От: http://slovoyadets.blogspot.com/И пак... Агата Кристи. Тъкмо бях решил, че след "Убийство в Ориент Експрес" ще си подбера нещо съвсем различно, когато получих препоръка за тази книга. В предната нещата си бяха "Поаро - това, Поаро - онова". И повечето хора са си така - "Поаро - това, Поаро - онова"... те и по-известните филми по творчеството на авторката са..."Поаро - това, Поаро - онова"...Ама госпожица Марпъл е по-симпатична героиня. Отзивчива старица с усет към разследването, чиято помощ търсят дори изтъкнати криминалисти. Яко, а? Кой би повярвал, че някаква бабка... ок, макар и добре изглеждаща за годините си, е топ детектив? И най-заклетият кокошкар няма да се почувства добре ако разбере, че е бил спипан от старата дама."Илюзия с огледала" е спокойна книга. Дори да я четете бързо, общото чувство е, че напредвате малко по малко. И нещата са много по-леки... Частен поправителен дом за непълнолетни престъпници, едно голямо богато семейство, отговарящо за него, старица с огромно състояние, което би било угодно на почти всички в къщата и неин заможен роднина, решил внезапно да ги посети. Атмосфрата е почти приятна въпреки злокобното място: наоколо витаят спомени за миналото - къде добри, къде лоши - и макар понякога семейната идилия да е нарушавана от тоя или оня изтрещял обитател на приюта всичко изглежда наред...... докато не откриват, че някой постепенно отравя бедната старица, а не след дълго покрай тежка семейна свада пада мъртъв и заможния гост...Дотук с идилията.Нещата на пръв поглед сигурно ви изглеждат ясни - някой иска наследството. Кой? Разбира се, прекият му наследник... но истината е пречупена като в огледало. Едно виждаш, но всичко е зрителна измама. И добре, че г-ца Марпъл по случайност е в къщата, готова да залови престъпника, защото заподозрените никак не са малко... цял приют криминални елементи... Ще надхитрят ли г-ца Марпъл, свикнала така добре с огледалата, в които се оглежда всяка сутрин? Или тя умее да ги нареди така, че да разруши брилянтената им илюзия?Всичко става изведнъж. Не знаете от къде ви е дошло, но въпреки това... нещата са много, много спокойни и приятни :)Ама забравете онзи трескав чичка Поаро, който гледа хитро и надменно се надсмива над всеки, неспособен да прозре собствената му идея. Г-ца Марпъл е много по-готина. Жената си гледа старините с разследвания на убийства, грабежи, взлом и т.н. и го кара доста по-лежерно. За къде да бърза? Къде ще избяга престъпника? Ми, да! И без това си знае, че ще го сгащи.Книгата обаче "разследва" и доста по-сериозни проблеми. Ей, така докато си чете човек не осъзнава, поне не в самото начало, че темата на "Илюзия с огледала" е всъщност много важна. Отхвърлените деца, се превръщат в отхвърлени възрастни. Така се създават престъпници. А никой не заслужава да бъде престъпник, както и никой не заслужава да бъде жертва на престъпление. Как следва да бъдат наказвани децата, младежите, девойките, нарушаващи закона? По-леко, заради крехката им възраст? Нека обществото им даде един дребен урок, който да не нарушават повече? Но така пък и формира у тях усещането, че им се е разминало леко. Или напротив... наравно с всички? Така ще имат по-голям стимул да стигат до подобно наказание отново, но пък може би ще убием човешкото в тях твърде рано, като не го оставим да се развие.
(vague spoilers hinted) I read They Do It With Mirrors under its alternate title, Murder with Mirrors, and I do think the publisher's fetish for making all Agatha Christie's books have "death" or "murder" in the titles does this novel a disservice. "They do it with mirrors" is the expression from the theatre that Miss Marple evokes several times to mean that a conjuring trick has been done to fool the audience (in this case the witnesses). Murder with Mirrors ruins the allusion (not the illusion!) and gives the impression that literal mirrors are involved, which they are not; the Victorian Gothic mansion setting is vast and opulent, but there is no equivalent of Versailles' Hall of Mirrors here. Actually, I think either title gives too much away; I came to the correct solution with more ease than I should have, for the simple reason that only one suspect was in any position to have performed a sleight-of-hand trick with this murder. I did not, however, guess the extent of the motive, and thought that a very clever touch. Murder with Mirrors reminds me of At Bertram's Hotel, though they are over a decade apart. Both feature Miss Marple revisiting her past--places she has been and/or very old friends. And both involve crime on a grand scale, much more involved that a simple whodunnit. This is not really my favorite premise; I think there is nothing better than Christie's classic whodunnits and don't need anything "bigger" behind them. I wished there were more discussion of the actual College for delinquent youth; it is in the background but only one or two of the boys really feature in the story. I found it quite interesting that this was apparently a "fad" in philanthropy in the 1950s, and was amused that clearly Dame Agatha didn't think much of Psychologists and Psychiatrists, and did not know the difference between them! (I am married to one of the former, so I couldn't NOT notice inaccuracies there). Had the focus of the setting really been an asylum rather than the nearby mansion, I would have found it more compelling. As it was, it seemed a somewhat odd background, although Dame Agatha had her reasons for this setting, as we eventually learn.
