“Sidebar” Reviews are extremely early reviews designed to encourage readers to pre-order novels that will be released later in the year.
Miss Marple is one of the most beloved characters in the history of crime fiction. Dame Agatha Christie’s first short story featuring Jane Marple appeared in 1927, but the unassuming senior would carry on as the lead character in a series of twelve novels and a handful of short stories—several of which are still considered classics of the genre. Now, fifty years after her final appearance in Sleeping Murder, Miss Jane Marple is back. This time she is in the very capable hands of bestselling author Lucy Foley. Murder at the Grand Alpine Hotel is guaranteed to be one of the most talked about publications on the crime fiction calendar this year.
Murder at the Grand Alpine Hotel is not Lucy Foley’s first time bringing Miss Marple to life on the page. Fans of the genre may remember the anthology Marple: Twelve New Stories which was released in 2022. In that collection, Lucy Foley’s contribution— “Evil in Small Places”—was selected as the first short story to appear and is one of the strongest among the dozen offerings. After reading Murder at the Grand Alpine Hotel, fans of this legendary sleuth will surely agree that Lucy Foley was the correct choice to carry on her legacy.
No surprise, given the title, Murder at the Grand Alpine Hotel begins with Miss Marple journeying to the luxury ski resort in the Swiss Alps for a vacation getaway. Accompanying her on this trip is another familiar face, Dolly Bantry—most famous as the owner of the estate where the body in the library was discovered, but also a good friend of Miss Marple who makes multiple appearances across the series. The third member of their entourage is Dolly’s personal assistant/”lady-in-waiting”, Diana Glass (one of the four point of view characters in the novel.)
Following genre tropes, Lucy Foley gets this group to a secluded location and then populates it with a closed circle of suspects—each of whom is more fascinating than the next. Avoiding spoilers, let’s focus on the POV characters. There is the society wife, Catherine Narracott, traveling with her politician husband; the faded star of the silver screen, Sylvia Sinclair; and the less-than-polished “heavy”-type, Bruno Crane. As these characters alternate telling their story, Miss Marple is always in the background noticing things that everyone else misses, including the reader.
Lucy Foley structures the novel so that while readers learn early in the novel that a murder has taken place, it’s a while before they discover who the victim is. This works to keep the reader on their toes trying to catch all the subtle clues Miss Marple is no doubt accumulating. Murder at the Grand Alpine Hotel has a vintage ambiance. In terms of timeline, it’s 1950 and likely occurs somewhere between the third and fourth of Agatha Christie’s canonical Miss Marple novels. And yet, Lucy Foley does a great job of making the novel feel timely and continues to show readers just how “cutting edge” Dame Christie’s works really were—leaving any sense of them as “cozies” lying on the floor next to the clothes of the characters about to begin a forbidden tryst.
Just as with Sophie Hannah’s Hercule Poirot novels, there will be readers who staunchly stand on the side of tradition—let these characters “die” with their creator—but there is something so comforting about settling in with Miss Marple once again during these trying times, so if readers don’t mind being once step removed from the source, Lucy Foley’s Murder at the Grand Alpine Hotel is a wonderful escape—at least for those who survive the weekend.
Pre-order Links: Murder at the Grand Alpine Hotel by Lucy Foley
Disclaimer: An e-galley copy of this title were provided to BOLO Books by the publisher. No promotion was promised and the above is an unbiased review of the novel.
