young woman from the Carribean. His seats are full, hers have only her aunt, Miss Bella. A young woman shows up unexpectedly, makes a small scene, then eats dessert and dies. Miss Marple and Miss Bella figure out what actually happened.

Murder at the Villa Rosa by Elly Griffiths
A first person story with an author debating whether to kill off his best-selling creation. He goes to the beautiful Villa Rosa where all of the occupants seem to have dark histories. Except maybe the nice Miss Marple.

The Murdering Sort by Karen M. McManus
Raymond West's grandchild is the first person narrator of this short story. She has made a new friend, an American devoted to the environment, and has been invited to visit at the girl's grandfather's birthday. Unfortunately, it ends up being the night that the grandfather announces a new will, and then proceeds to die. Well, it seems like he does but it turns out he is testing his family... until he really does die.

The Mystery of the Acid Soil by Kate Mosse
Miss Marple meets a young priest who is confused since his lady love has disappeared. Yes, she might have run away after her mother died but the general consensus is that that is not her usual demeanor.

The Disappearance by Leigh Bardugo
Miss Marple is visiting Raymond and Joan in London but jumps at the chance to leave when Dolly Bantry calls. She is missing some family heirlooms and the son of the local house has vanished as well. She doesn't tell Jane about another missing girl.

Four stars
This book comes out September 13, 2022
ARC kindly provided by William Morrow and NetGalley
Opinions are my own

Looking to shake up your mystery books? 'Marple: Twelve New Mysteries' is just the short story compendium to do it. Many famous mystery-thriller genre writers have added new stories of one of Agatha Christies' most famous characters, Miss Marple. As with any compendium you will enjoy some better than others but overall the authors nailed the tone and pacing. It is a lovely addition for Christie-ophiles!

A fun tribute to the Queen of Mysteries that has immaculate cozy fall vibes.

A warning: The mysteries themselves in this collection are not great in terms of plot. It’s not really the fault of the authors, rather that this style of mystery is difficult to pull off in short story format.

That said, the book was still a joy to read, mostly because almost every story in it just *feels* like Christie’s Miss Marple books. The sense of place and atmosphere is off-the-charts good in nearly every offering.

As for the individual stories, I would advise skipping the first two. They’re the worst of the collection and will leave you thinking the whole lot isn’t going to be worth your time, when in fact things get much better after that.

The best of the collection are the stories from Alyssa Cole, Ruth Ware, Naomi Alderman, and Jean Kwok. I was a bit surprised by which stories I liked best and least, as in some cases it didn’t match my general feelings about the work of some of the authors.

I’ll echo the sentiment of other reviewers and say that I think that this collection was a success overall, and that I would love to see another like it using Poirot, who is my favorite Christie detective.

Short stories are definitely my jam. Usually there are a few diamonds among just some sparklies. But I have to say I totally enjoyed all of these. Were some better than others, YES, but overall absolutely delightful!

While Agatha Christie eventually grew tired of Hercule Poirot, describing him as ‘an egocentric creep’ and devising a deeply divisive ending for him, she retained her affection for the far more personable Miss Jane Marple. From her first appearance in The Tuesday Night Club, a short story published in 1927, through to her final appearance in the 1976 novel Sleeping Murder, Miss Marple solved a host of murders and other complex conundrums over the course of 12 novels and 20 short stories, often while sitting in an armchair and knitting.

However, despite Christie’s clear preference, whereas Poirot was officially resurrected in Sophie Hannah’s The Monogram Murders in 2014 and allowed to continue sleuthing, the sharpest mind in St Mary Mead was left to languish in Christie’s back catalogue. Until now, that is. In Marple: Twelve New Stories, a dozen bestselling contemporary authors each reimagine Miss Marple and provide a new puzzle for her to solve.

