Once again I find myself starting off one of our Club Reading weeks with the Queen of Crime, Agatha Christie! Yet it’s irresistible – she so often has a book published in the years we choose, and I love her mysteries, so it’s wonderful having the perfect excuse to ignore the TBR and re-read her! Her book in 1962 was “The Mirror Crack’d from Side to Side”, a Miss Marple story, and it’s one I thought I knew quite well, despite having not returned to it for many years. However, interestingly, this time I saw different aspects to it, which made for fascinating reading!

I have a lot of this style of 1970s Christie cover – they’re always a bit dark, but this one was so disturbing I had to put a post-it over it while I was reading the book!!

“Mirror” is set in Jane Marple’s village of St. Mary Mead, but this being the early 1960s modernity is creeping in. Miss Marple is feeling her age, with her faculties failing a little, and she’s suffering the indignity of having a live-in companion, the dreadful Miss Knight. The latter is a truly appalling creation, treating her charge as if she’s an imbecile, talking to her as if she’s a child, and irritating poor Miss Marple beyond belief. Instead of the old regime of cooks and maids, there is Cherry who comes in to help out; she’s from the Development, a new build of modern housing edging onto the village, and although she means well she doesn’t quite come up to Miss Marple’s standards.

Then there’s Jane’s old friend, Dolly Bantry, who’s sold her country house, Gossington Hall, after the death of her husband. The house has recently come into the hands of a famous film star, Marina Gregg, who finds this handy for her nearby film studios. A troubled and highly strung character, with a number of failed marriages behind her, she’s currently staying at the house with her latest husband, Jason Rudd. And whilst hosting an open day at Gossington Hall in support of the St. John’s Ambulance, Marina is witness to a murder of one of her guests, a very ordinary woman from the Development. Fortunately, Miss Marple’s old friend, Chief Inspector Craddock, is called in to investigate; but as murders begin to mount up he’ll need all the help she can give him to get to the solution!

I must be honest and say that later Christie mysteries can occasionally be hit and miss, but I thought this was an excellent example! The setting is brilliantly conjured, with Christie bringing in the societal changes going on around Miss Marple and the way the modern world impinges on the old ways. One of my favourite Christie tropes is that of a murder with links to the past, and that’s on show here; and although I felt that I’d forgotten a lot of this book when I started it, glimmerings of the plot came back as I read along, and I thought it was a marvellously clever mystery. Marina Gregg is a wonderfully neurotic character, convinced the murder attempt was aimed at her, and yet an expression on her face holds a vital clue to the whole puzzle.

As for Miss Marple herself, the portrayal here is a really interesting one. Jane is obviously ageing, struggling with her knitting now, and not so steady on her feet. Yet her mind is as sharp as ever, and her spirit as indomitable. Early on in the book, she takes herself off to explore the Development, finding to her satisfaction that though the trappings of the world may change, people do not. She still recognises types, meets characters who remind her of others in her life, and she’s happy enough to intervene during a telling little incident. The whole relationship between Miss Marple and the insufferable Miss Knight is a pointed one, perhaps a commentary on our assumptions about people as they age. Although Jane inevitably takes a less active role in the book, with others investigating and bringing news, she’s still able to slip away and intervene, as well as being present for the final denouement.

The book also ends with Miss Marple resolving her domestic situation, recognising that the world has changed and coming to a satisfactory arrangement which suits both her and those who’ll help her around the house. Christie herself was in her seventies when she wrote this book, so would have been well aware of the issues her sleuth was facing, and it’s a fascinating element of “Mirror” to see her exploring ageing and the modern world. I suspect this is something I wouldn’t have considered when I first read the book, but it certainly adds much to the story.

Anyway; as a mystery, “The Mirror Crack’d from Side to Side” is a thoroughly satisfying read, and a worthy addition to Christie’s oeuvre. Once again I have to thank our Club Weeks for nudging me to re-read a book I haven’t picked up for decades. Christie and Marple are pure joy, and I am definitely resolved that when I finally retire I will re-read Christie chronologically from start to finish!! 😀