Status Updates From Miss Marple. Kaksteist uut ...

This really is a great intro - Evil, after all, is just as easily found in the most picturesque corner of England as in the meanest city streets — human
nature is human nature, wherever you are. And so one of
her most unforgettable characters came into being.

Miss Jane Marple, literature’s pre-eminent amateur detective
and one of Agatha Christie’s finest creations, first appeared
in print in December 1927, in a short story called ‘The
Tuesday Night Club’.

Christie returned to this intriguing
character — with the intention, as she herself put it, ‘to give
old maids a voice’ — in 1930’s The Murder at the Vicarage,
which was followed by eleven further Marple novels, and
several collections of short stories featuring St Mary Mead’s
sharpest mind, with the very last novel, Sleeping Murder,
appearing posthumously in 1976, the year Christie died.

"The Mystery of the Acid Soil" by Kate Mosse (5 Stars) - Miss Marple meets a Curate on the train and ekes out a mystery on the journey. This truly felt like an Agatha Christie mystery. I loved it! Perfect mimic of her characters, setting and writing while being a new mystery.

"The Murdering Sort" by Karen M. McManus - Miss Marple's great niece goes to the States and witnesses the murder of a Patriarch while he's testing the family. This feels exactly likr a McManus mystery but kept Miss Marple true to character. It mainly is from the eyes of a teen which keeps true to McManus' style, and I expected the solution but appreciated the writing.

"A Deadly Wedding Day" by Dreda Say Mitchell (4 Stars) - Miss Marple attends the wedding of a friend's niece and there is a death at the breakfast speeches. I thought this was fairly well plotted and Miss Marple really felt like herself. I enjoyed the solution though I got a bit mixed up with the who's who with the audiobook.

"The Jade Empress" by Jean Kwok (3 Stars) - Miss Marple is on a cruise to Hong Kong and a passenger is murdered. I didn't love this because it feels waaay too far for Miss Marple to travel. But I can't be mad at the mystery in general, though it felt rushed.

"Miss Marple's Christmas" by Ruth Ware (3.5 Stars) - A robbery in a country estate home during Christmas day with an interesting little solution. Miss Marple felt pretty well represented but I just don't love her nephew.

'The Open Mind' by Naomi Alderman (3 Stars) - A murder at a college formal dinner. Clever but the setting and characters felt a bit off.