Due to it being the first ‘official’ collection of Miss Marple stories written by anyone other than Agatha Christie, the authors had to ensure that their stories met certain criteria if they were to be included in Marple. First, the stories had to take place within the same period in which Christie set her Miss Marple stories. Second, although the stories could feature characters and events from Christie’s own Miss Marple works, the authors couldn’t incorporate characters or incidences from her non-Marple tales. Finally, the authors couldn’t invent any wholly new backstory for Miss Marple.

Although the amateur sleuth of more mature years is now a common feature of crime fiction, Miss Marple was a marked departure from the popular image of a detective when first introduced. As an elderly unmarried female of moderate means, she was regularly overlooked and underestimated, allowing her to pass unnoticed and use her remarkable powers of observation and inference to ferret out the guilty party whenever a crime occurred in her vicinity. In addition, she had an unrivalled understanding of human nature, which she developed through spending nearly her whole life in the same small village.

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.

As Clement wryly notes, “To have one murder in one’s vicarage is unfortunate; to have a second looks remarkably like carelessness, or worse”. Fortunately, Miss Marple is on hand to unravel the mystery based on her deep knowledge of the inhabitants of St Mary Mead, similar to how she came to solve the murder of Colonel Protheroe in that same vicarage some years previously. Miss Marple is also fortuitously present to solve the murder of an unpopular choir mistress in Lucy Foley’s Evil in Small Places. She is staying in the village of Meon Maltravers while visiting her former schoolfriend Prudence during the Halloween period, but the spooky atmosphere of the place doesn’t impede her investigative prowess when the two of them stumble upon the victim.

While a genteel murder in an country house is a popular aspect of many a Miss Marple story, there are several other much-loved regular features of her investigations that contributors to Marple make great use of. For example, Miss Marple learns of a perplexing disappearance during a chance encounter on a train journey in Kate Mosse’s The Mystery of the Acid Soil, whereas Ruth Ware evokes the spirit of the classic ‘Christie for Christmas’ and presents a puzzling theft that occurs against a charming festive background in Miss Marple’s Christmas.

Of course, although Miss Marple is most closely associated with the English countryside, Christie did sometimes transport the sleuthing spinster to more exotic locations, perhaps most notably in A Caribbean Mystery. As such, it’s only fitting that she also embarks on a number of trips in Marple. In Jean Kwok’s The Jade Empress, Miss Marple takes a cruise to Hong Kong to visit with her nephew, the successful novelist Raymond West. During the voyage she becomes acquainted with Mr Pang, a Hong Konger who is returning home after living for many years in England. When Mr Pang is murdered shortly before the ship arrives in Hong Kong, Miss Marple is determined to see justice done.

Raymond West also facilitates Miss Marple taking two separate trips to the United States in Marple. In Miss Marple Takes Manhattan, Alyssa Cole relates Miss Marple’s stay in New York as she awaits the Broadway debut of West’s latest play. Despite her nephew’s fears, Miss Marple copes extremely well as a fish out of water in the Big Apple, getting to grips with a troubling situation far quicker than West and managing to make a few jokes at his expense too. Meanwhile, in The Murdering Sort, Karen M McManus has Miss Marple team up with her great-great-niece Nicola West to solve the murder of a cantankerous old man while the two are staying on Cape Cod.

In Elly Griffiths’ Murder at the Villa Rosa, Miss Marple’s final trip abroad in Marple sees her enjoying a holiday on the Amalfi Coast, once again courtesy of Raymond West. In a hotel setup reminiscent of that seen in several Christie novels, she finds herself rubbing shoulders with an eclectic bunch of fellow guests, including a blowhard colonel, a glamourous American, a mysterious Italian couple and a writer who might just have murder in mind.

While not examples of cosy crime in the modern sense of the subgenre, Christie’s Miss Marple stories were generally bloodless and without much in the way of angst or grit. Yet, some of her stories were darker than others, for example, The Mirror Crack’d from Side to Side. Likewise, several of the stories in Marple are a bit more macabre than others. In The Disappearance, Leigh Bardugo reunites Miss Marple with the marvellous Dolly Bantry and has the pair investigate the disappearance of the handsome Michael Barnsley-Davis from Gossington Hall just days before he was due to get married.

