Marple: Twelve New Mysteries

 

Reviewed by Jeanne

I am a long-time fan of Agatha Christie, especially of her stories featuring the elderly spinster Jane Marple.  With her sharp eye and keen intellect, she could ferret out connections on what would seem to be the flimsiest of clues. Her great gift is seeing patterns of behavior that she applies to people no matter their station in life: the eldest son of a duke might well make a decision similar to one made by the butcher’s boy in the same situation.

Her other advantage is that no one takes an elderly woman seriously.  They’re apt to accidentally reveal more than they intend to the fluffy old dear who is more than capable of using that information to solve whatever crime is afoot.

When a collection of new Miss Marple stories by contemporary authors was announced. I was excited but wary. I am quite fond of Miss Marple and I had some qualms about how she would be treated. On the other hand, I liked the idea of a collection of short stories: at times I really like having something to read that tells an entire story in just a few pages so that I have a handy stopping point.  Short stories are an art form:  not everyone can manage to introduce characters and tell a story in a short space.

As it turned out, most of my fears were groundless.  I felt every author respected the source material and turned out some entertaining tales.  Admittedly, some were more successful than others for me; I sometimes had trouble picturing the elderly detective in the more unusual locales, but all were well plotted.  Many used Miss Marple’s nephew, Raymond West, as an excuse to get her out of St. Mary Mead, and a few used other reoccurring characters.

I was familiar with some of the authors already (Ruth Ware, Elly Griffiths, Lucy Foley, Val McDermid, Alyssa Cole) but others were new to me.  A couple I have noted as authors to look for in the future.

If I had to pick a favorite story, it would probably be “The Second Murder at the Vicarage” by Val McDermid which uses the setting and characters from the first Miss Marple novel The Murder at the Vicarage.  McDermid had me from the first sentence, which is a re-working of an Oscar Wilde line. 

In short, I found this to be a very enjoyable collection which has prompted me to re-read some of the original novels.  

Bryant and May on the Loose by Christopher Fowler

 

We do not have a Nevermore report for today, so we're digging into the archives for some old posts you may not have seen.  This one is from 2013, with an update following the review.

Reviewed by Jeanne

Having stepped on a few toes too man, the Peculiar Crimes Unit has been disbanded and its members scattered hither and yon—at least until a headless corpse is discovered in a politically sensitive area at a politically sensitive time.  They have less than a week to solve the case, and they have to do so without any real authority, no access to official channels and an office without a working toilet but with a rather large pentagram.

This was the first time I’d tried a book in this series and I harbor the very strong suspicion that if I had deliberately set out to pick the worst possible place to start, it would be this book.  There are too many characters I’m supposed to know about already and I had trouble keeping them all straight.  There were a number of scenes which I knew were probably Very Significant but I didn’t know why.  On the other hand, I did keep reading because I enjoyed the writing and the fascinating bits of London history that were constantly being dropped.  I don’t recall ever hearing about the Saint Pancras Old Church before, but it plays a major role in the story; if I ever get back to London, I want to pay a visit.

By the end I was admiring the way that Bryant and May both reached a conclusion through very different routes:  one from the realm of superstitions and strange forces and the other from very solid, non-mystical means, and no way to saying which one was right.  In fact they were both a bit right and both a bit wrong:  that’s quite a balancing act.

If you like your mysteries to be very British, with large dollops of history, folklore, clever observations and humor, this might just be the book for you but you probably should start with one of the earlier books.  Personally, I’m intrigued enough to try another in the series.

2024 Update

I did indeed try more books in this series, and found them most enjoyable.  I really love all the London history packed into the stories as well as mythology and folklore.  I have told people that this could double as a guidebook in some instances; in fact, Fowler wrote a book entitled Bryant and May:  Peculiar London which is described as “a magical mystery tour of London” which May describes as being both personal and unreliable, and which I would describe as a lot of fun.  Fowler's sense of humor delights me, and his use of two elderly detectives guiding the investigations of a distinctly off-beat department charms me every time.

I am slowly reading the rest of the series.  Christopher Fowler passed away in 2023, so I am trying to make the series last.  I will be sad to read the final chapter.

Another fantasy series set in London that packs a lot of information and folklore into its stories is Ben Aaronovitch’s Rivers of London.  I would strongly suggest reading this one in order because there is a lot of world-building involved in addition to character growth and change.