The Mirror Crack'd - Outside of a Dog

English language

Published April 13, 1964 by Pocket Books.

(1 review)

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?

45 editions

Deborah Pickett reviewed The Mirror Crack'd from Side to Side by Agatha Christie

Unexpectedly relevant in this pandemic era

3 stars

Content warning Whodunit spoilers - Agatha Christie - The Mirror Crack'd From Side to Side

Till now I'd only read Christie in the form of Poirot stories in an enclosed setting: Murder on the Orient Express where the train is snowed in; Death on the Nile where everyone is stuck on a boat. This one is set in Miss Marple's town of St. Mary Mead, so people could, and do, come and go. I was actually surprised at how little screen time Miss Marple herself actually gets. The biggest part probably goes to Marple's nephew, Chief Inspector Craddock.

The big spoiler for this story is that the victim signs her own death warrant by admitting that she transmitted a German measles infection to a pregnant woman, resulting in the child having permanent physical and intellectual problems, and the mother having lifelong PTSD from that.

Fortunately Rubella is a thing of the past and people don't go around spreading disease because they're afraid of missing out on an opportunity to socialize.

The story snowballs alarmingly as further characters are killed off because they Knew Too Much, right up to the last chapter when there is another unexpected death, and we are left wondering if that one was suicide or also murder, or if the distinction even matters after everything that happened.

This book might have benefited from a bit of a trim at the start and a bit of fluffing up in the middle as the events happened which led to the additional consequential murders. But it was altogether a pretty painless read and the (rushed) conclusion satisfying.