Miss Marple Returns After 50 Years. How Agatha Christie’s Estate Chose the Writer.

The estate of the late Agatha Christie entrusted bestselling thriller writer Lucy Foley to dust off the crime-fighting spinster Miss Marple and deliver her to a contemporary audience. The result is the first Miss Marple novel in 50 years. Foley’s “Murder at the Grand Alpine Hotel,” set at a ski resort in 1950, plunges Miss Marple into the Swiss Alps with a cast that includes a fading Hollywood bombshell, a World War II hero-turned-politician and a financially challenged society wife.

Christie’s writing is not untouchable: It has been changed over the years to remove racist language and other references considered offensive to today’s readers. Still, Foley, whose provocative reads include “The Guest List” and “The Paris Apartment,” had to follow ground rules for the conservative Miss Marple: The character couldn’t be young. She couldn’t have a boyfriend. She couldn’t be a killer and she couldn’t be a victim. Foley got into her assignment by traveling to the Alps and reading 12 Miss Marple novels at least four times each.

Foley was asked to write a Miss Marple short story for a collection in 2022. Then the estate came back and asked if she would consider writing a full-length Miss Marple.  In writing the novel, Foley worked with the estate to develop the other characters in the book similarly to Christie, going beneath a character’s facade to who they truly are.

For more information see Ellen Gamerman “Miss Marple Returns After 50 Years. How Agatha Christie’s Estate Chose the Writer.” The Wall Street Journal, September 22, 2026.