Audio review: Marple Twelve new mysteries

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

Narrated by: Various

Length: 11 hrs and 29 mins

Release date: 09-15-22

Publisher: HarperCollins

Historical mystery / to review

Now when I think about it, have I ever read Marple? Tv/movies yes, but read? Poirot, yes. Huh. But it is never too late, and why not start with 12 novellas honoring Christie's Miss Marple.

Yes 12 novellas. They worked well here together, they took place in different places in time, in other countries too, and of course in her much murder infested little village. And I loved that they were novellas, audio novellas work so well for me. You get in and out pretty fast, and it is a fun listen and a quick solution to find a killer. Cos I sure never guess the right person.

This one I also had to get because of Elly Griffiths. I do love her books! In her story Marple is in Italy, and not even the main character. But she is there in the background, knowing everything as always.

And it did make me want to read Miss Marple too, that woman is so smart and sees it all

Murder, mayhem and Marple. All good things

Every story had a different narrator. I liked that, because it gave each story its own personality. And even with different authors and narrators the stories were connected like it really was different times in life we met her.

This collection of a dozen 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.

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.

Alex Kingston reads ‘Evil in Small Places’ by Lucy Foley;

Adrian Scarborough reads ‘the Second Murder at the Vicarage’ by Val McDermid;

Adjoa Andoh reads ‘Miss Marple Takes Manhattan’ by Alyssa Cole;

Imogen Stubbs reads ‘The Unravelling’ by Natalie Haynes;

Alison Steadman reads ‘Miss Marple’s Christmas’ by Ruth Ware;

Jodhi May reads ‘The Open Mind’ by Naomi Alderman;

Chipo Chung reads ‘The Jade Empress’ by Jean Kwok;

Cathy Tyson reads ‘A Deadly Wedding Day’ by Dreda Say Mitchell;

Ramon Tikaram reads ‘Murder at the Villa Rosa’ by Elly Griffiths;

Tanya Reynolds reads ‘The Murdering Sort’ by Karen M. McManus;

Celia Imrie reads ‘The Mystery of the Acid Soil’ by Kate Mosse;

Miriam Margolyes reads ‘The Disappearance’ by Leigh Bardugo.