The Mirror Crack'd from Side to Side

The Mirror Crack'd from Side to Side is an absolute disappointment that utterly fails to deliver on its central promise. Even though it's clearly mentioned in the title, there isn't a single mirror in the book whatsoever! Why would you call a book something like this and then never follow through? It's They Do It with Mirrors all over again!

Besides that, this novel is pretty good.

And I suppose having "mirror" in the title and then not basing your trick on mirrors is a lot better than unsubtly doing the opposite. (There's a particular review I would link here, but am not due to spoilers. Hopefully this particular book comes to mind for those who have read it.)

American actress Marina Gregg has bought and moved into Gossington Hall at St. Mary Mead (where a body was previously found in the library). She hosts a party, during which a local woman is poisoned and dies. But the issue is the poison was placed in Marina's drink (as the victim had spilled her drink, so Marina gave her drink to the victim), meaning Marina was the intended target—and so could still be in danger. Thus begins an investigation into how someone could have tampered with Marina's drink even though none of the two dozen people in the room noticed anything untoward.

While there are no physical mirrors present (although I'd be pretty interested in how you could use a mirror trick in a poisoning case), the title comes from the testimony of Miss Marple's friend, who describes Marina's expression right before the murder occurred as that of the Lady of Shalott. A lot of the investigation goes into Marina's expression, which feels like something that should be nebulous and subjective—yet by the end of the book makes perfect sense.

A common trope in detective fiction is for the detective to make vague allusions about the case which can serve as clues but typically don't make sense until the solution is understood. While sometimes those comments are unfair and untrue, here Miss Marple makes a few comments about the victim's personality, which do have a deeper meaning by the conclusion of the story and can serve as legitimate hints.

Although there is an "impossible" crime, the focus of the book is on much more subjective elements, like the victim's personality and Marina's expression right before the murder occurred. This seems like something I'd normally complain about... but each of these elements has an explanation that is compelling despite being built on an emotional or qualitative basis. Having a mystery that is not only constructed around nebulous facets but also pulls it off makes The Mirror Crack'd from Side to Side a unique winner in my book.

That's not to say the novel is perfect. This book takes place late in Miss Marple's life when she is quite old. The prose consistently points out and reminds us of this, making the story a bit more melancholic than the typical Christie. Miss Marple has a caretaker who may be a bit overbearing but means well, yet Miss Marple treats her badly, which rubbed me the wrong way. (Isn't Miss Marple supposed to be a kindly spinster?) The Mirror Crack'd from Side to Side obeys The Unbreakable Law of Detective Fiction, which provides a quick shortcut to the solution if you see it. There are a few more murders after the death at the party but they feel extraneous. While it was typical for Christie to pad out her books with a few extra corpses, those extra deaths usually had at least one clever idea worked into them even if they weren't strictly necessary for the core story. However, the additional murders in this book add absolutely nothing and feel like pointless filler.

Despite that, The Mirror Crack'd from Side to Side is one of the better Christies, delivering a satisfying mystery uniquely built around emotion and personality. Even if it doesn't actually have any mirrors.