Natalie Haynes’ The Unravelling sees Miss Marple and her friend Susan Goldingay intervene when Mr Weaver, a shell-shocked veteran of the Second World War who has run the haberdasher’s shop in St Mary Mead for years, appears to be the only suspect in the murder of a local farm labourer. By contrast, the surfeit of likely suspects in the death of Professor Cuthbert Cayling prompts Miss Marple to rope her friend Sir Aaron Kahn into investigating his death by poisoning in Naomi Alderman’s The Open Mind.

Although Miss Marple sometimes called upon the assistance of various friends and acquaintances to help her solve crimes, and while she was always keen to gently assist officials such as Inspector Slack with doing their job, she didn’t have a regular partner in deduction. However, Dreda Say Mitchell introduces a superb co-detective in the form of Miss Bella Baptiste, a noted amateur sleuth among London’s Caribbean community, in A Deadly Wedding Day. The two of them brook no resistance when it comes to investigating the death of an unwelcome guest at the wedding of Miss Bella’s niece.

While the 12 stories included in Marple all differ in terms of their setting, style and substance, they all succeed in capturing the essence of Agatha Christie’s famous sleuth and crafting intriguing puzzles for her to unravel. Miss Marple’s determined nature and her passion for both justice and retribution remain the same, although this time round she is able to pass comment on more contemporary matters and express her belief in equality. Miss Marple has always been one of literature’s greatest amateur detectives, and it’s a real treat to follow her investigations once again.

This is a fun read for fans of Agatha Christie. Of course, it is unfair to compare the worthiness of these stories to the Master of the Mystery. However, I would say that most of these writers wrote clever pieces that are highly entertaining. I found that my favorites followed after the writers in the group who are the ones I most admire. All of them, though are worthy of the time invested by both the writer and the reader.

This is a collection of short mysteries starring none other than Agatha Christie's own Miss Marple. Miss Marple is given new life by some of today's best mystery writers. As with any classic character that is "reborn" by a writer other than the one who invented the character there are going to be differences. Some of these differences in character may be so subtle they are hardly noticed or given a second thought, others may be glaringly apparent and slap you right in the face.
I think in this collection featuring the legendary Miss Jane Marple we see both of these extremes. But overall this is an entertaining collection of short mysteries that has Miss marple globetrotting around the world to never before explored destinations. I liked some stories better than others, as you will have this when presented with a variety of different styles. On the whole a quick, fun read that pays homage to a beloved classic character.
Thank you to William Morrow and Net Galley for the free ARC, I am leaving my honest review in return.

These were great short stories. Some really gave the feeling of Agatha Christie's writing of Miss Marple. Miss Marple was always my favorite of Agatha Christie, so it was great getting some more stories of Miss Marple even if they weren't Christies.

Thank you to the authors, publisher and NetGalley for my eARC in exchange for an honest review.

Thanks to keen riders of today Mrs. Marple is back! I was so excited when I saw this Agatha Christie anthology with new stories and although I was a little apprehensive because sometimes people take too much license with other peoples characters I think the stories were told care and respect to the character Of Miss Marple. There was one book that a couple of times I thought did she even read egg at the Christie stories but then when it was over you can definitely tell she did. All of the stories are great and have they been Novelas I would recommend all of them. I truly enjoyed this book and if you love mysteries and especially Agatha Christie’s you’ll love this book. I received it from NetGalleyShelf and publisher but I am leaving this review voluntarily please forgive any mistakes as I am blind and dictate my review.

