Lucy Foley went ‘method’ to revive Agatha Christie’s Miss Marple after 50 years

I was on the subway reading “Murder at the Grand Alpine Hotel” by Lucy Foley and Agatha Christie when a stranger stopped me to ask, with knitted eyebrows, how it was.

She was a hardcore Christie fan and had heard about Foley’s collaboration with the late mystery author’s estate to release the first authorized Marple novel in 50 years. Foley is a mystery and historical fiction author, having written bestselling novels including "The Guest List" (2020) and "The Paris Apartment" (2022).

But my subway companion worried about someone else picking up Christie’s pen. She at least found comfort in the fact that Foley, like Christie, is British.

“Murder at the Grand Alpine Hotel” (out Sept. 22 from William Morrow) is a brand new Miss Marple mystery set in the Swiss Alps in 1950, where the geriatric amateur detective is vacationing with her close friend Dolly Bantry. But after a body is found and all the hotel residents are snowbound due to a blizzard, Miss Marple is back on the case.

When James Prichard, Christie’s great-grandson, got his hands on Foley’s draft, he read it in 24 hours.

As the chairman and CEO of Agatha Christie Ltd., Prichard has produced the…

Original source: https://www.usatoday.com/entertainment/