Review: The Mirror Crack’d from Side to Side by Agatha Christie

The Mirror Crack’d from Side to Side by Agatha Christie is primarily, a very thoughtful story. Yes, it’s essentially a murder mystery, and like all Christie books, fast paced, but hear me out. This story had a constant focus on the how and why of the way people are how they are. Who else could pull this off?

Book Blurb of The Mirror Crack’d from Side to Side:

One minute, silly Heather Badcock had been gabbing on to her movie idol, the glamorous Marina Gregg. The next, Heather suffered a massive seizure. It turned out to be a deadly poison. But for whom was it really intended?

Marina’s frozen expression suggested she had witnessed something horrific. While others searched for material evidence, Jane Marple conducted a very different investigation – into human nature.

Book Review of The Mirror Crack’d from Side to Side:

Oh my. I feel like Christie has outdone herself with this one. I did not anticipate this storyline at all.

Starting off with a glamorous movie star and her director husband who move to a Victorian mansion in St. Mary Mead. There is, of course, a murder. It is quite unexpected – both the venue and the person targeted.

The story goes into a lot of detail of different types – thought processes, relationships between people, situations both past and present, and more. This kind of detail is par for course for a Christie story. Especially if it’s a Miss Marple story, you can expect a lot of what you may call ‘gossip’ to feature prominently, shining a light on things official eyes may have missed.

This was primarily, a very thoughtful story. Yes, it’s essentially a murder mystery, and like all Christie books, fast paced, but hear me out. This story had a constant focus on the how and why of the way people are how they are. A lot of experiences in life shape you, and can change the way you approach things. This book illustrated it beautifully, to the point that it was a book that illuminated interpersonal relationships and the effect of conversations and chance encounters within the scope of a murder mystery. Who else but Christie could pull this off?

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For fun, here are little things I wrote while reading this:

Thoughtful story

Essence of different types of personalities

how do people process experiences differently and it is because of who they are or what happened to them or how it made them who they are 

Oh my this is something else

is it about the experience, how you respond to it, or what you take away from it?

Obsessive thought seems to be a recurring theme

Is there a why? of course there is a why. but where is the why.

very different from your usual Christie, which is saying something, because there isn’t really a usual Christie at all but you know what I mean

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I think those sentences sum up this book more than any structured essays I could write about this. That really captures my feeling about this book. If you’re a Christie fan and haven’t read this, you will adore it. If you haven’t read Christie, oh my, what an introduction this could be! Head over to my Agatha Christie reading challenge page where I work my way through Christie’s books!

Recommended for fans of:

Agatha Christie the mystery queen, thoughtful stories, murder mysteries, small town settings, stories about human nature, fast paced stories

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