Marple: Twelve New Mysteries by various authors is a charming collection of new stories featuring Miss Jane Marple. They are written by a group of well-known modern authors, including, but not limited to Ruth Ware, Ellie Griffith, and Lucy Foley. They vary in length from very short to almost novella length but all feature Miss Jane Marple at her very best. Some take place at home, some in various places around the globe, and one taking place on an ocean liner. All capture the essence of the character and revolve around plots that would be typical for Miss Marple to have taken part in. Murder is murder and there are always clues left by the murderer. Miss Marple finds them. The reasons are varied, but tend to be money, sometimes jealousy or hurt feelings.

It would be too cumbersome to review each story. Suffice it to say, this is a book well worth reading: easy to split into separate sittings. If you love Agatha Christie and her character, Jane Marple, you will find this a very entertaining book.

I was invited to read a free e-ARC of Marple: Twelve New Mysteries byWilliam Morrow, through Netgalley. All thoughts and opinions are mine. #Netgalley #WilliamMorrow #MarpleTwelveNewMysteries #AgathaChristie #NaomiAlderman #LeighBardugo #AlyssaCole #LucyFoley #EllyGriffiths #NatalieHaynes #JeanKwok #ValMcDermid #KarenMMcManus #DredaSayMitchell #Kate Mosse #Ruth Ware

The review is in the September 2022 issue of Gumshoe Review and is exclusive to them until October 1st,
You may read the review at this link:
<http://www.gumshoereview.com/php/Review-id.php?id=7016>

This review was originally posted on Books of My Heart

Review copy was received from NetGalley. This does not affect my opinion of the book or the content of my review.


I wanted Marple: Twelve New Mysteries as soon as I heard of this anthology of short stories about Jane Marple. It's kind of like Jane Marple fanfiction by some well-known authors in the genre. I was happy to read stories by some favorite authors and also to try some authors, some of them I've wanted to read. I decided to read one story per day so I could enjoy each one.

I buddy read with Lark at The Bookwyrm's Horde . We tended to look at how well the character Miss Marple seemed true to the original, which did affect some of my ratings. A story might be a delight but not be in keeping with the original Miss Marple at all. Out of necessity, these descriptions will be brief to not spoil.


Evil in Small Places by Lucy Foley 4
Jane Marple visits an old school acquaintance on the way to another place. Of course, there is a murder. Jane is her observant and deductive self. I loved the detailed setting of everything and the cleverness of Jane. I'm a big fan of this author.

The Second Murder at the Vicarage by Val McDermid 4.5
Jane apparently lives next door to the vicarage. When a body turns up, she knows what is important to find. The story is from the vicar's point of view and hilarious. I wanted to read this author but had not before now.

Miss Marple Takes Manhattan by Alyssa Cole 3.5
Jane goes with her nephew Raymond to New York to see one of stories put on as a play. There are interesting aspects of how racism and classes are in England vs. the United States. There is also the topic of communism and the blacklists, which was another form of prejudice. I have read this author previously.

The Unraveling by Natalie Haynes 4
Jane's neighbor, Susan, was a hoot as she tried to get all the "gossip" she knows Jane has. I liked being back in small town England and the activities suitable to this time.

Miss Marple's Christmas by Ruth Ware 5
The author nailed the Christie style and Miss Marple characterization. It made this holiday story so much fun! One of the guests is reading a Dorothy Sayer book which would be fitting for the time period. I have enjoyed this author previously.

The Open Mind by Naomi Alderman 3
The academic setting didn't feel very much like a Miss Marple story. Although she is observant and knowledgeable about human nature, she might not know all the rules of academia. The whole aspect of trying to prove a historical point seemed more technical and less people-oriented than the way Miss Marple usually works.

The Jade Empress by Jean Kwok 4
Jane takes a trip to Hong Kong by way of a cruise. She meets an older man traveling with his sister and daughter, to see his son after many years. Jane is her usual observant and perceptive self. The time period of the 1970s along with her waltzing and doing Tai Chi didn't work for me since if she was 70ish in the 1950s, she would be 90ish at this point. I enjoyed the story anyway. It seemed typical of Miss Marple to give the information to the authorities and let them handle things in their own time.