What do You think about They Do It With Mirrors (2000)?
After a long detour into the world of Sherlock Holmes, I'm doing my best to go through the remaining Marple novels I haven't read now.This one gets three stars from me -- no more and no less.This is standard Christie in every way. It's an artificial puzzle with a set cast of characters and a few distracting red herrings thrown in here and there for good measure. The trick is to see if you can outwit the writer and guess it for yourself before she tells you. The game, as always, is fun if you like this kind of thing. If you're interested about the solution, you just have to think in terms of the theatrical. This book is full of references to the theatre -- several characters within are responsible for the production of plays, literal sets are being built in the plot itself, and one guy, Alex, thinks about the world in theatrical terms when he is given time to talk. I think this is clever because her books are very theatrical as a whole. It is all about putting on an act and fooling us into taking a too limited view of a situation that makes her books so engaging to begin with.A lot of criticisms of this book are valid I think -- it's definitely not "realistic" in the way many would like. All this business with conjuring, mirrors, and theatrics, for example, makes it hard for any reader of this book to think of it seriously. It is mostly dialog and the characters here do not have any life to them whatsoever. It's possibly a bit too short for one of her novels. However, you would be missing the point of her books -- it's all in the game of guessing and trying to figure out the puzzle that gives her books any value in the first place. If you want true crime, there is an entirely different set of books out there to fit your needs.That being said, this is not Christie's best work nor do I think you should seek this one out. The only people who really need to read this are Marple enthusiasts. There are much better books to be read in her canon and casual fans should seek those out first.
—Michael A
كالعادة اجاثا رائعة أحب حكاياتها كثيرا صحيح أنني لا أفضل بطولة ماربل، لكن هذه الرواية سريعه جميلة ليست من أروع ما كتبته اجاثا لكنها ممتعة ويمكن وصفها كجريمة بسيطة أبسط مما تبدو عليه في الواقع وأعتبر أن اجاثا قد تركت لنا تلميحا أو اثنين هذه المرة لكنها انتهجت التضليل المحبب والممتع فقدمت لنا مفاجأة ساحقة في النهاية عن شخصية أخرى غير القاتل والضحية.التعليق في الأسفل لمن أنهى الرواية فقد لأن فيها إفشاء لنهايتها : تمسكت بفكرة تورط السيد لويس و لكنني ضللت بفكرة تورط جينا في بعض الصفحات غير أن الكيفية البسيطة للجريمة ظلت عصية علي ، ما استمتعت باكتشافه حقا هو ادغار لاوسن لقد كان شخصية مثيرة للإهتمام قطعا و قد أخفى حقيقته ببراعة فاقت براعة القاتل نفسه أما ماربل كان اداؤها جيدا لكن لنقل أن الكس كان هو مكتشف اللغز الحقيقي من وجهة نظري لذلك ازعجني أن ينسحب بساط الامتنان منه لوفاته ويذهب لماربل التي أخطأت في موضعين من الرواية فكان وصولها للحل أشبه بضربة حظ أتت بعد وقت طويل وحين قدم لها الكس جزءا كبيرا من الإجابة ، والمواضع التي فقدت فيها ماربل براعتها هي 1. حين أغلق لويس الباب عليه وعلى ادغار مع إغفال ماربل لأهمية ذلك التصرف في ذلك الوقت وهو الأمر الذي يفترض به أن يكون أول ما يلفت انتباهها إليه 2. هوية الشخص الذي أخبر كريستيان بتسميم كاري و هوية من ظلل ادغار وكيف أنهما حجبتا تماما عنها كان يمكن أن يفتح باب الإجابة الواضحة هي أن لويس يتستر على هوية من دس السم من جهة وان ادغار يتستر على هوية من ظلله وأخبره أن لويس والده بالتالي يقودنا ذلك للحل وكشف هوية القاتل وهو لويس نفسه
—meem 1993
When I picked up this book at my local library I thought that it would be another mystery with Poirot, but it turned out to be Miss Marple. I enjoyed the book, it has everything that you need in the murder mystery, crazy and weird family members, money, tension and dislike among the family members. It was a fast paced and very quick read to the end. It keeps you guessing and wondering who the murderer is. I think that I changed my mind at least five times as to who the murderer was, and at the end I was not right, but I was close I guess. Most of the characters are likable and well developed. As an audience we do learn about each character and their lives. All of the characters are pretty well developed, there is depth to them, more could have been done, but since this is very short book there is simply not enough time or space to do so.At the end of the book when you find out who the murderer is, I was, well of course I should have seen it. What I like about this mystery, was that it was simple straight forward story but it kept you guessing and re-guessing yourself throughout the whole book. And at the end the answer is the most obvious one.
—Nada
