Author: oddmoonmediareviews

Written by Agatha Christie

SUMMARY:

First published in 1952 (aka its British title: Murder With Mirrors), this 202-page paperback reprint was released by Harper PaperBacks forty years later.  The wealthy Ruth Van Rydock urges former classmate, Miss Jane Marple, to discreetly check up on Ruth’s sister and Miss Marple’s old friend: Carrie Louise. 

Carrie Louise is the aging matriarch at Stonygates — an English country estate/campus busily reforming two hundred juvenile delinquents.  The program’s director is her idealistic third husband: Lewis Serracold. 

On site are: Carrie Louise’s middle-aged daughter: Mildred Strete; two step-sons: Stephen & Alex Restarick; a granddaughter: Gina, and her sulking, blue-collar American husband: Wally Hudd; and a staff of psychiatrists, instructors, etc.  Among the aberrant youths are the paranoid Edgar Lawson and lockpick Ernie Gregg.

Amidst a locked room stand-off between Lewis and a deranged pupil, Carrie Louise’s step-son and family trustee, Christian Gulbrandsen, is found murdered.  It comes to light that someone else’s life is also threatened.  Aiding a perplexed Inspector Curry’s investigation, Miss Marple must distinguish some cold reality from illusion before a desperate culprit strikes again in a bid to claim her friend’s considerable fortune.       

REVIEW:

If this ho-hum mystery had actually pitted Miss Marple against a nefarious stage magician, then They Do It With Mirrors might have fulfilled its intriguing title.  Inexplicably, Agatha Christie concedes far too much re: a suspect from the get-go, leaving minimal suspense as to who this whodunnit’s culprit really is.  Despite sprinkling some decent clues, her contrived finale relies on Marple unfairly divulging vital inferences that readers couldn’t have known.  Christie’s dubious plotting further conveys the story’s most critical sequence as an excerpt from a letter versus actively depicting as it happens. 

Some sub-plots (i.e. the fate of Gina’s rocky marriage) are tidily resolved, but this narrative abruptly jumps from Point ‘A’ to Point ‘C,’ making the epilogue not nearly as satisfying as it should be.  The book’s disappointing ambiance is worsened by the casual inclusion of ethnic prejudices (i.e. an usage of the n-word).  Beyond exploiting mid-20^th Century bigotry, this tasteless element adds nothing to a less-than-scintillating murder-mystery. 

Aside from one saucy exchange between Gina and a would-be suitor late in the game, this Marple novel is devoid of Christie’s customary sparkle … or even an ounce of ‘a-ha!’ shock value.  They Do It With Mirrors isn’t great reading, but perhaps one of its film adaptations might be fair game.  In large part, any future film version ought to refrain from Christie’s middling text telegraphing a foregone conclusion.

ADDITIONAL FEATURES:

The first page is a brief Agatha Christie biography.  A diagram of Stonygates’ interior first floor is included for reference. 

BRIAN’S ODD MOON RATING:           4 Stars

Written by Agatha Christie

SUMMARY:

Originally published in 1962, this 208-page Pocket Books paperback reprint was released in 1985.  Also known by its extended British title: The Mirror Crack’d From Side to Side, it’s a sequel to 1942’s The Body in the Library. 

Years before, a murdered girl’s corpse had scandalized St. Mary Mead’s Gossington Hall and its classy residents, Col. and Mrs. Bantry.  The widowed Mrs. Bantry has since observed her ex-residence pass through multiple owners, including its newest: fading film star Marina Gregg and producer-director husband Jason Rudd. 

A suspicious death at a high society charity event hosted there by Gregg & Rudd leads Mrs. Bantry to call upon an old friend.  Now eighty years old, Jane Marple discreetly investigates how chatty charity worker Heather Badcock was secretly poisoned in front of at least a dozen witnesses. 

Pondering if Marina Gregg was the intended victim, Miss Marple and Scotland Yard’s Inspector Dermot Craddock traverse a maze of potential suspects.  The proximity of unexpected links to Marina’s troubled past suggest that she isn’t out of danger.  Icing a blackmailer and at least one potential witness might still be on the killer’s to-do-list.  Before it’s too late, Miss Marple’s intuition must decipher why Heather Badcock and Marina Gregg’s fates are intertwined.   

REVIEW:

Setting aside clichés that Christie relies upon to bring her characters into convenient proximity of one another, The Mirror Crack’d is an okay mystery.  Significantly, the core elements for a Miss Marple whodunnit are present.  It’s just that some plot contrivances (i.e. a long-forgotten marriage where one spouse doesn’t recognize the other; Arthur Badcock’s relationships with Heather Badcock & Marina Gregg) are far too extraordinary, even by Christie’s standards. 

The novel’s biggest hurdle (which also applies to a faithful, all-star 1980 film adaptation starring Angela Lansbury) is that the plot is too often tedious.  Saving its best material for last, some poignant revelations tying up loose ends prove well-played.  Yet, despite an intriguing premise, The Mirror Crack’d doesn’t rate as one of Agatha Christie’s better works. 

ADDITIONAL CONTENT:

The pertinent quote from Lord Alfred Tennyson’s work is included.  There is also a list of characters identifying the novel’s cast.  Christie’s dedication is to film actress Margaret Rutherford, who was the Hollywood’s first Jane Marple. 

