the mirror crack'd from side to side - agatha christie
So I ran out of books to read on holiday. We were in York and found a cute little second hand book shop, in which I found this odd set of Miss Marple books.
I say odd, because there's two books in one - and I can't seem to work out why they've picked those two. It's Nemesis (the 11th book) and then the one I read, The Mirror Crack'd from Side to Side (the 8th). Not only are they in the wrong order, but Nemesis is essentially a sequel to an earlier book in the Miss Marple series, A Caribbean Mystery, which is omitted. Anyway...
As I haven't read A Caribbean Mystery, I left Nemesis until later, and pressed on with The Mirror Crack'd. There are a few main themes: both modernisation (The Development being built in the old village) and fame/celebrities are explored. The former serves more as a backdrop, with the mystery being centred on the famous movie actress who has moved into town.
The plot is straight forward: a murder occurs that Miss Marple helps solve. There's a lot of evidence shown, but the real important bits are simple and revealed early. There's one major "twist" that's very nicely mirrored when Miss Marple talks about her knitting, which I thought was a nice meta touch.
I worked this one out, which I'm very pleased about. Good fun, if a little meandering and straightforward at times.
permalink | posted by nathan on Saturday, the 19th of June, 2021, when he should have been getting ready for bed