#They Do It With Mirrors

[readingoals]

They Do It With Mirrors was a good Miss Marple mystery! The mislead definitely threw me off and I was completely surprised by the ending. It was a little confusing at the start though. There's a lot of characters who are all related through multiple marriages and step children and deceased parents and it took me a while to figure out how everyone was connected.

[thefictionaledition]

Arsenic murderer hanged: Katherine Elsworth's last hour

'Varsity men: Record crossing in a 16-ton schooner, ocean meeting, hailed by father from a liner.

Millionaire arrested. Sequel to death of a woman guest, yacht party.

"Hunt out the buyer," minister's trade slogan, selling agencies, combination for manufacturers.

A king seeks a wife, Bulgarian monarch's "vacation tour."

[spaceorphanssecondbreakfastclub]

Reading Agatha Christie: They Do It With Mirrors

Now that we're into the back half of Christie, a lot more Miss Marple books are coming, and I have to say with this one, she's easily one of the better aspects of it.

The book takes place at an old country estate and revolves around Miss Marple's old school friend and her rather large family. There's a lot of set up -- the family being somewhat complicated to explain, and each of the character needs to have a little moment with Miss Marple to really build around their character.

It takes a while, however, to finally get to a murder. I remembered the who pretty easily, and I have to wonder if even if I hadn't, it would be kind of in plain sight. (The book cover, btw, is a bit of a spoiler - between the title and the puppets I don't think it's hard to work out what's going on.) The why is a little more complicated, and at least led to the book having some mystery to it, but I don't think it's her most clever of books.

At the time, it seems as though people were beginning to feel that Christie was beginning to show her age with this one, but I'm not sure we're at that point yet. The characters are still relatively decently drawn, even if they kind of make every predictable choice if you've read enough of Christie's writing. The mystery kind of plods along just like you would expect it to, but it's definitely not bad nor is it unreadable.

Miss Marple is a delight as always - with her shrewd observations and her somewhat sassy attitude. The characters all place off her nicely, and she doesn't seem out of place being there.

As a somewhat interesting aside... while the book doesn't have as much commentary on the changing times as the past few books have done, Miss Marple does give a lengthy monologue about the differences between Americans and the British, and how unlike the forward looking, energetic Americans, the British are always counting their failures more than their victories. It's an interesting insight into the mindset of post-War UK, and how drab life was beginning to come.

Overall, the book is by no means bad, even if it feels not as fresh as so many of her earlier books. It's a little clunky and a little predictable, but perfectly readable.

[kattahj]

My Agatha Christe Re-Reading Project, #43: They Do it with Mirrors

This is the opposite of the previous book, in that I remembered it very well, having read it a bunch of times before. Still, I can't think of much to say about it.

It is – or appears to be – a classic Christie family mystery, though it arrives at this by dismissing a whole building full of young delinquents as not real suspects, in a way that is perhaps not wholly convincing. :-)

The family is not as sharply drawn as some of her others. The most vibrant member appears only in the first scene: Ruth Van Rydock, an old friend of Miss Marple's but very different from her, using riches and glamour to hide her age. I do wonder if the rather surprising characterization of Dolly in the ITV Marple had some inspiration from Ruth.

It's fun to see Miss Marple play off Ruth, both in her memories and present times. It's also fun to see Miss Marple's interactions with Ruth's sister Carrie Louise, later on, as it brings more perspective to Miss Marple's lives and younger years. And while I'm not quite of Marple-age, I can recognize some of the shock of having an adult person refer to you as "aunt".

Another classic Christie aspect is that you need to look at what is happening, rather than what appears to be happening, and to not believe something just because one person says it. With that in mind, the murder scrapes by as kind of believable, though it seems to me an awful risk – one person reacting in a different way from expected would lead to a very different outcome! But I suppose some people like taking such risks.

There's quite a bit about adoption (bad), heredity (very important), psychology (silly), and reformative justice (won't work) that reminds you Christie wasn't exactly a progressive paragon, but it's nothing that would stand out even in a modern book.

It's not a book that I would necessarily recommend as anyone's first Christie, but I wouldn't deter them either.

Verdict: 3/5

[deadiez]

books I read in june 2024

[thelastofthebookworms]

And that should be the last poll about my Christie's works' series... but hopefully not my last about Christie stuff.

Previous polls in this series :

- Poll 1 : popular titles

- Poll 2

- Poll 3

- Poll 4

- Poll 5

- Poll 6

[collinsportmaine]

Margaret Rutherford’s last movie as Miss Marple was “Murder Ahoy!” (1964). It was not based on any specific Agatha Christie novels but it included elements from “They Do It With Mirrors”.

[melissak2802]

Musings on the central themes in Miss Marple novels.

A Murder Is Announced:

Like it's with Murder of Roger Ackroyd, fall of a person. Like there, here a kind person starts with smaller deals with conscience and ends up falling off the deep end.

