The Mirror Crack’d from Side to Side by Agatha Christie

 

#9 Miss Marple

Publisher: Harper Collins

First Published: January 1, 1962

291 Pages

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Blurb

A movie star

A deadly cocktail

A murder

When glamorous Marina Gregg came to live in St Mary Mead, tongues were sure to wag.

But, with a local gossip’s sudden death, has one tongue wagged a bit too much?

As the police chase false leads, and two more victims meet untimely ends, Miss Marple starts to ask her own questions.

What secrets might link a peaceful English village and a star of the silver screen?

Never underestimate Miss Marple

 

Review

 

“The mirror crack’d from side to side: “The Doom has come upon me,” cried the Lady of Shalott.”

Alternative blurb:

One minute, silly Heather Badcock had been gabbling on at her movie idol, the glamorous Marina Gregg. The next, Heather suffered a massive seizure. But for whom was the deadly poison really intended?

Marina’s frozen expression suggested she had witnessed something horrific. But, while others searched for material evidence, Jane Marple conducted a very different investigation – into human nature.

 

I’m not sure if/when I read this story before. I do however remember watching an adaptation on TV and as soon as I started the book, the guilty party as well as the reason for the (first) murder came back to me. To be honest, it is quite possible I would have guessed what was going on without that prior knowledge. Christie is rarely as ‘obvious’ about what’s going on in her mysteries as she is here. Whatever the case may be, I can’t say this spoiled the book for me. Quite the opposite, in fact. I greatly enjoyed myself as I recognised the further clues as they were presented. It made a wonderful change from the normal process where I only recognise by the end of the story all the pointers I had missed along the way.

The story starts with Miss Marple reflecting on life, getting older, modernisation, and change. St. Mary Mead isn’t what it used to be and mostly she blames the Development.

 “The new world was the same as the old. The houses were different, the streets were called Closes, the clothes were different, the voices were different, but the human beings were the same as they always had been. And though using slightly different phraseology, the subjects of conversation were the same.”

Miss Marple meets Heather Badcock and tells her she reminds Marple of Alison Wilde. When Heather asks what happened to Alison, Miss Marple replies ‘Oh—she died’. Foreshadowing much?

When Heather Badcock meets Marina Gregg, movie star, during the fete at Gossington Hall, Marina’s gaze fixes on something and her expression becomes ghastly. Shortly afterwards, Heather Badcock becomes unwell and dies. Since her death occurs after she drinks what had been Marina Gregg’s (untouched) cocktail, the big question is who the intended victim actually was.

In the subsequent investigation, led by recurring character Dermot Craddock, the focus is firmly on Marina Gregg and her past. The private reception in Gossington Hall, as it turns out, was frequented by quite a few guests who might have reasons to hold grudges against Marina and the investigation goes in various directions before Miss Marple provides the solution.

As always, I loved this story. Between the mystery, the characters, and Christie’s storytelling prowess, I lost myself in the book and the unravelling of what was going on. One or two things pulled me up short too and one story thread in particular brought home to me how we read books through the prism of our own experiences in the world. While I can’t go into particulars for fear of spoiling the story, it is safe to say that I had a few thoughts about what is going on in this story that didn’t occur to me in the past.

As I said, I love Christie’s writing voice. The following two quotes are good examples of why that is the case. This one for example, is Miss Marple to a T. She may not like everything that’s happening to the world she used to know, but she is honest enough to acknowledge that her dislike doesn’t mean that anything is wrong.

It’s human nature I’m interested in, you know, and human nature is much the same whether it’s film stars or hospital nurses of people in St Mary Mead or,’ she added thoughtfully, ‘people who live in the Development.’

 And this quote is a clear indication that not so much has changed in our world between the 1960s and now. The more things change, the more they stay the same.

‘It’s news,’ said Dermot Craddock, ‘and some pretty nasty things can be said in the way of fair comment.’

Suffice it to say that I’m delighted I discovered the All About Agatha podcast and even happier that it has made me revisit her books. I foresee a lot more Christie reviews in my immediate future.