The Mirror Crack'd From Side To Side (2015) - Plot & Excerpts
My pathway to this book, The Mirror Crack'd from Side to Side was circuitous. Last Monday, I read Beyond the Looking Glass: Narcissism and Female Stardom in Studio-Era Hollywood by Ana Salzburg and there was a chapter on Gene Tierney. Salzburg notes that nowadays Tierney is mainly remembered for her tragic story - while pregnant, she contracted German measles and gave birth to a child with severe disabilities, following which Tierney experienced a series of nervous breakdowns. Years later, she met a fan who recounted how she broke quarantine for German measles to meet Gene, possibly thus infecting her at the same time. Salzburg argues that part of the reason that this story is so prominent in Tierney's story is its fictionalisation by Dame Agatha in The Mirror Crack'd. I love Christie novels, the book's tangential relationship with Hollywood means reading it would not be procrastination but study for my thesis, and it was available on Open Library. Done!The Mirror Crack'd is a Miss Marple novel and much of the story takes place in her small house in the village of St Mary's Mead. St Mary's Mead, once a quiet town where everyone knew everyone, is changing, for example with the building of a new estate (called "the Development" by Miss Marple and her elderly friends). Miss Marple's friend Mrs Bantry complains about the local supermarket, which is full of giant boxes of cereal and where it can take fifteen minutes to find everything you need (!!!). Christie is a keen documenter of the changes in middle-class England in the twentieth century, and the book is full of pithy observations about changes in women's roles, skills and ambitions. What I like best about the way Christie does it is that there a faint scent of nostalgia for the way things were, with dedicated servants devoting themselves to their masters, but in the main part she recognises that times change and in fact modern times provide all sorts of benefits (especially for women), although she does seem to find it hard not to snark on how much sex the youngs have, which is quite hilarious from a modern perspective.The drama in Mirror occurs when a film star Marina Gregg and her producer husband buy the local country house. They remodel it and then open in to host a local fête. At a small private reception given by the famous pair, one of the organisers of the event, a Mrs Badcock, is slipped a fatal dose of a drug in her drink and quietly expires. Without any real enemies (Mrs Badcock's greatest sin was being a slightly annoying busy body, a characteristic that is almost always proves fatal in cosy murder mysteries), suspicion falls first on her husband because, as Miss Marple sagely observes, "It so often is the husband." When he is cleared (temporarily, of course), the police start to question whether the intended victim was in fact Marina. Was it her husband? Her abandoned adopted children? A jealous ex-lover?Because this is an Agatha Christie novel, the plot is full of twists and turns, red herrings and dead ends. The bodies pile up in a somewhat alarming (but entertaining) fashion, but the focus is always on Miss Marple's parlour and the vague thoughts that, as soon as they crystallise, will help her solvethe murder. I don't if it's because I knew the true story the novel was based on (i.e., the big twist) or because deep down I knew that reading this novel didn't really count as studying, but I didn't enjoy this book as much as I usually do the work of Dame Agatha. That said, it was still a cracking read, both entertaining as a mystery and as a social commentary on the passing of time. Three stars.
Though I’ve had the pleasure of reading Agatha Christie’s books before, I’ve never read her Miss Marple stories – only enjoyed them through the excellent TV adaptations that have been made over the years. The Mirror Crack’d from Side to Side was my first introduction to the written world of the elderly yet smug and smart Miss Marple.A famous film star, Marina Gregg, and her director husband have taken up residence in Miss Marple’s village, St. Mary Mead, bringing the usual celebrity gossip and rumours along with them. Whilst Marple worries about how her village has been changing lately towards a more modern town with supermarkets and new neighbourhoods, a murder occurs during one of the parties the famous film star throws. An unimportant, somewhat self-centred woman is murdered, poisoned by a cocktail – but was that drink really meant for her or for somebody else?The mystery unfolds as many mysteries do in Christie’s stories – everybody drops hints, there are clues and red herrings abound, and Marple eventually solves the whodunit together with a Scotland Yard inspector. It’s an old formula that, at least to me, is enjoyable every single time.However, the length of the book and the pace of the plot surprised me. It’s a bit more lengthy than your average Christie murder mystery, and most of that length is taken up by Marple and her own personal troubles, the inspector and police interviewing people, and daily life scenes of the side-characters. It’s all a bit slow, and it takes a while before somebody is actually murdered and before anything is actually solved. Though Marple’s own struggles against her old age and the frailty that comes with it were very compelling and interesting, it was odd to see that most of the characters still remained a bit cardboard/archetypical despite having so much extra time to interact with each other.The only ones I felt were somewhat developed were Marple herself, inspector Craddock, Jason Rudd (Marina Gregg’s director husband), and Ella Zelinsky, who sort of acts as the film couple’s personal assistant. Though Christie’s stories are usually plot-driven, which is completely logical for a murder mystery, they also very often feature characters with quite a bit of depth, which I found lacking here.The eventual reveal, however, was particularly strong. Hints are dropped all over the story that it all leads back to Marina Gregg and her obsession with having children of her own, haunted by her past – I thought the red herrings were especially well-constructed in this case. The only thing I wasn’t quite enamoured with was (view spoiler)[Marina Gregg’s eventual demise. I would have liked to see her reaction to being ratted out as the true murderer, especially since she was so heavily emotionally hurt by Heather Badcock’s actions. (hide spoiler)]
What do You think about The Mirror Crack'd From Side To Side (2015)?
As a currently sick person with a disability, I related to Miss Marple, a spunky old lady with all her faculties, despite her physical decline. She may need some help, but she's way more capable than most people give her credit for, especially the ever hovering Mrs. Knight, her live-in... That woman wouldn't have survived a single day in my employ!But I digress, the mystery in this book begins when a movie star moves in to Miss Marple's quiet village and then people start dropping like flies. I didn't solve the mystery before the book ended and I don't think you will either, Miss Marple is that sharp.
—Martina
I'd never actually read this, one of AG's more famous mysteries. It was a good read, though I wasn't reading it fresh, really. I knew the incident around which the story was based, so rather than ever wondering who did it I was mostly just noticing how and when AG dropped in the clues. It seemed hard to not make it too obvious, but that's because I already knew what was going on. There was a rather big coincidence that was a red herring, but still so huge coincidence I wondered why it was in there at all. It's almost like Christie was trying to create that "bunch of suspects locked together in an isolated house" situation (where absolutely everyone turns out to be related to the victim in some way) only without the isolated house.
—Sistermagpie
Overview: Heather Badcock has died under suspicious circumstances at a fete for the St. John’s Ambulance. The stars of the fete, Marina Gregg and Jason Rudd, are eager to leave Gossington Hall as soon as possible. But first things first, the murder of Heather Badcock has to be solved. The inspectors for Scotland Yard have an ace in the hole, so to speak. A little old lady named Miss Marple that has a lot of threads in every end of the town of St. Mary Mead. And she has a fascination of human nature, particularly that nature that deals in murder.Likes: Miss Marple was pretty neat. She was able to protect a witness, and solve a crime. Pretty good for an eighty year-old. And this novel was a clean murder mystery. No gore, no sex, just a whodunnit with an amateur detective. Dislikes: Marina Gregg was one egotistical woman. She wanted a happily ever after, but she didn’t want to fight for it. The fight isn’t over when things start getting difficult, it’s just beginning. Conclusion: This novel is a product of its times. Therefore it’s slower than many of our thrillers or mysteries today. Don’t let that dissuade you, this is an excellent novel.
—Charissa Wilkinson
