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Cover image: William Morrow (HarperCollins), used under fair use for review.
Miss Marple is back, and it only took fifty years. Murder at the Grand Alpine Hotel is Lucy Foley’s authorized Miss Marple novel, published September 22, 2026 by William Morrow in the US (HarperCollins in the UK), and it lands half a century after Agatha Christie’s last Marple novel. No pressure, Lucy.
The setup is pure Christie catnip: a luxury hotel high in the Swiss Alps, reachable by a single winding railway, stocked with a notorious actress, a high-flying politician, a society wife, a reckless friend, and a shrewd doctor. Then a body turns up, a blizzard cuts off every way out, and the polite elderly lady in the corner turns out to be the most dangerous person in the building. For the murderer, anyway.
Grab Murder at the Grand Alpine Hotel on Amazon — hardcover, Kindle, or Audible.
Bottom Line
If you liked Foley’s The Guest List and you’ve always suspected Miss Marple would be great company at a snowed-in house party, this is an easy yes. It’s a closed-circle whodunit with a cast built to be suspected, which is exactly the point.
Why it works on paper (and in your ears)
Foley already made a career out of trapping strangers somewhere scenic and letting their secrets curdle, so handing her Miss Marple feels less like a stunt and more like a merger. The publisher’s pitch leans hard on the classic formula — isolated setting, a suspect list introduced like a lineup, and the question of not just who has a motive, but who’s next.
The Audible edition is a full multicast production, narrated by Hayley Atwell, Lucy Boynton, Adeel Akhtar, Mara Wilson, and Hugh Kermode. For an ensemble mystery where you’re juggling five suspects, separate voices are a genuine help, not just a celebrity garnish. Prefer to see the clues on the page? The Kindle and hardcover (304 pages in the US edition) are right there too.
Wins and watch-outs
Wins
- Officially Marple: an authorized novel, listed on the Agatha Christie estate’s own site, not fan fiction in a nice jacket.
- Classic locked-in setup: alpine hotel, one railway, one blizzard, zero exits.
- Built for suspicion: a tidy cast of archetypes, each with something to hide.
- Strong audio option: a five-narrator multicast cast for listeners.
Watch-outs
- Big shoes: Christie purists may grade on a curve that no living writer passes.
- Archetype-heavy cast: “the actress, the politician, the doctor” is a feature of the genre, but it can read as a checklist if you wanted surprises in the lineup itself.
- Foley fans, adjust expectations: this is Marple’s show, so the spotlight sits with an old-school sleuth rather than Foley’s usual rotating confessions.
Skip it if…
Skip it if you think Miss Marple should have stayed retired in St. Mary Mead, or if closed-circle mysteries make you roll your eyes before chapter two. Everyone else: pack a sweater.
Conclusion
Murder at the Grand Alpine Hotel is the kind of mystery that’s easy to recommend to a friend: a famous detective, a trapped cast, and a snowstorm doing the plot a favor. Read it in hardcover, on Kindle, or let the multicast Audible edition do the voices.
Buy or listen to Murder at the Grand Alpine Hotel here.
Behind the bookmark
Lane Adler
Lane Adler writes Aladyne Reads for busy people who still want the next good read. He covers Personal Growth plus Romance, Thriller, Mystery, Sci-Fi, and Fantasy, and picks books he’d actually recommend to a friend. Life doesn’t leave much quiet couch time—so the reviews lean Audible and Kindle, with print still welcome when you want paper in hand.
