Five newly released or forthcoming psychological thrillers offer fans of Agatha Christie fresh takes on her signature "closed-circle" mystery formula, in which characters are trapped in isolated settings with a limited pool of suspects. The books, all released or due out this September, transplant Christie's classic structure to modern settings such as remote Alaskan waters and snowbound alpine hotels, without featuring her original detective characters, except for one authorised revival.

Highlights include Lucy Foley's "Murder at the Grand Alpine Hotel" (out 22 September), the first full-length Miss Marple novel since 1976 and officially sanctioned by the Christie estate, which strands a 1950s ensemble cast in a snowbound Swiss hotel. Kevin C. Morris's debut "Untamed Coast" follows a grieving widower investigating a mysterious distress signal off Southeast Alaska across three timelines spanning 1938 to the present, while Jonathan Santlofer's "Ten Perfect Guests" gathers ten self-absorbed associates at a memorial for a dead artist, echoing Christie's "And Then There Were None".