Today I’m excited to be talking about Murder at the Grand Alpine Hotel by Lucy Foley. Thank you to HarperFiction for providing me with an eARC in exchange for an honest review.
This review originally appeared on The Nerd Daily.
High in the Swiss Alps, with glorious mountain views and exclusive access to powdery slopes, the Grand Alpine Hotel draws guests from far and wide.
But when a guest enters a gondola alive, only to be found dead at the top of the mountain, it’s clear there’s a killer in their midst.
As dark histories simmer, and old grudges emerge like cracks in the ice, someone watches on from the shadows. An unassuming woman with an extraordinary mind: Miss Marple.
She suspects everyone in the hotel, and she’s right to. For it isn’t just a question of who has a motive, but who’s next…
CW:
My Thoughts:
With Murder at the Grand Alpine Hotel, Lucy Foley pulls off the impossible with aplomb. She delivers a fresh Marple story with the essence of Agatha Christie’s work while also weaving in her own distinctive style.
What Foley has done here is nothing short of a spectacular magic trick. She has deftly paid homage to one of the most iconic detectives of all time while also delivering a story that fits within her own distinctive style. It lives up to Christie’s legacy without trying to replicate it.
Speaking of the iconic woman herself, Foley makes some fascinating and smart decisions with Marple’s characterisation. While we do not directly go into Marple’s perspective, she is such an undeniable force in this story. Initially she is this dismissed figure on the periphery of some characters’ perspectives but you quickly get a sense of her sharp intellect and ability to discern the truth in someone’s heart. Foley highlights her shrewd powers of observation, insights into human nature and worldly wise sense of being. Interestingly there is occasionally a hint of a darker side, a vengeful spirit on the side of justice. It is a light touch but a deeply interesting one in conversation with Christie’s characterisation.
This is crafted with such clear love and reverence for Christie’s work and legacy. You have all the hallmarks and Foley plays with the expected tropes, often subverting them and surprising you along the way. This is a story where not everything as it seems and you are in for some brilliant twists and turns. Like Christie, Foley also has this wonderful sense of place that anchors you into the story. The setting is used to glorious effect with a touch of old Hollywood glamour and the creeping dread as this place of extravagance becomes a place of death. Foley ensures the period plays a large role too and this setting embodies that idea of papering over the cracks. This is a place that has very recently seen blood, death and war and is trying to hide behind a facade of beauty and happiness. The spectre of the war looms over each character, the place and the narrative itself.
Something I deeply loved about this book was the atmosphere. Underneath this glittering glamour of the Alps is a chilling reminder of nature’s power and humanity’s capacity for evil. This is a world recently scarred by the horrors of the World War. I think it is difficult to comprehend the sheer scale and destruction caused by this all-consuming war that forever changed the path of history. On a political level, the global implications are gigantic and the personal effects are felt just as keenly. This is a book deeply concerned with the horrors of war and how the story is written by the victors. Acts of barbaric violence are swept under the rug in tales of heroism. Foley ensures that isn’t the case as certain events have cataclysmic consequences. They haunt the narrative and as a reader you are intrigued and horrified by their secrets until the truth is finally unveiled. All of this feeds into an ever tightening atmosphere of paranoia, heightened by these very recent experiences and deep-seated feeling of loss that affects every character. This murder upends everything and reminds them of what they have just lived through.
Murder at the Grand Alpine Hotel brings the classic Christie feel into the modern day with a wonderful homage and a thrilling new story. It is a layered and psychologically rich rollercoaster ride that brings a new treasure to a brilliant canon.