Focusing on self-pity often only makes things worse and can lead to deceiving yourself into justifying doing bad stuff.

4:50 from Paddington:

Strength in unity and trust in a family. The villain attempting to destroy people in a family uses divide and conquer tactics.

Generally support between people across generation and social status.

The Mirror Crack'd from Side to Side:

Good intentions that pave the road to hell. Pause and think whether what you are doing will really make that person happy or screw their life.

Responsibility (or fatal lack thereof), especially related to children.

They Do It with Mirrors:

Fanatic idealism and "the end justify the means" can make the things you do the opposite of your initial goal and values.

Someone gentle and "out of this world" voicing unpopular opinions may prove to be right after all.

The Caribbean Mystery:

Beware of manipulative relationships and gaslighting.

Sleeping Murder:

Righting wrongs of the past. But also don't forget that reawakening problematic things can have backfires.

Subconscious and mental health issues. (On several levels.)

Diverse romantic feelings/relationships, some healthy, some less so.

[nessataleweaver]

simple but so effective!

Montage de photos

[pangur-and-grim]

he saw his reflection for the first time

[kensatou]

(✿◕‿◕) die (ꈍ ꒳ ꈍ✿)

[thefictionaledition]

Higher Book-Keeping & Accounts by L.C. Cropper, F.D. Morris & A.K. Fison

[blackramhall]

Poison has a certain appeal...

Agatha Christie - They Do It With Mirrors

Blackram Hall: whodunit, murder mystery, hardboiled, pulp, crime, thriller, italian giallo, noir and neo-noir, detectives and serial killers, spy stories, vintage, manor houses, art, life and death.

[hmura-hmara]

Something about Luke being the spitting image of his father

[starry-bi-sky]

I am loudly pushing the batdad agenda i am loudly pushing the— DPxDC Prompt

“Woah. You look like shit."

Granted, that’s probably not the first thing Danny should be saying to the guy that just bit the curb, but in his defense; he’s not running on 100% right now either.

The man -- tall, towering, and broader than Danny is tall -- whips around on his heel, black frayed cape flaring out impressively. Danny would've whistled in appreciation, but he takes the time instead to wipe the back of his hand across his mouth, smearing the blood running from his nose across his cheek.

"Sorry." He blinks widely, not even flinching as the man with the horns zeroes in on him. "That was rude of me. I have a really bad brain-to-mouth filter; Sam says its what always gets me into trouble."

And she's not wrong either, per say. His smart mouth is what landed him in this situation -- with blood blossom extract running through his veins and cannibalizing the ectoplasm in his bloodstream. Thanks Vlad.

The man grunts at him; a short, curt "hm" that shouldn't make Danny smile, but he does because he's somewhat delirious and probably concussed. The man keeps some kind of distance, sinking towards the shadows of Gotham's alleyway like he dares to melt right into it.

If it's supposed to scare Danny, it doesn't work. Danny's never been afraid of the dark; he's always been able to hide himself in it. He blinks slowly at the mass of shadows.

"You look hurt." The shadows says, blurring together around the edges. Danny squints, and licks his lips to get the blood dripping down his chin off. Ugh, he hates the taste of blood.

"I am." He says, "My godfather poisoned me. M'dying." The agony of the blood blossom eating him from the inside out looped back around to numbing a while ago, so all he feels is half-awake and dazed.

"Hey," Danny stumbles forward towards the man, a bloodied hand reaching out to him. "You-- you're a hero, right? You're not attacking me; which is more than I can say for most costumed people I've met." Maybe it's a poor bar to judge someone at, but he's already established that Danny's not in his right mind.

The man makes no change in expression, but Danny realizes blearily that it's hard to tell with the shadows on his face. He stays still long enough for Danny to latch onto the cape -- stretchy, but almost soft under his fingers.

He looks up blearily into the whites of the man's eyes. "Can you help me? I don't-- I don't wanna die." Again. He doesn't wanna die again. He blinks slow and lizard-like. "I mean- I'll probably get to see mom and dad again, but I told them I'd at least try and make it to adulthood."

There's a clatter down the street, and Danny's ghost sense chills up his spine and leaves a bitter, ashy taste in his mouth. He immediately knows who it belongs to even before the deceptively gentle; "Daniel?" echoes down the way.

"Daniel? Quit your games, badger, Gotham is dangerous for children."

Danny's mouth pulls back, and blood spills against his tongue. "Please." He rasps, and grabs onto the shadow's cape with both hands. "Please. He's going to kill me. Please--"

"Daniel? Is that you?"

His lips part, dragging in air to plead with the darkness again. He doesn't need to, the whites of his eyes narrow, and the cape whirls around him before Danny can blink. Soon swaddled in shadows, the Night lifts him up, and steals him away.

[havi-fart]

I cannot over-emphasize the degree to which ive been preparing my entire life for this moment @jone-slugger