BRIAN’S ODD MOON RATING:                  5 Stars

Written by Agatha Christie

SUMMARY:

First published in 1971, this 213-page paperback reprint was released by Signet via Penguin Putnam Inc. in 2000.  In a sequel to 1964’s A Caribbean Mystery, it’s been over a year since eighty-ish Miss Jane Marple teamed with wealthy financier Jason Rafiel to thwart a killer in the West Indies. 

In St. Mary Mead, Miss Marple casually learns of Rafiel’s passing through the obituaries, only to be contacted by his London attorneys.  Per Rafiel’s written behest, Miss Marple accepts her most enigmatic challenge ever: to determine an unknown miscarriage of justice that impacted her late friend and find some way to finally right it. 

As Rafiel has posthumously code-named her, Marple becomes his appointed ‘Nemesis’ to snare an unrepentant murderer.  Taking a cross-country famed home-and-garden sight-seeing coach tour, the elderly amateur detective ponders if a fellow passenger is either a potential victim or culprit.  An odd trio of middle-aged sisters that Rafiel has entrusted to host Marple’s stay also bear witness to this baffling case.   

In the midst of a traveler’s ominous demise, Miss Marple probes two possibly connected disappearances from eight years before in a village the sight-seeing tour visits.  As old emotional wounds reopen, Miss Marple may find herself the shadowy assailant’s next easy prey ensuring a grim secret remains forever hidden.    

REVIEW:

From the outset, Christie pushes that Jane Marple’s advanced age is now a significant hindrance in her sleuthing. The first half of Nemesis, therefore, is akin to déjà vu monotony, as far too little is accomplished exploring the premise. Vague plot threads, as well as an unnecessary dose of ethnic prejudice, are simply left spinning around, if they’re stuck in a broken dryer unable to heat up. Conveyed through various characters, all readers get are Christie’s disdainful commentaries on modern society’s acceptance of diminished mental capacity – i.e. favoring criminals, loose female sexuality, and anarchistic hippies. 

Once the suspense of Nemesis finally engages, insightful readers should sense the grisly misdirection that Christie intends long before the dreadful solution comes.  Hence, one is expected to shrug off Marple’s knack for eliciting implausibly candid and lengthy answers from complete strangers hinting potential clues. There’s no reprieve come the climax, as the less said about Marple’s preposterous confrontation scene the better. Still, as fair warning, please be advised that inferences re: sexual grooming and deviant obsession are among the most sickening in Christie’s arsenal of culprit motives.  

Far off her game, the disturbing Nemesis won’t be mistaken for one of Agatha Christie’s better works. In its ranking among Marple whodunnits, Nemesis makes a convincing argument that it’s the worst of the bunch.  

ADDITIONAL FEATURES:

Besides the usual Christie-related ads, Penguin Putnam Inc. includes a full page of its Christie title inventory.

BRIAN’S ODD MOON RATING:          2 Stars

Note: The good news is that A Caribbean Mystery is a far better read. 

Written by Agatha Christie

SUMMARY:

First published in 1930, this 247-page paperback reprint of the first Miss Jane Marple novel was released by Signet via Penguin Putnam Inc. in 2000.   In the quaint, small-world atmosphere of St. Mary Mead, there hasn’t been a homicide for several years.  This idyllic reality chills when self-righteous village elder, Col. Lucius Protheroe, is found shot to death at point-black range in the vicarage’s study. 

The vicar, Leonard “Len” Clement, narrates the subsequent murder investigation. Frequently consulted by the police, Clement aids Inspector Slack and Col. Melchett search the gossiping village for clues.  Two confessions only makes who had the motive and opportunity to ruthlessly kill Protheroe even more nebulous.  What Clement, the police, and the suspects don’t anticipate is the force of nature that local busybody, Miss Jane Marple, really is.      

REVIEW:

Conveyed as a supporting character, Marple’s frequent off-screen-time isn’t so much a disappointment, as it’s a bore.  Specifically, Christie’s likable ‘everyman’ vicar-narrator, Len Clement, and his less-than-suspenseful recurring interactions with the ensemble cast incessantly drag on. 

It’s only when Marple at last reveals the ingenious solution that this mystery finally springs to life.  While the audience gets sporadic glimpses of her observations, the depth of Marple’s deductive reasoning isn’t nearly as persuasive when too much explanation is saved for the finale.  Not nearly as charming as she later becomes, the mildly condescending Marple comes off nearly omniscient, just like Len Clement too often claims she is. 

A related consequence of Christie’s starched plotting is that several St. Mary Mead inhabitants are caricatures (including Marple’s visiting blowhard nephew, Raymond West).  An exception, of course, is Len Clement, but his milquetoast presence as an amateur sleuth barely stirs this plot.  Neither does his young wife, Griselda, as her own contrived plot twist near the novel’s end is an instance of too little too late.  Other possible red herrings are constructed better, but Marple’s non-involvement in these plot threads won’t likely sway much interest with readers. 

Wasting some amusing zip to Christie’s parody of a rural British village, the novel muddles too much to generate sympathy or even mild curiosity re: the fates of this batch of suspects.  The mystery’s intricate solution and the final few pages, however, serve a welcome refreshment after the stagnant maze Len Clement, the two cops, and Miss Marple traverse searching for the elusive culprit. 

Considering its historical value for Marple fans, the single-read nature of Murder at the Vicarage makes it an ideal find at the library (for ages 15 and up).      

ADDITIONAL FEATURES:

Besides the usual Christie-related ads, Penguin Putnam Inc. includes a full page of its Christie title inventory.

BRIAN’S ODD MOON RATING:           5 Stars