A review by lesserjoke
The Mirror Crack'd from Side to Side by Agatha Christie

4.0

This 1962 novel, published in the U.S. as simply The Mirror Crack'd, offers a fun little murder mystery that's kept me guessing throughout. No one seems to have had any motive that could account for the neighborhood woman's death at the house party of a glamorous movie star resented by many -- so was the wrong cup poisoned, or is something even stranger afoot? Luckily Miss Marple is on hand to push the police in the right direction and conduct her own discreet inquiries, all the while dodging the ageist attentions of her fussy nurse. The solution to the puzzle doesn't quite play as fairly as I'd like, relying as it does on the heroine's background medical knowledge that isn't actually introduced to us as a proper clue in the plot. (Or perhaps the key piece of information was less obscure in the original time and place of publication?) Yet regardless, the characters are engaging and the setting captures a nice snapshot of how author Agatha Christie's iconic quiet English villages were changing as the twentieth century barreled along. I appreciate the slight ambiguity of the ending, as well.

[Content warning for suicide and racism including slurs.]

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