Marple reminds us that mysteries are not as complicated as we tend to assume. On the cutting edge: Every Michael Crichton film, ranked As she so often does, Christie tricked me even though she lays it all out. Despite the slight cheat I mentioned above, I was blown away by the solution to this mystery. We know the answers are found amid the details, but they are hard to pin down. It’s fun how witnesses replay this scene for Inspector Dermot Craddock, each telling it slightly differently. As Gregg greets her guests in a lounge atop the stairs, she freezes in a fugue state. Setting the sceneĬhristie wonderfully stages the initial murder amid a fete at Gossington Hall. But I loved the overall experience despite the somewhat artificial delay. Marple puts it together once she finally sees a key clue for herself. I realized after I closed “Mirror” that Christie withholds key information (from Marple and us) for a long time. And Marple notes that daily housekeeper Cherry uses a loud vacuum cleaner rather than a perfectly serviceable broom and dustpan.Īs always, Marple works through the crime from her sitting-room chair, relying on information from friends and the lead detective, plus gossip magazines (!). Marple amusingly (to us) fends off her live-in helper, Miss Knight, who always enquires about how “we” are doing today. As she also did in “A Pocket Full of Rye” a decade prior, Marple reflects that good household help is hard to find nowadays. The author was 72, perhaps starting to require minor daily help. Miss Marple is her usual delightful self in “Mirror,” but I wonder if Christie uses the sleuth to reflect on her own aging. Bantry, who has since sold the home), has been refurbished with bathrooms, bigger rooms and modern amenities.

Mary Mead and vicinity, 1962Įven the village-based Victorian structure, Gossington Hall (returning from “The Body in the Library,” as does Mrs. “The Mirror Crack’d from Side to Side” (1962)

The mirror crack d from side to side