book log: Agatha Christie - The mirror cracked from side to side

[julesjones]

49) Agatha Christie - The mirror cracked from side to side

This one's interesting not just for the murder mystery itself, but because it was written in 1962 and Miss Marple is feeling the passage of time. Change has come to St Mary Mead, with the advent of the Development, a new housing estate. Change has come to the social structure, with the slow disappearance of household servants, and the appearance of supermarkets. And age is affecting Miss Marple, who is old enough to need some personal care after an illness, but is not the completely dependent and mindless old lady her home nurse insists on treating her as. Her doctor and old friend prescribes some unravelling of knitting for her. He's not just referring to her knitting, and soon Miss Marple has the opportunity to unravel a murder. Her friend Mrs Bantry sold Gossington Hall some years earlier after the death of the Colonel, and after several changes of ownership and some unfortunate attention from developers it has now been sold to a Hollywood film star, who has restored it to a private home. Marina Gregg intends to take part in village life, and this includes hosting a public fund-raising event in the grounds for charity, and inviting various village notables to a private reception to view the refurbishments. As the former owner of the house, Mrs Bantry is an honoured guest -- which puts her in a prime position to view events at the reception that in hindsight were a prelude to a murder.

This was one where I spotted who and part of why pretty much at the point of the murder -- but the misdirection was so good that I wasn't sure until almost the very end, even though the rest of why had been laid out quite clearly part way through the book, if you know what to look for. It's a great read that kept me turning the pages, although it has a more melancholy feel to it than the earlier Marples. Christie has written a superb portrayal of an old woman who recognises that change isn't necessarily all bad, but nevertheless feels discomfited by it even as she does her best to embrace the good aspects. And the ultimate motivation for the murder is heartbreaking, all the more so because it appears to have been based on a real life incident.

LibraryThing entry

Comments

[j-cheney.livejournal.com]

This is one of my favorite Marples, and possibly one of the hardest to pull off these days. People (especially young onces) don't recall days of virulent outbreaks of disease like that...

[julesjones]

Even though I picked up that the fan patting herself on the back for her self-centred behaviour was the trigger, I didn't actually link it with the later description of the child until quite a long way through the book. Of course, that's partly because Christie cleverly obscured exactly what the illness was. I was sandbagged when I finally made the connection -- and I think that I too would have been tempted...

I hadn't realised until I read one of the other reviews on LibraryThing that the inspiration for the story was almost certainly what happened to Gene Tierney.

[j-cheney.livejournal.com]

I didn't know that about Tierney, either! How sad!

[kalypso-v.livejournal.com]

Yes, I remember that one, and something about the husband as Lancelot. I too worked out who did it at once... actually, I seem to remember that in the days when I read a lot of Christie I generally could tell who had done it, though that may have had something to do with the publisher's annoying habit of commissioning cover designs that always related to the solution of the mystery. (I don't usually work it out in the TV dramatisations.) But, covers aside, I don't think it's necessarily a fault if you can deduce the answer, because it's satisfying waiting for the detective to catch up.

[julesjones]

I've found that a lot of the Wycliffe novels work on that level, because a lot of the point of the story is watching the interactions between the characters. And of course a story that works as a reading experience even if you spot the murderer on the first page is good from the re-read angle.