Christie, Agatha - The Mirror Crack'd from Side to Side (1962)

Review by Nick Fuller

4/5

A rather alien note is struck in St. Mary Mead by the modern Development and by the presence of the drug-addicted, neurotic American entourage (based, one may ask, on what experience?) of the glamorous Marina Gregg, arguably as batty as any of them — not without reason, however, since it soon becomes clear that the poison that killed the St. John's Ambulance secretary was intended for her. Despite excessive coincidence in the form of Miss G.'s husbands and adopted children, the plotting is tight without the digressions and dithering that would appear a year or two later; and Miss Marple does a good job of working out the motive, the secret of which is better kept than that of the murderer's identity.