They Do It With Mirrors (Miss Marple) by Agatha Christie

 

They Do It With Mirrors by Agatha Christie.

This edition published 16th February 2023 by Harper Collins.

From the cover of the book:

A shocking crimeA mansion filled with suspects

Ruth Van Rydock can’t shake the feeling that something terrible is going to happen to her sister at Stonygates house.

Her old school friend Jane Marple decides it’s time to pay a visit.

But this grand Victorian mansion isn’t just a family home – it’s also a correctional facility for wayward young men.

And when something terrible does indeed happen, Miss Marple must face her most eccentric cast of suspects yet.

Never underestimate Miss Marple...

***********

During a visit with old school friend, American socialite Ruth Van Rydock, Miss Marple discovers that Ruth is concerned about the wellbeing of her sister Carrie Lousie Serracold. Miss Marple has not seen Carrie Louise for many years, so at Ruth's suggestion she accepts the offer of a visit to Stonygates, the home Carrie Louise shares with her English third husband, Lewis Serracold, to discover if she is in any danger.

Stonygates is not your average country estate. Funded by the legacy of Carrie Louise's philanthropist first husband, this is the home of the Gulbrandson Trust, which aims to rehabilitate delinquent young men. The main house is now home to Carrie Louise and Lewis Serracold (who runs the institute); a rag tag collection of family members, household and institute staff; and sometimes an inmate or two from the secure unit in the grounds.

Miss Marple settles in to get the lay of the land, and spots straightaway that all is not rosy between some of the residents of the big house: Carrie Lousie's widowed daughter Mildred has a lot to complain about; things between Carrie Louise's granddaughter (from her now deceased, adopted daughter Pippa) and her new American husband Wally are tense; Carrie Louise's stepsons from her second marriage, Stephen and Alex Restarick, are clearly both in love with Gina; and Lewis' assistant/patient Edgar Lawson seems unhinged. However, she cannot immediately see any need to be concerned for Carrie Louise herself. Lewis is obviously devoted to his wife, even if his attention is mostly focussed on the institute, and Carrie Louise's bossy companion Juliet Bellever seems very capable of running the household and taking charge of everybody's needs.

Then Carrie Louise's step-son from her first marriage, Christian Gulbrandson, a trustee of his late father's trust, arrives unexpectedly and is overly preoccupied with any changes in her health. During the evening, a violent argument breaks out between a very disturbed Edgar and Lewis, the lights fuse, shots are fired, and Christian Gulbrandson somehow ends up dead with a bullet in his head...

The police have a difficult case on their hands, muddied by reports that someone was trying to poison Carrie Louise. Can Miss Marple cut through the red herrings and solve the murder?

This is a rather complicated Miss Marple story, with a large, multi-generational cast of characters. Carrie Louise's many marriages, with a diverse taste in husbands, means that there are a lot of eccentric people living in close quarters at Stonygates, who all seem to have an axe to grind with one or other of their fellow householders. It did take me a while to understand where they all fitted in, but their domestic squabbles are entertaining and give rise to a lot of red herrings, which I always enjoy. 

The cleverest thing about the book is how Christie uses the themes of performance and illusion throughout, with excellent use of smoke and mirrors to keep the truth about the motives and identity of the murderer secret. This keeps Miss Marple rather in the dark too for much of the story, until the theatrical nature of everything that has been going on at Stonygates is pointed out to her, and the light begins to dawn.

This is not one of my favourite Miss Marple mysteries, as there are a few too many characters for you to get to know them well, but it races along at a good pace, and its twists and turns certainly keep you guessing. It has some first class humorous moments too.

This is my June choice for #ReadChristie2023 exploring 'gunshot' as a method for murder. I alternated between reading the book and listening to the excellent audio book narrated by Emilia Fox.

 They Do It With Mirrors is available to buy now in multiple formats.

About the author:

Agatha Christie is known throughout the world as the Queen of Crime. Her books have sold over a billion copies in English with another billion in over 70 foreign languages. She is the most widely published author of all time and in any language, outsold only by the Bible and Shakespeare. She is the author of 80 crime novels and short story collections, 20 plays, and six novels written under the name of Mary Westmacott.