Oh, what a disappointment.
This is the second story in the Marple: Twelve New Stories anthology that got off to a great start with Lucy Foley’s “Evil in Small Places.” As the title indicates, it’s a sequel set several years after the first Miss Marple novel, The Murder at the Vicarage. Once again narrative duties are handled by the vicar. He and his wife have a young son now (Griselda had only been pregnant at the end of the novel), and their nephew Dennis is a probationary police constable working under Inspector Slack. As things kick off here the vicar discovers yet another body in his home, this time of his former maid, Mary. She was his maid in the novel but had run off with the ne’er-do-well poacher Bill Archer. Now both Bill and Mary are dead: he from eating poisonous fungi and she from having her head bashed in with a cast-iron omelette pan.
All of that sounds like it could be a lot of fun, but it’s not. Val McDermid is a big name in mystery fiction but I’m not familiar with her work. On the strength of this story I won’t be looking for more. It’s hard to even call it a mystery. Miss Marple just pulls a rabbit out of a hat in her quick explanation of what happened. The killers are a couple of minor characters whose names are dropped in passing in the rest of the story but who we never meet or even catch a glimpse of. The clues Miss M uses to solve the case go unmentioned. We’re only told that Miss Marple seems to be noticing things, and then at the end she tells us what it is she had noticed. So there’s no way as a reader you could even guess at whodunit. This won’t do.
Alex Good 
A) is an omelette pan any different to a frying pan?
B) You’re never disappointed with Mrs.Pollifax.
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A) I don’t think so. It’s called an omelette pan in the story though so I went with that. I figured it was a British thing.
B) I may never know!
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Always do my omelettes in a small frying pan. Well l think you’re missing out on Mrs.P, if you’re a fan of murder mysteries you can’t get much better. Far outstrips the Marple woman. I’ll shut up now 🤣
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Maybe someday I’ll get to her. Never say never.
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There’s your problem. You expect to solve the mystery alongside the main character. That’s not how mysteries work any more….
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It’s how they work for me! I’m not just along for the ride.
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Better stick to the golden age stuff then. That’s what those authors were all about…
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That’s the plan!
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I endorse this plan…
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Meet you in the golden age. I’ll be hanging out in the conservatory with Miss Scarlet, Professor Plum, and a candlestick.
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Oh, I won’t be there. I’m stuck in New York with Wolfe and Archie…
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That’s OK. I’ll try to drop by the brownstone on my way back. I was thinking of buying an orchid.
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