::READERS REVIEWS::

No Detail Left Dangling - As in all her books, Agatha Christie leaves no detail dangling. Carrie Louise, one of Jane Marple's old schoolchums, seems a little out of touch with reality. What is perfectly obvious to everyone else is totally untrue to her. At the end Dame Christie explains how Jane figured out the crime by paying attention to Carrie Louise's supposed nonsense. Also, as usual the book is sprinkled with wise insights into human character.
The story is about a couple of do-gooders (Carrie Louise and her third husband Lewis) who believe that young criminals can be rehabilitated with the right opportunity and set up a hospital to do just that. One of the members of the Board of Directors shows up unexpectedly and is shot to death that night. The prime suspect is the American outsider, who is married to Carrie Louise's granddaugher (by adoption). Of course, everyone present -- lots of relatives -- is suspected. Lewis finally reveals that the Director came to warn them that someone was trying to poison Carrie Louise with arsenic and was unfortunately murdered before he could identify the culprit. Carrie Louise is very rich, having benefitted from her two prior marriages, and from her natural birth. So any of her children, stepchildren, grandchildren, etc., would have a reason to murder her. Everyone is sure Lewis did not do it because he loves her too much.
Christie's plots are always wonderful, but her comment on society make her books a cut above all others. For me, she's the best writer who ever lived.

More like 3.5 stars... - Sisters Carrie and Ruth are two of Miss Marple's oldest friends - and it's at the behest of Ruth that Jane accepts an invitation to visit Carrie, because of Ruth's worries that something is not quite right in that household. When she arrives, she discovers any number of potential reasons for Ruth's unease - the delinquents Carrie and and her husband Lewis are attempting to rehabilitate, the flirtatious granddaughter and her sullen husband, and the controlling housekeeper who may or may not have Carrie's best interest at heart - just to name a few of the potential suspects. When Carrie's stepson is murdered with little apparent reason, it becomes frighteningly apparent that the universally loved Carrie's life might be threatened. The entire situation is a shell game, and Miss Marple and the local Inspector must work to unravel the truth from the lies before Carrie becomes a victim of her own benevolent, trusting nature.

They Do It With Mirrors has many of the elements of a classic Christie mystery. The setting is tightly contained to a well-off family home - a family where everything *should* be perfect, but everyone has their secrets. Everything's very genteel, but that veneer of proper English respectability masks some pretty passionate familial discord. In the best Dame Agatha Christie fashion, this cast of characters gives her plenty of opportunity to pack the story with red herrings and misdirection. As far as the actual mystery goes - this story falls a bit short when compared to some of Christie's other gems. The culprit becomes apparent rather early on, which is kind of surprising, but it allows Christie to take a look at their motivations and how exactly this "conjuring trick" of a murder was seemingly so flawlessly executed. What's more interesting for me than the actual case is the analysis of Carrie's character, and how this woman who never seemed to have a good grasp of reality sees situations and people much clearer than others. Enjoyable (aren't all Christies?), but not a runaway favorite.

Murder with Mirrors - Something about Carrie Louise seemed peculiar to Ruth Van Rydock. Ruth could not, however, figure out just what was wrong. Who better to turn to than Jane Marple, a mutual friend, keen observer and amateur sleuth. On Ruth's request Miss Marple travels to Stonygates, Carrie Louise's home and a reformatory for delinquent boys. Here she finds an odd collection of people, strange behavior and, ultimately, a mysterious death. Miss Marple will need to think quickly if she intends to find the killer before Carrie becomes the next victim.

Much of the setting of this mystery will be familiar to readers of Agatha Christie's other works. Our players are set in large mansion, nearly all in a room together, apart from the room in which the murder actually occurred. Several persons have reason to kill, the others are probably even more suspicious. Christie succeeds, as usual, in keeping the reader scratching his head until very near the final reveal.

The "flair" here is the boys reformatory, which provides a backdrop and a potential source of alternate perpetrators. Very little about the setting, however, appears complete. Indeed, not only the setting, but nearly everything about this book lacks the depth of characterization one expects from a Christie novel. The characters are flat, the scenes are underutilized and the investigation plods. Eminently readable, but not one of Christie's best efforts.

WILL SOMEONE LET THE WOMAN SPEAK? - What "improvements" have been made for the Signet edition? There are already major differences in punctuation, word choices, and scene breaks between the original Collins and Dodd Mead (MURDER WITH MIRRORS) editions of this novel. There are further differences between the Dodd Mead editions republished by Random House/Avenel and the Dodd Mead editions republished by Simon & Shuster/Pocket. There are further additions still in the Bantam, Berkley, and Black Dog & Leventhal editions. For every publishing house putting out her works, there seem to be a new batch of editors altering Agatha Christie's words and the sound of her voice. What's the matter with these publishers? Whose voice do they think we want to hear when we sit down to a novel by Agatha Christie? And what will she sound like twenty years from now? It's frightening that her estate has failed to see the importance of guarding her words as she wrote them. Please tell me I'm not the only one here who senses that a crime has been committed.

Complex Yet Simple - Miss Jane Marple is an elderly spinster who lives in the quaint village of St. Mary Mead. However, unlike most of her peers, murder seems to follow her wherever she goes! In "Murder with Mirrors" (also published under the title "They Do It with Mirrors"), Miss Marple is approached by childhood friend Ruth Van Rydock. It seems that something is wrong with Ruth's sister, Carrie Louise.

Under the pretense of being poor, Miss Marple visits Carrie Louise at her home. Stonygates is more than a house, however; it is a rehabilitation facility for juvenile offenders, run by Carrie's husband Lewis. Just as Miss Marple settles in and begins to unravel what is wrong with Carrie, Lewis is taken hostage by one of the "patients" and Carrie's step-son is murdered.

In typical Agatha Christie fashion, the mystery is complex yet simple. And while the novel is definitely not her best, it still surpasses most work published today.