They Do It with Mirrors (1952)

At a reunion with a friend from her youth, Jane Marple learns that her friend is very worried about her sister, Carrie Louise, whom Miss Marple hasn’t seen in decades. Miss Marple agrees to accept an invitation to stay with Carrie Louise should she offer an invitation, and she soon finds herself ensconced at Stonygates, the estate where Carrie Louise and her third husband rehabilitate juvenile delinquents. Miss Marple’s presence isn’t enough to avert the murder of Carrie Louise’s stepson from her first marriage. The murder occurred while the household feared another was taking place in a locked room. One member of the household must have viewed the goings-on in the locked room as a distraction to cover the murder. But which one? The spoiled granddaughter, her sullen American husband, the daughter with a chip on her shoulder, one of the stepsons from the second marriage, or one of the many troubled inmates?

I have a soft spot for this book since it was the first of Agatha Christie’s novels I read many years ago. Miss Marple uses excellent deductive reasoning in figuring out what must have happened. “They do it with mirrors.” Of course, there are also the village parallels that make Miss Marple such a discerning judge of character. ( )

aka "Murder with Mirrors" ( )

At a delinquents’ home, Jane Marple investigates an unknown threat, at the behest of an old friend.

Watching the Joan Hickson adaptation of "They Do It With Mirrors", I was struck by how many of the notable elements – the number of underage characters, the theatrical menace – struck me as rather un-Christie. Not surprisingly, reading the book shows that – as with many stories that venture outside characters she was familiar with – things begin to fall apart. "They Do It With Mirrors" is not a Marple highlight, but it’s an easy read. The strange setting – a country house doubling as an institution for troubled youths – is not very well realised, but the perennial upper-crust characters shine through in what is (intentionally or otherwise) a light examination of changing social mores.

Miss Marple’s hawk-eyed, gossipy personality is – of course – perfect for an amateur detective. Far more than any of the other amateurs Christie offered over the years, Jane Marple’s ruthless cunning can ultimately unravel any thread of mystery. (Unlike Poirot, I don’t think she ever gets things wrong, which can, unfortunately, make the occasional climax – "A Pocket Full of Rye", notably – seem wantonly reckless.) However, these books can often lack anything regarding a thrill – one can’t help feeling that a more active detective might have provided this. It’s no surprise that the best of the Marple novels either unite her with a co-detective (officially or narratively) or at least see the spinster knuckle down on some true investigation. There’s nothing wrong with "They Do It With Mirrors", but it’s one of the least memorable Marples.

[The U.S. title was "Murder with Mirrors". Perhaps they just wanted a title that assured you of the book's genre? Or perhaps, like me at eight years old, finding it on the library shelf, they found "they do it with mirrors" to be giggle-worthy. Puerile sort, perhaps?]

Marple ranking: 10th out of 14 ( )

Fun although a bit more predictable than usual. ( )

Working my way through all of Christie’s Miss Marple books, I hit two fantastic installments in a row, including this. In Murder with Mirrors (or, They Do It With Mirrors) Miss Marple appears before anyone has actually died!

Jane’s friend Ruth asks her to go and visit Ruth’s sister Carrie Louise because she feels sure there is something wrong in her household. Miss Marple takes her intuition seriously and heads to Stonygates, Carrie Louise’s home, where they have set up a foundation to help juvenile offenders escape a life of crime. Jane also meets Carrie Louise’s family: friend and companion Jolly, husband Lewis, daughter Mildred, step sons Alex and Steven and granddaughter Gina with her husband Walter. It isn’t long after arriving that Carrie’s other stepson Christian, on the board for the foundation, arrives unexpectedly – and is promptly murdered. Was he there on foundation business? Was it something to do with Carrie Louise’s health?

There were couple things about this mystery that I really loved. First, Miss Marple is actually part of the story and is involved from beginning to end. In previous books, I felt like she showed up toward the end just to “solve” the mystery. Here, she is seeing everything unfold so her deductions gave the reader more. Also, this is something of a locked door mystery, which I’m a fan of. Just about everyone has motive, but at the time of the murder they were all listening outside a door as Lewis had a violent confrontation with Edgar Lawson, one of the offenders. It’s possible one or more suspects could have slipped out, but how and why is where the fun begins. I thought the ultimate conclusion was excellent. The culprit made perfect sense – if you were paying attention! ( )