The Mirror Crack'd from Side to Side
1960
- fiction
- mystery
- jane marple (fictitious character)
- women detectives in fiction
- women detectives
- romance ingles
- crime & mystery
- england, fiction
- marple, jane (fictitious character), fiction
- fiction, mystery & detective, traditional
The story
E-book exclusive extras:1) Christie biographer Charles Osborne's essay on The Mirror Crack'd from Side to Side;2) "The Marples": the complete guide to all the cases of crime literature's foremost female detective.The quaint village of St Mary Mead has been glamourized by the presence of screen queen Marina Gregg, who has taken up residence in preparation for her comeback. But when a local fan is poisoned, Marina finds herself starring in a real-life mystery—supported with scene-stealing aplomb by Jane Marple, who suspects that the lethal cocktail was intended for someone else. But who? If it was meant for Marina, then why? And before the final fade-out, who else from St Mary Mead’s cast of seemingly innocent characters is going to be eliminated?
What it’s like
Sunny, gossipy English village life, with a faint glitter of Hollywood glamour arriving on the lane. Much of the pleasure is in the drawing rooms, garden teas and village high street, where chintz, flower beds and church bells set a gentle, orderly backdrop that a single sharp incident disrupts. The prose is crisp and wry, mostly dialogue and observation, with Miss Marple watching from the edges and noticing what everyone else has missed. The vibe is cosy-sly, a comfortable English mystery with a little theatrical glamour and a quiet undercurrent of unease about who is pretending to be who. The violence is offstage and clinical: a poisoning and a death, described in matter-of-fact terms, with no gore and no sexual content, and the fear stays low-key. The pacing is unhurried but purposeful, with steady reveals, many small social scenes and a rhythm that suits an afternoon with the curtains half drawn. It is for readers who enjoy classic whodunit structure, sharp social comedy, and a heroine who is underestimated by everyone in the room.
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