First appearing in print in December 1927 in a short story called “The Tuesday Night Club” the little lady from St Mary Mead has knitted, frowned, and puzzled her way through many mysteries. She has assisted the Police whether they regarded her as the powerhouse she was or an annoying old lady, without ever being a suspect. Miss Jane Marple has become the benchmark of many writers and readers in the genre. But with the death of Agatha Christie in the 1970s Jane Marple annoyed fictious Police Inspectors no more.
BUT when twelve writers step up to bring more cases to light, some would cringe, wondering if they can put on the mantel of the great author and step into the sensible shoes of Jane Marple.
The great achievement here is that you hear Marple herself, the settings are pure Christie BUT not once does anything from these modern authors jar or expose their personal voices. They let Christies great character come forward again - “Miss Marple did not sigh, but she exhaled with commitment.”
Each story brings to life Christie’s great lady, unravels the plot twists, and exposes the characters assembled, guilty or not. The settings are familiar from the books, the films, or the television series. Some crime drama is like a familiar blanket (or throw, for the modern vernacular), you are to be wrapped up in it and enjoy the journey rather than actively working out who did it. While the story telling is familiar but varied from each author by approach to each crime and with some of the old characters that surround Marple herself, it is the Great Lady who is lovingly brought back to us. Whether you sit forward to puzzle it out before the knitting needles have stopped clicking or relax and let the old lady reveal her laser-like mind, it’s a twelve-fold Christie-sequel well worth the read.
