Customer Reviews

They Do It With Mirrors (Miss Marple Mysteries)

5 star:		(3)
4 star:		(9)
3 star:		(3)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

Strange things have been happening at Stonygates, the home of Carrie Louise Martin, an old friend of Miss Marple's. Carrie Louise's sister, Ruth Van Rydock, has asked Miss Marple to visit Carrie Louise and determine what the trouble is and to alleviate her worries about her sister.

Agatha Christie once again takes us into a family estate overrun with family members. This family is particularly complex because Carrie Louise has been married three times and there is a wide assortment of relatives including stepsons, a widowed daughter, grandchildren, and even a current husband. The husband is deeply involved with corrective training and has turned the family home into a school where first offenders come for counseling and attention. So to this already strained situation, Mrs. Christie includes psychologists and therapists and a situation ripe for murder.

Indeed, three murders occur and there is much unpleasantness before Miss Marple explains it all.

This story (also published under the title "Murder With Mirrors") was adapted for TV in 1991 with Joan Hickson in the role of Miss Marple and Jean Simmons as Carrie Louise.

Also known under the title MURDER WITH MIRRORS, this 1952 Agatha Christie is neither the best nor the worst of her work. Set in a decaying English mansion, the grounds of which have become home to an experimental school for delinquent boys, the novel finds Miss Marple visiting an elderly friend from her own school days--and being plunged into crime when her hostess' stepson is shot dead.

Christie is best known for her fiendishly cunning plots, but in this instance I found the mechanism of the crime somewhat obvious. Still, the novel has other, undeniable charms: a renewed acquaintance with the always entertaining Miss Marple, a memorable cast of characters, and a particularly atmospheric setting. While it will never compare with the likes of A MURDER IS ANNOUNCED or MURDER ON THE ORIENT EXPRESS, Christie fans will find it an entertaining one-gulp read.

GFT, Amazon Reviewer

Again we have a good opportunity to see how two different writers adapt for the screen an Agatha Christie mystery. In 1985, Helen Hayes played a very American Miss Marple in "Murder With Mirrors." Of course, better known is the Joan Hickson version that appeared in the USA on Mystery Theatre. Now that same Ms. Hickson reads the original version on a 4-audio cassette boxed set from Audio Partners with the British title "They Do It With Mirrors."

The plot revolves around a home for juvenile delinquents set up by Lewis Serrocold who is married to Carrie Louise, an old school chum of Marple's. The relationships are a bit hard to sort out when one is hearing a tape and cannot turn back a few pages to see who is who, but things get moving when three shots ring out, two behind a closed door and one far off. Murder (but for what reason?), attempted murder (but was it really?), and a little stab at slow poisoning (if that is what it was) complicate things. But by drawing her usual analogies between those concerned and those whom Marple knew long ago, she is able to hit upon the solution.

Unfortunately, I feel this is not one of Christie's better plots--which still makes it a fairly good one!--but the title more or less gives the solution away. I also find that Hickson's voice, so perfect for Marple, is not as flexible as those of other readers in this series and she makes no attempt to act out the various parts. Now and then, but not very often, she does grow a tad hard to understand for a word or two. Still, it makes great listening on long trips or just sitting there on a cold winter's night with a mug of hot something and a good book on the tape deck.

What "improvements" have been made for the Signet edition? There are already major differences in punctuation, word choices, and scene breaks between the original Collins and Dodd Mead (MURDER WITH MIRRORS) editions of this novel. There are further differences between the Dodd Mead editions republished by Random House/Avenel and the Dodd Mead editions republished by Simon & Shuster/Pocket. There are further additions still in the Bantam, Berkley, and Black Dog & Leventhal editions. For every publishing house putting out her works, there seem to be a new batch of editors altering Agatha Christie's words and the sound of her voice. What's the matter with these publishers? Whose voice do they think we want to hear when we sit down to a novel by Agatha Christie? And what will she sound like twenty years from now? It's frightening that her estate has failed to see the importance of guarding her words as she wrote them. Please tell me I'm not the only one here who senses that a crime has been committed.

This was my first Miss Marple book... it gave a good first impression of her. I liked the whole idea of the setting, that made it interesting. The characters were described very well. Overall, this was a good book, but the end was a bit confusing to me.

As in all her books, Agatha Christie leaves no detail dangling. Carrie Louise, one of Jane Marple's old schoolchums, seems a little out of touch with reality. What is perfectly obvious to everyone else is totally untrue to her. At the end Dame Christie explains how Jane figured out the crime by paying attention to Carrie Louise's supposed nonsense. Also, as usual the book is sprinkled with wise insights into human character.
The story is about a couple of do-gooders (Carrie Louise and her third husband Lewis) who believe that young criminals can be rehabilitated with the right opportunity and set up a hospital to do just that. One of the members of the Board of Directors shows up unexpectedly and is shot to death that night. The prime suspect is the American outsider, who is married to Carrie Louise's granddaugher (by adoption). Of course, everyone present -- lots of relatives -- is suspected. Lewis finally reveals that the Director came to warn them that someone was trying to poison Carrie Louise with arsenic and was unfortunately murdered before he could identify the culprit. Carrie Louise is very rich, having benefitted from her two prior marriages, and from her natural birth. So any of her children, stepchildren, grandchildren, etc., would have a reason to murder her. Everyone is sure Lewis did not do it because he loves her too much.
Christie's plots are always wonderful, but her comment on society make her books a cut above all others. For me, she's the best writer who ever lived.

Something about Carrie Louise seemed peculiar to Ruth Van Rydock. Ruth could not, however, figure out just what was wrong. Who better to turn to than Jane Marple, a mutual friend, keen observer and amateur sleuth. On Ruth's request Miss Marple travels to Stonygates, Carrie Louise's home and a reformatory for delinquent boys. Here she finds an odd collection of people, strange behavior and, ultimately, a mysterious death. Miss Marple will need to think quickly if she intends to find the killer before Carrie becomes the next victim.

Much of the setting of this mystery will be familiar to readers of Agatha Christie's other works. Our players are set in large mansion, nearly all in a room together, apart from the room in which the murder actually occurred. Several persons have reason to kill, the others are probably even more suspicious. Christie succeeds, as usual, in keeping the reader scratching his head until very near the final reveal.

The "flair" here is the boys reformatory, which provides a backdrop and a potential source of alternate perpetrators. Very little about the setting, however, appears complete. Indeed, not only the setting, but nearly everything about this book lacks the depth of characterization one expects from a Christie novel. The characters are flat, the scenes are underutilized and the investigation plods. Eminently readable, but not one of Christie's best efforts.

The plot is something of a disappointment, but this book is worth reading for Miss Marple's observations on misguided philanthropy. As always, Miss Marple proves herself to be an excellent judge of human situations.

A worried friend sends Miss Marple to Stonygates on a visit with their old school chum, Carrie Louise Serrocold. Those worries are more than born out by a murder and a series of violent attempts on the lives of various manor inhabitants. Miss Marple needs all her experience to figure who is behind all the crimes.

Ordinarily I love Miss Marple mysteries, but this one is not Christie's best. Miss Marple seems out of her element and there isn't enough St. Mary Mead insight to provide its usual enchantment.

Miss Marple is such a fun creation and I have always enjoyed the works in which Christie features her. This work is as good as any in the series, and contains plenty of griping about arthritis coupled with a compelling crime.