The Miss Marple books in order comprise 12 novels and 20 short stories written by Agatha Christie. Miss Marple made her first appearance in the 1927 short story “The Tuesday Night Club,” three years before her first full-length novel, The Murder at the Vicarage.
Miss Jane Marple lives in the English village of St Mary Mead. A lifetime of observing ordinary people has given her a remarkably sharp understanding of human nature. She looks like a harmless elderly woman interested in gardening, knitting, and village gossip, which makes it easy for suspects to underestimate her.
Jump to:
- Miss Marple Books in Publication Order
- Miss Marple Books in Chronological Order
- Miss Marple Collections
- Authorized Miss Marple Continuations
- Miss Marple Adaptations
- About Agatha Christie
Miss Marple Books in Publication Order
Agatha Christie wrote 12 full-length Miss Marple novels. Each book presents a self-contained mystery, so you can read most of them out of sequence without feeling lost. I still recommend publication order because it preserves recurring characters and references. The most important connection is between A Caribbean Mystery and Nemesis, which both feature Jason Rafiel and should be read in that order.
The publication-order list uses each book’s first U.S. publication year and U.S. title. I’ve included the UK title in parentheses whenever it differs.
- The Murder at the Vicarage (1930)
- The Body in the Library (1942)
- The Moving Finger (1942)
- A Murder Is Announced (1950)
- Murder with Mirrors (1952) (UK title: They Do It with Mirrors)
- A Pocket Full of Rye (1954)
- What Mrs. McGillicuddy Saw! (1957) (UK title: 4.50 from Paddington)
- The Mirror Crack’d (1963) (UK title: The Mirror Crack’d from Side to Side)
- A Caribbean Mystery (1965)
- At Bertram’s Hotel (1966)
- Nemesis (1971)
- Sleeping Murder (1976)
The Murder at the Vicarage is the first Miss Marple novel, but it was not her first appearance. That distinction belongs to “The Tuesday Night Club,” published in 1927. Sleeping Murder was the final Christie novel featuring Miss Marple to be published, while Nemesis was the last Miss Marple novel Christie wrote.
Miss Marple Short Stories in Order
Agatha Christie wrote 20 short stories featuring Miss Marple. The years below refer to each story’s first verified public appearance. The first 13 are collected in The Tuesday Club Murders, which was published in the UK as The Thirteen Problems.
- “The Tuesday Night Club” (1927) (found in The Tuesday Club Murders)
- “The Idol House of Astarte” (1928) (found in The Tuesday Club Murders)
- “Ingots of Gold” (1928) (found in The Tuesday Club Murders)
- “The Bloodstained Pavement” (1928) (found in The Tuesday Club Murders)
- “Motive vs. Opportunity” (1928) (found in The Tuesday Club Murders)
- “The Thumb Mark of St. Peter” (1928) (found in The Tuesday Club Murders)
- “The Blue Geranium” (1929) (found in The Tuesday Club Murders)
- “The Companion” (1930) (found in The Tuesday Club Murders)
- “The Four Suspects” (1930) (found in The Tuesday Club Murders)
- “A Christmas Tragedy” (1930) (found in The Tuesday Club Murders)
- “The Herb of Death” (1930) (found in The Tuesday Club Murders)
- “The Affair at the Bungalow” (1930) (found in The Tuesday Club Murders)
- “Death by Drowning” (1931) (found in The Tuesday Club Murders)
- “Miss Marple Tells a Story” (1934) (found in The Regatta Mystery and Other Stories)
- “Strange Jest” (1941) (found in Three Blind Mice and Other Stories)
- “Tape-Measure Murder” (1941) (found in Three Blind Mice and Other Stories)
- “The Case of the Caretaker” (1942) (found in Three Blind Mice and Other Stories)
- “The Case of the Perfect Maid” (1942) (found in Three Blind Mice and Other Stories)
- “Sanctuary” (1954) (found in Double Sin and Other Stories)
- “Greenshaw’s Folly” (1956) (found in Double Sin and Other Stories)
“Miss Marple Tells a Story” was first presented as a radio broadcast in 1934 and did not appear in print until 1935. The list uses 1934 because that was the story’s first public appearance.
Miss Marple Books in Chronological Order
Publication order and Miss Marple’s lifetime chronology are not the same. Christie wrote Sleeping Murder during the Second World War, but the novel was held back and published decades later. Its earlier placement below better matches Miss Marple’s characterization and level of activity.
The official Agatha Christie chronology places the 13 stories in The Tuesday Club Murders together near the beginning of Miss Marple’s timeline. It then groups six additional stories before The Body in the Library. To keep the list readable, uninterrupted stories are grouped by their U.S. collection below, while “Miss Marple Tells a Story,” “Sanctuary,” and “Greenshaw’s Folly” appear separately where they belong.
- The Murder at the Vicarage
- The Tuesday Club Murders (Short Story Collection)
- “Miss Marple Tells a Story” (Short Story) (found in The Regatta Mystery and Other Stories)
- Three Blind Mice and Other Stories (Short Story Collection)
- “Sanctuary” (Short Story) (found in Double Sin and Other Stories)
- The Body in the Library
- The Moving Finger
- Sleeping Murder
- A Murder Is Announced
- Murder with Mirrors (UK title: They Do It with Mirrors)
- A Pocket Full of Rye
- “Greenshaw’s Folly” (Short Story) (found in Double Sin and Other Stories)
- What Mrs. McGillicuddy Saw! (UK title: 4.50 from Paddington)
- The Mirror Crack’d (UK title: The Mirror Crack’d from Side to Side)
- A Caribbean Mystery
- At Bertram’s Hotel
- Nemesis
This chronology is useful if you want Miss Marple’s characterization and activity level to progress more naturally. For a first read, publication order remains the simplest choice because it follows the sequence in which readers originally encountered the novels and stories.
