Murder at the Grand Alpine Hotel by Lucy Foley and Agatha Christie

High in the Swiss Alps, accessible only by a single, winding railway, stands the luxurious Grand Alpine Hotel. With glorious mountain views and exclusive access to powdery slopes, it draws guests from far and wide.

The notorious actress.

The high-flying politician.

The society wife.

The reckless friend.

The shrewd doctor.

But not everyone is here for a winter holiday.

Beneath the champagne and furs, dark histories simmer; old grudges emerge like cracks in the ice.

And someone is watching from the shadows. A polite, unassuming woman with an extraordinary mind: Miss Marple.

When a body is found and a blizzard cuts off all escape, only Miss Marple can connect the clues before the killer strikes again. Because it isn’t a question of who has a motive, but who’s next…

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A snowbound luxury hotel, a suspiciously glamorous guest list, and a quietly observant woman who notices everything.

Pre-Reading Thoughts
I’ve only read one novel by Agatha Christie before, and it wasn’t a Miss Marple story, so I went into this mostly reading it as a straight mystery. A glamorous Alpine hotel cut off by snow, a suspicious group of guests, and secrets simmering beneath the surface felt like exactly the kind of setup that works best when the tension slowly tightens.

Post-Reading

As I thought…
The setting is perfect for a classic mystery setup. A luxury hotel high in the Swiss Alps, reachable only by a winding railway, becomes the ideal snow-locked stage for secrets, grudges, and suspicion. The guest list is full of people who clearly have something to hide, and once the storm rolls in, there’s nowhere for anyone to go.

It surprised me by…
How much the story leans into atmosphere. The glamorous surroundings—champagne, furs, mountain views—contrast nicely with the growing unease once the murder occurs. With everyone trapped together in the storm, every conversation and glance starts to feel potentially significant.

A Marple Reader’s Thoughts
(I read this mainly as a mystery, but a friend who has read all the Miss Marple books shared his thoughts on how it works as a Marple story:)

I think Lucy Foley got Miss Marple right. This is the Marple I remember - the (seemingly) frail, dithery old lady, sitting quietly unobserved in the background, who takes in everything and has a penchant for spotting evil intent.

The setting is a classic Golden Age mystery scenario - an isolated group of people, whose suspicions of one another grow as their numbers are reduced by murder. We are in familiar Christie territory here.

The story unfolds through the accounts of four different narrators, each of whom has something to hide. Miss Marple’s remark that “not everyone here may be exactly what they seem” could be taken as a motif for the story. Gradually, we learn a little more about each of the narrators, but Miss Marple is always ahead of us, stitching together a series of unrelated and seeming irrelevant facts to arrive at a solution.

This is where I have a small issue. After reading the book I went back to try to spot the clues that led Miss Marple to her conclusions. They were there, but so hidden that it would have been very hard to spot their existence or relevance. I think Agatha Christie would have been a bit fairer with us.

Overall, I enjoyed it, and if Lucy Foley is inclined to do it again I will get in line to read the next one.

Final Thought: We can see that this works as both a mystery and as a Miss Marple! So, mystery fans who are eyeing it but unsure if you'll be able to follow it, don't worry. It's a fantastic closed circle mystery with a clever sleuth and a satisfying ending.

Music Pairing 🎵

Featured Song: Snow on the Beach – Taylor Swift

Vibe Album: Murder Ballads – Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds

Artist Recommendation: Agnes Obel — elegant, slightly eerie music that suits a quiet mystery unfolding in a snowbound hotel.

Vibe Check

🎨 Colour Palette: snow white, deep burgundy, midnight blue
🎬 Soundtrack: quiet piano and suspenseful strings
❄️ Season: deep winter
💭 Mood: elegant tension
🌲 Scent: cold air, pine, and expensive perfume

Tarot Pull 🔮

High Priestess – Unfolding Path Tarot
In this deck, the High Priestess is depicted as an older woman - calm, grounded, and quietly observant. It reframes intuition as something earned rather than mystical: the result of a life spent watching, listening, and noticing what others overlook.

That fits Miss Marple particularly well. In the middle of a hotel full of performance, suspicion, and hidden agendas, she doesn’t force the truth into the open. She simply observes long enough for it to reveal itself. While others react to what is visible, she interprets what is implied.

For fans of:
📚 Murder on the Orient Express
🎬 Knives Out

Murder at the Grand Alpine Hotel publishes on the 22nd of September, 2026. I received a free copy and am giving an honest review.