A Deadly Wedding Day by Dreda Say Mitchell 4
There were some mixed things here. I really enjoyed Miss Marple having a friend Miss Bella and how they worked the "case" together. It showed Miss Marple being open to diversity, and she was more so than other Christie characters. Miss Bella's niece, the bride Marie, was disingenuous which felt uncomfortable. The overall style with a reveal to a group at the end felt much more like Poirot than Marple.

Murder at the Villa Rosa by Elly Griffiths 3
I really enjoy this author but I found the plot here, after the twist, not believable. The twist didn't feel clever, just made it a not very interesting story. Miss Marple's part did seem realistic since there was an author and her nephew, Raymond is an author, so she might easily have ideas with her grasp of human nature.

The Murdering Sort by Karen M. McManus 4.5
Miss Marple was very much in character here with her knowledge of human nature even when she wasn't there when the murder happened. I liked seeing her with one of Raymond's grandchildren, Nicola. It was hilarious how Nicola was shocked by how Miss Marple knew things. It's always nice when she can help the police.

The Mystery of the Acid Soil by Kate Mosse 4
This story seemed to me to be set earlier in time perhaps now long after the war. Miss Marple was her usual astute self gathering bits and pieces and putting them together. She actually made an effort to visit a few people for more information. Her reason for that made sense.

The Disappearance by Leigh Bardugo 4
I loved how Miss Marple sized everyone up and taking their measure from talking to people or asking people about those missing or dead. I was a little surprised at the solution but of course, no one can hoodwink Miss Marple!


Overall I love the idea and the execution of this anthology. I hope there will be another one.

While all of these stories are homages to Miss Marple, none of them quite captured her spirit exactly for me.
Some did take her to interesting places, both in the world and within her character, with varying degrees of success. Leigh Bardugo's take, for example, brings Miss Marple back to a very familiar locale, but takes her sense of justice in a very different (but not unwelcome) direction. Natalie Haynes' story, on the other hand, is just a fairly clumsy ripoff of "The Return of Martin Guerre," with fairly weak Marple involvement, and gets the science that supposedly provides the big clue wrong as well. It was an enjoyable enough collection, but probably not one I will return to.

MARPLE: TWELVE NEW MYSTERIES is a new story collection with Agatha Christie's iconic character Miss Jane Marple at the center. The twelve who-dun-its are written by a variety of award-winning and best-selling authors, including Leigh Bardugo, Lucy Foley, Karen McManus, and Kate Mosse. While there are many references to the tiny village of St. Mary Mead, Ruth Ware ("Miss Marple's Christmas") and Val McDermid ("The Second Murder at the Vicarage") actually set their tales there. Others choose to pursue a rather unexpected twist and imagine Miss Marple as an international traveler: Alyssa Cole transports her to New York ("Miss Marple Takes Manhattan"), Jean Kwok to Hong Kong ("The Jade Empress") and Elly Griffiths to rural Italy ("Murder at the Villa Rosa"). Rounding out the dozen stories are selections from Naomi Alderman, Natalie Haynes, and Dreda Say Mitchell. Each suspenseful choice is a reminder of Christie's skills in developing characters and also a portrayal of the other crime writers' ability to craft a puzzling tale. Mystery fans will find much to enjoy; MARPLE: TWELVE NEW MYSTERIES has a beautiful cover and received a starred review from Booklist.

Miss Marple as envisioned by twelve successful mystery writers, all women. I have read all the Christie novels and seen most of the movies/tv based on the, Jane Hickson’s portrayal and image is always in my mind when I read a Miss Marple story. Some of these short stories are more successful then others. The ones set in awkward environments were my least favorite, likewise the ones that have Marple as a secondary character (at best) were not my favorites. The best in my opinion were the ones that allowed the character to shine through, not as a dotty old woman, but as a wise lively continence. The best are by Ruth Ware and Lucy Foley.