Miss Marple Collections
The simplest way to read all 20 Christie stories is Miss Marple: The Complete Short Stories (1985). The first U.S. one-volume edition was published in 1985, although later editions may show a different edition date.
Before the complete one-volume collection appeared, the 20 stories were spread across four U.S. collections. Those books overlap with later reprint collections, so readers who own the complete volume do not need to buy them separately.
- The Tuesday Club Murders (1933) (UK title: The Thirteen Problems): Contains the first 13 Miss Marple short stories.
- The Regatta Mystery and Other Stories (1939): Contains “Miss Marple Tells a Story.”
- Three Blind Mice and Other Stories (1950): Contains “Strange Jest,” “Tape-Measure Murder,” “The Case of the Caretaker,” and “The Case of the Perfect Maid.”
- Double Sin and Other Stories (1961): Contains “Sanctuary” and “Greenshaw’s Folly.”
13 Clues for Miss Marple (1966) is a later selection of previously published stories rather than an additional group of Miss Marple mysteries. The original British edition of Miss Marple’s Final Cases (1979) contains six Miss Marple stories and two stories that do not feature her. Some later editions also include “Greenshaw’s Folly,” so check the contents before choosing an edition.
For readers interested in the character’s wider history, Agatha Christie’s Marple: Expert on Wickedness (2024) by Mark Aldridge covers Miss Marple across the books, stage, radio, film, and television. It is an optional nonfiction companion and is not part of the fiction reading order.
Authorized Miss Marple Continuations
Agatha Christie Limited authorized the following Miss Marple works after Christie’s death. They were written by other authors and remain separate from Christie’s original canon of 12 novels and 20 short stories.
- Marple: Twelve New Mysteries (2022) (Short Story Collection by various authors)
- Murder at the Grand Alpine Hotel by Lucy Foley (2026)
Marple: Twelve New Mysteries, published in Britain as Marple: Twelve New Stories, contains one Miss Marple story by each of 12 contemporary writers. The stories appear in this order:
- “Evil in Small Places” by Lucy Foley (Short Story)
- “The Second Murder at the Vicarage” by Val McDermid (Short Story)
- “Miss Marple Takes Manhattan” by Alyssa Cole (Short Story)
- “The Unravelling” by Natalie Haynes (Short Story)
- “Miss Marple’s Christmas” by Ruth Ware (Short Story)
- “The Open Mind” by Naomi Alderman (Short Story)
- “The Jade Empress” by Jean Kwok (Short Story)
- “A Deadly Wedding Day” by Dreda Say Mitchell (Short Story)
- “Murder at the Villa Rosa” by Elly Griffiths (Short Story)
- “The Murdering Sort” by Karen M. McManus (Short Story)
- “The Mystery of the Acid Soil” by Kate Mosse (Short Story)
- “The Disappearance” by Leigh Bardugo (Short Story)
Murder at the Grand Alpine Hotel is an authorized continuation novel by Lucy Foley rather than an unpublished Agatha Christie manuscript. Neither it nor the 2022 anthology has an official placement within Christie’s original Miss Marple chronology.
Miss Marple Adaptations
Miss Marple has appeared in films and television series for decades, but the screen adaptations do not follow the book order. Some change characters, settings, and solutions, while others insert Miss Marple into Christie mysteries in which she did not originally appear.
Margaret Rutherford Movies
Margaret Rutherford played Miss Marple in four films: Murder, She Said (1961), Murder at the Gallop (1963), Murder Most Foul (1964), and Murder Ahoy! (1964). Murder, She Said adapts What Mrs. McGillicuddy Saw!, published in the UK as 4.50 from Paddington. Murder at the Gallop adapts After the Funeral, and Murder Most Foul adapts Mrs McGinty’s Dead, with Miss Marple replacing Hercule Poirot in both films. Murder Ahoy! uses an original screenplay.
The Mirror Crack’d
The Mirror Crack’d (1980) adapts the novel of the same U.S. title, published in the UK as The Mirror Crack’d from Side to Side. Angela Lansbury plays Miss Marple alongside Elizabeth Taylor, Rock Hudson, Kim Novak, and Tony Curtis.
Miss Marple
The BBC series Miss Marple (1984–1992) stars Joan Hickson and adapts all 12 original Miss Marple novels. It is the most straightforward screen companion for readers who want adaptations covering Christie’s complete novel series.
Agatha Christie’s Marple
Agatha Christie’s Marple (2004–2013) stars Geraldine McEwan in its first three series and Julia McKenzie in the final three. It adapts all 12 Miss Marple novels as well as several Christie mysteries that did not originally feature her, so the episode sequence should not be treated as a reading order.
About Agatha Christie
Agatha Christie was born in Torquay, England, in 1890. She began writing detective fiction during the First World War. Her first published novel, The Mysterious Affair at Styles, introduced Hercule Poirot.
Christie worked as a nurse and trained as a dispenser during the First World War. She returned to pharmacy work during the Second World War. That practical knowledge helped her write convincingly about poisons, medicines, and their effects.
Miss Marple first appeared in “The Tuesday Night Club” in 1927 and made her novel debut in The Murder at the Vicarage in 1930. Across 12 novels and 20 short stories, the quiet observer from St Mary Mead became one of detective fiction’s most enduring characters.
You can find Christie’s novels, short stories, plays, and pseudonymous works in my guide to everything Agatha Christie has written, including the complete Hercule Poirot series.
Looking for similar books in order?
If you want more mystery authors and reading-order guides like this one, start with my Mystery Books in Order index.