Fans of Agatha Christie's Miss Marple will rejoice over this new collection of short stories featuring the titular character and written by some of today’s most popular mystery writers, including the likes of Ruth Ware, Elly Griffiths,and Val McDermid. Each of the dozen stories, though unique to each author’s style, is careful to remain true to the Marple canon and many revisit familiar characters from the Miss Marple universe. Like Christie’s original vision, there are unexpected twists a plenty, surprising to everyone but Miss Marple, the quintessential expert on human nature. Overall, a delightful treat for both Christie fans and newcomers alike..

Full Disclosure--NetGalley and the publisher provided me with a digital ARC of this book. This is my honest review.

I received this ARC From Netgalley and the publisher in exchange for an honest review. I flew right through this book because I have been a fan of Miss Marple since I was 13 years old when I read my first Marple story by Christie. These twelve authors did a wonderful job reviving Miss Marple, her friends and relatives in these stories. I felt that I was reading another Miss Marple adventure written by that wonderful author Agatha Christie. Intriguing and interesting were just a few words on how I found these stories. I had two favorites out of the twelve: "Marple Takes Manhattan” by Alyssa Cole and “The Murdering Sort” by Karen M. McManus but the other stories were just as good. I couldn’t put this book down, so I finished it in one night. What a great addition to anyone’s library. A keeper for any Miss Marple collectors.

Full disclosure: I don’t love a short story collection. But THIS short story collection? Absolutely and totally worked for me! I loved the reinventing of Miss Marple, and was surprised at how much layered mystery was packed into each story. Obviously some stories hit better than others for me, but it didn’t affect my enjoyment of this collection across the board. What a fun and perfect reinvention of the cozy mystery for fall!

This was such a neat collection. So interesting to see modern day mystery writers take a crack at writing their own Marple mysteries! I didn't know what to expect going in, but I loved that they all tried to stay true to Christie and Marple, while bringing their own unique spin to the story. I will be reading more original Marple stories now as well as reading more some new-found mystery writers of today.

I enjoyed this collection of contemporary writers writing new short stories featuring Agatha Christie’s Miss Jane Marple. Two of the things that make Miss Marple such an interesting character, and so ripe for reinterpretation are her clear eyed, somewhat cynical view of humanity, and the way she is underestimated because of her age. The stories that worked best were the ones that embraced these aspects. Some stories worked better than others with a couple of standouts and a couple of authors whose backlist I’ll be investigating. Only one of the stories was truly disappointing.

I was surprised that my two favorite stories were ones in which Miss Marple was not the POV character. In Val McDermid’s “The Second Murder at the Vicarage,” Reverend Leonard Clement is faced with, as the title says, yet another murder in his vicarage.

To have one murder in one’s vicarage is unfortunate; to have a second looks remarkably like carelessness, or worse.

Agatha Christie’s first novel with Miss Jane Marple was 1930’s Murder at the Vicarage. Leonard narrates his utter confusion at finding himself confronted with another dead body. Building on the reader’s likely familiarity with the story, McDermid gives Miss Marple another opportunity to solve the crime and amaze the vicar and the police with her acuity. With this second murder, the vicar’s prior experience with Miss Marple wars with his preconceived notions of elderly women.

Ellie Grifiths’ “Murder at the Villa Rosa” was one of the most interesting, again with Miss Marple as an observed character rather than the point of view. A man goes on holiday to Italy with the intent to commit murder. Miss Marple and a cast of intriguing characters are also staying at the Villa Rosa.

It’s not necessary to travel to a beautiful place to commit murder, of course, but sometimes it does help.

This short story is like a fever dream with Miss Marple in the end cutting away the hysteria and getting to the commonplace truths.

I think Karen McManus’ “The Murdering Sort” would have worked better as it’s own story than as a Miss Marple Story. There wasn’t enough Jane Marple in it.

CW: murders (of course), racism, classism, misogyny

I received this as an advance reader copy from William Morrow via NetGalley. My opinions are my own, freely and honestly given.